White is the most popular car color — but people who drive white cars already knew that because, duh, they chose a white car.
Owners of white cars "are people who generally like things to be very pure and pristine and clear and direct," according to color analyst Leatrice Eiseman of the Pantone Color Institute (the "color of the year" people). "There's a degree of fastidiousness."
That's from research she did for Dupont about car colors, which jibes with theorizing by other tint analysts. (Yes, red means sexy. So?)
The number of North American new car buyers who chose white rose by 3 percent this year, to 21 percent, said PPG Industries, the largest supplier of transportation coatings. The jump broke white's long tie with silver, whose fall from favor is linked to the waning economy.
Of course, we're not talking about plain old white. Indeed, the challenge for carmakers is to differentiate their paint colors — a far cry from Henry Ford's harrumph that customers could buy his Model T "in any color, so long as it's black." Consider:
From Toyota: Super White, Blizzard Pearl.
From Ford: Oxford White, White Platinum.
From General Motors: Arctic White, Heron White, Summit White, Ice White.
