80% of new 2025 cars are grayscale — colour has nearly vanished from roads
A new iSeeCars study found that 80.4% of 2025 model-year vehicles are finished in a grayscale colour — white, black, silver or gray. White leads with a 25.7% market share, and the only non-grayscale colour in the top five is blue at 9.1%. Sports cars are most likely to feature colourful paint, while trucks are the least likely.
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80.4% of 2025 vehicles had a grayscale color such as white, black, silver or gray. The only fun color to crack into the top five was blue with a 9.1% market share. Sports cars are most likely to have colorful paint jobs, while trucks are the least. Automakers have embraced colorful designs as blue interiors are coming back and bright hues are being added to numerous models. These are interesting developments, but we sadly live in a grayscale world. var adpushup = window.adpushup = window.adpushup || {que:[]}; adpushup.que.push(function() { if (adpushup.config.platform !== "DESKTOP"){ adpushup.triggerAd("0f7e3106-c4d6-4db4-8135-c508879a76f8"); } else { adpushup.triggerAd("82503191-e1d1-435a-874f-9c78a2a54a2f"); } }); That s clear in a new study from iSeeCars, which examined the most popular exterior colors for 2025. White dominated with a 25.7% share, while black and gray weren t far behind at 23.4% and 22.9%, respectively. Adding silver into the mix means grayscale colors accounted for 80.4% of vehicles last year. More: Want A Car That Won t Depreciate Fast? Pick This Color That s more than eight out of ten and it s a huge increase from 30 years ago. Back in 1996, just 47.3% of vehicles were white, black, gray, or silver. var adpushup = window.adpushup = window.adpushup || {que:[]}; adpushup.que.push(function() { if (adpushup.config.platform === "DESKTOP"){ adpushup.triggerAd("ea4d4b5a-f8e5-4d5d-9d9a-53a3b956b6cd"); } else{ adpushup.triggerAd("44c0a4dc-e25b-4ba5-ac64-2c510461b92a"); } }); Most Popular Colors by Market Share RankColor20251996% Change1White25.7%22.1%16.7%2Black23.4%14.2%64.5%3Gray22.9%3.6%528.4%4Blue9.1%10.2%-10.8%5Silver8.4%7.3%14.3%6Red7.0%20.1%-65.2%7Green2.2%13.4%-83.8%8Brown0.4%2.9%-84.6%9Beige0.4%1.6%-73.8%10Orange0.3%0.2%2.5%11Yellow0.1%0.3%-59.4%12Gold0.0%2.3%-98.1%13Purple0.0%0.7%-94.7% SWIPE Source: iSeeCars A few brave souls fought the blahs by opting for blue (9.1%), red (7%), and green (2.2%). Remaining colors are basically insignificant as brown and beige had a 0.4% market share in 2025, while orange followed at 0.1%. A number of once reasonably popular colors have faded away over the past three decades, as gold and purple are down nearly 100%. Brown and green saw declines of around 84%, while beige dropped 73.8%. iSeeCars On the flip side, gray saw a huge 528.4% increase, while black jumped 64.5%. White even got 16.7% more popular, despite already being the most picked hue in 1996. The study from iSeeCars also found the percentage of grayscale trucks jumped from 43.4% in 1996 to 83.5% last year. That was the largest move toward grayscale colors of any vehicle category. iSeeCars Sports cars were the most colorful vehicles around as only 63.6% of them were grayscale last year. Blue had a 15.5% market share, while red clocked in at 10.8%. Even purple had a 1.8% stake. var adpushup = window.adpushup = window.adpushup || {que:[]}; adpushup.que.push(function() { if (adpushup.config.platform !== "DESKTOP"){ adpushup.triggerAd("bb7964e9-07de-4b06-a83e-ead35079d53c"); } else { adpushup.triggerAd("9b1169d9-7a89-4971-a77f-1397f7588751"); } }); While the study doesn t say why colorful cars have fallen by the wayside, a number of possible explanations have surfaced over the years. One of the most plausible is that grayscale colors are widely accepted by consumers, so dealerships order a majority of vehicles in boring hues. Needless to say, it s far easier to find a buyer for a black or white truck versus something more exotic like green or purple, so this clearly plays a significant role too. var adpushup = window.adpushup = window.adpushup || {que:[]}; adpushup.que.push(function() { if (adpushup.config.platform !== "DESKTOP"){ adpushup.triggerAd("bb7964e9-07de-4b06-a83e-ead35079d53c"); } else { adpushup.triggerAd("9b1169d9-7a89-4971-a77f-1397f7588751"); } }); Most Popular Truck Colors by Market Share RankColor20251996% Change1White33.6%27.0%24.6%2Black23.4%9.7%141.8%3Gray19.2%3.4%464.9%4Red7.6%21.4%-64.7%5Silver7.3%3.3%118.4%6Blue6.3%12.6%-50.3%7Green1.0%14.5%-92.8%8Brown0.9%3.7%-76.2%9Orange0.4%0.0%681.6%10Beige0.3%1.0%-66.5%11Yellow0.0%0.2%-93.6%12Gold0.0%1.5%-99.5%13Purple0.0%0.3%-99.3%Grayscale colors*83.5%43.4%92.4%Non-grayscale colors16.5%55.3%-70.2% SWIPE Most Popular SUV Colors by Market Share RankColor20251996% Change1White25.1%22.2%12.8%2Black23.4%14.5%61.5%3Gray21.9%4.0%444.7%4Blue9.5%8.8%8.4%5Silver8.9%3.1%189.7%6Red6.8%17.5%-61.0%7Green2.9%21.3%-86.4%8Brown0.5%3.8%-86.7%9Beige0.5%1.7%-73.2%10Orange0.3%0.3%-10.0%11Yellow0.1%0.2%-28.4%12Gold0.1%1.3%-95.7%13Purple0.0%0.4%-94.6%Grayscale colors*79.3%43.8%80.9%Non-grayscale colors20.7%55.2%-62.6% SWIPE Most Popular Passenger Car Colors by Market Share RankColor20251996% Change1Gray28.4%3.8%652.1%2Black23.7%17.5%35.0%3White21.2%17.8%19.2%4Blue9.9%9.1%9.3%5Silver7.4%11.2%-34.3%6Red7.1%20.2%-64.7%7Green1.0%10.1%-89.6%8Beige0.5%2.1%-78.0%9Orange0.2%0.4%-41.8%10Yellow0.2%0.4%-50.4%11Brown0.1%2.3%-94.1%12Purple0.1%1.1%-88.7%13Gold0.0%3.3%-98.7%Grayscale colors*80.7%50.3%60.4%Non-grayscale colors19.3%48.9%-60.6% SWIPE Most Popular Sports Car Colors by Market Share RankColor20251996% Change1Gray21.2%3.0%598.0%2Black20.9%20.5%1.9%3White16.6%14.1%17.4%4Blue15.5%9.9%56.7%5Red10.8%23.4%-54.1%6Silver4.9%17.4%-71.9%7Green4.5%7.5%-40.3%8Yellow2.3%1.0%142.5%9Purple1.8%1.2%52.1%10Orange0.8%0.6%38.6%11Brown0.2%0.4%-60.9%12Gold0.2%0.3%-37.2%13Beige0.1%0.3%-44.1%Grayscale colors*63.6%55.0%15.5%Non-grayscale colors36.2%44.5%-18.7% SWIPE
Should automakers do more to encourage buyers to choose colourful car paint?
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