Colours associated with the 1970s - green, beige, gold, bronze, brown, yellow and even orange – are making a comeback on cars, says CAP Automotive.
The car valuation company has identified a resurgence of interest in shades that have been shunned in the mainstream car market for decades.
Every month CAP tracks the tastes of motorists by analysing valuations by consumers of used cars they are interested in buying.
The data helps itsto advise dealers on the best choices for used car stock – from brands, models and body styles to engine type and colour.
The colour charts are also generally dominated by the usual suspects of silver, black, blue, grey, red and white, but four classic 1970s colours – green, beige, yellow, brown and gold - have crept out of the lower ranks and made it into the top 10 choices for the first time since CAP began charting consumer tastes.
CAP suggests that the comeback of 1970s colours among consumers valuing their next car purchase may simply be a natural extension of motorists’ desire to ‘personalise’ their driving experience.
Philip Nothard, retail and consumer specialist at CAP, said: “Just as new cars are increasingly configurable to the driver’s personal preference, it makes sense that there is now a more diverse array of colours on the radar of today’s motorists.
“You can’t underestimate the power of ‘retro chic’ either in the world of consumer taste – and what could be more retro than having an orange or a bronze car.
“What is particularly interesting about these findings is that they truly reflect what people are interested in.
"Usually when we are asked what the most popular colours are, we have to point out that it is the car manufacturers who generally determine colour popularity when they make their production planning decisions.
"People therefore tend to buy what they’re offered, because new car colours are largely a manufacturer-led rather than a consumer-led phenomenon.
“In the case of visitors to our valuations website, these people are actively searching for used car alternatives to the mainstream offerings they would normally find in the new market.
"Evidence that a significant number of people are trying to find brown cars to buy would have seemed crazy just a few years ago, but we can confirm that they are.
“There is also a tendency for American tastes to eventually migrate to our own shores and it might well be that we are seeing some influence from that direction.”
PRB - 16/04/2015 11:34
Re. your article 'Retro car colours making a comeback among used car buyers, says CAP', I'm not so sure that all colours listed in the article were as popular in the 1970s as they believe.. As a Sales Planning Analyst at Ford Motor Co from 1977 - 79, one of my tasks was to analyse the take up of the various colours we offered at the time. Signal Yellow, Signal Orange and Peppermint Green were never remotely popular. None of them ever took more than approx. 1% of total UK registrations by model range. On the other hand Roman Bronze (often paired with a tan vinyl roof!) was a massive success, at times capturing 20% + of all Cortina Mk 4 & Granada registrations, especially the top of the range Ghia versions. Gold and Apollo Green (dark metallic) were also considered desirable and sold in significant numbers. In fact my first ever company car was a Cortina 2.0 GL Auto in Apollo Green with a black vinyl roof. Happy memories!