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Car Colors Shifting Towards Gray Tones In America

Though it’s unclear whether carmakers will ultimately settle on forty or fifty different shades or some lesser number, variants on gray are overtaking white and silver as America’s most common car colors according to a recent study.

The study, bearing the title of the Color Report for Automotive OEM Coatings and prepared by paint manufacturer BASF Coatings, says that gray now has 20 percent market share among car colors in the U.S.

The BASF Americas car colors overview for 2024.

White is still in the lead in the spectrum of car colors at 29 percent, but its market share shrunk by 5 percent compared to the previous year. Black saw its prevalence decline by 2 percent to 20 percent, equal with gray. Achromatic colors continue to dominate overall.

A beige BASF car colors rendering.

EMEA Beige

Commenting on gray, BASF notes that “with its vast range of tones, from cool metallics to warm, earthy shades, gray offers depth and sophistication that can be surprisingly vibrant.” Its senior design manager Victoria Fislage added that “gray is redefining automotive style, gaining popularity for its versatile sophistication as preferences shift away from traditional white and black.”

BASF EMEA car colors chart.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), beige is gaining traction, as are other warm but subdued tones. Color design head Mark Gutjahr remarked that “beige and neutral colors evoke a sense of calm and sophistication, reflecting the desire for stability in a fast-paced world.” While found mainly in the European market, the possibility remains that more beige colors could find their way into GM palettes in the near future.

A BASF yellow car colors rendering.

Asia Pacific Yellow

Black and yellow are on the upswing in Asia, with BASF Asia Pacific color design head Chiharu Matsuhara stating that “earthy and pastel yellows capture today’s values – functionality, sustainability, and coexistence with nature.”

Asia Pacific car colors chart.

GM appears to be at least somewhat responsive to paint manufacturers’ studies and car colors trend recommendations. Axalta Coating Systems recently named Evergreen Sprint, a dark green color, its 2025 global car color of the year. A similar paint, Typhoon Metallic (color code GBW), was added to the lineup of 2025 Cadillac CT4 colors and 2025 Cadillac CT5 colors.

Evergreen Sprint from Axalta.

BASF EMEA color design lead Gutjahr said the newly popular colors “allow consumers to express their individuality while ensuring a timeless elegance in automotive design.”

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Comments

  1. Hard to believe.

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    1. I don’t. The color (pure) silver is not available anywhere, any model, period. Some (like gm) may call their gray metallic that, but it’s really not silver.

      Reply
      1. Fifty shades of gray, or so it seems.

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      2. I agree with you, Robert. Isn’t pure silver just a mirror? Mirrors are created by bonding silver to the back of a sheet of glass. “Silver” paint is gray.

        Reply
  2. When that’s all you offer, that’s all people will buy.

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  3. They must have forgotten the studies that were done a number of years ago that cars in those dingy colors are wrecked more often because of peoples eyesight tends to look past those vehicles. It is just common knowledge…. DUH!

    Reply
    1. if they get wrecked, people buy new. Do you see the plan here?

      Reply
  4. All I see on dealer’s lots are black, white, red, and a ton of shades of gray.
    You can’t find a true bright silver. Colors are blah!
    Many new cars and trucks have a paint that looks like primer.
    And you can have any interior as long as it’s BLACK!

    Reply
    1. Even most of the colors are muted/dark ones now. More dark maroon-ish than reds. Very dark blues, very dark greens, etc.

      Reply
      1. With the exception of white, bright vibrant colors tend to show paint imperfections more readily.

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    2. Or gray rat fur. That is how one GM exec. once describe the Interiors of their vehicles.

      Reply
    3. Exactly. I bought my fourth white vehicle because its interior is “parchment.” You don’t want to endure a California summer with black seats.

      Reply
  5. Between these color %s, the crossover fad, and the dystopian EV push/mandates, this has been the Brutalist Era for the auto industry. Would be nice to have some fun again.

    Reply
    1. There is still cars you can have fun in, if you have a lot of money. I don’t.

      Reply
  6. It was shifting towards them 10 years ago. Not news.

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  7. The non-metallic light-to-medium gray colors that I see on so many newer vehicles look like the vehicles were shipped from the factory in primer!!!

    Reply
    1. Ah remember the fun 1990’s when the paint fell off and you HAD primer! Or only half the paint fell off and you had a holstein.

      (GM and Ford had big problems with this; IIRC something with paint suppliers and both makers thinking they could save money in the paint booth.)

      Reply
    2. For years I’ve been calling those colors “Shiny Primer”.

      Reply
    3. Exactly, primer with clear coat. disgusting

      Reply
  8. Good News,, Hey, gm open your eyes that’s all we had for the last 10 years a mixture of white and black .. Everybody there still have there heads where the sun don’t shine . STILL

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  9. In the grey cloud covered and dark winters of the PNW, grey cars get wrecked, a lot.

    The lack of good color choices is so sad.

    Reply
    1. Just think of it this way, those colors will match the color of your brain’s grey matter when you get run in to on one of those dark cloudy rainy days.

      Reply
  10. Remember when you didn’t have to pay $495 or $695 or $995 to get colors other than Snowblind White or Dismal Gray?

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    1. White is the cheapest and easiest color to paint. It hides imperfections. You could put it on with a roller and it would look good.

      Reply
      1. Is that why it costs $1,200 on the GM vehicles I’ve seen recently.

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        1. the $1000+ white is not the cheap or easy one… the cheap or “free” one is the flat white, the expensive white is the metallic and tri-coat paints that take a lot of time and money to apply.

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        2. Gabe, what’s your talking about is white metallic, otherwise known as Pearl. It is hard to apply evenly and is very expensive.

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  11. I’m surprised that at this point in the 21st century and all our technological advances that you can’t pick any color on the spectrum you like and have your car come from the factory in that color.

    Reply
    1. GM doesn’t want to sell you what you want. They want to sell you what they want, and what makes them the largest profits.

      Reply
      1. exactly, just like Toyota. You can’t build a Toyota on line to your specs using Toyota’s build your own configurator and than take that to the dealer and say “order me this”. Not going to happen. Toyota sends to the dealers what they think will sell, and pretend to allow you to build your own just like you want it, but in reality, that is not going to happen.

        Reply
    2. You’d have people ordering ridiculous colors just because they can. Then deciding they didn’t like the color when the car shows up, or ghosting the dealer altogether.

      You’d need a non-refundable 50% deposit to prevent this, and nobody would take the deal.

      Reply
      1. Years ago you could order a car from GM in any color you wanted. You may have to put down a sizable deposit, or order a certain number of vehicles.
        Example, a pink Cadillac was never a standard color.

        Reply
    3. If you have the cash, Cadillac will produce a Celestiq in any color you want! 🙂

      Reply
  12. Road chemical region here, and half the vehicles are black.

    If one wants to wash it every day and have it show every scratch/ding, go for it.

    Reply
  13. Think most people just settle for a color when at the dealer ? “Well, I guess I’ll take this one? I’ll get used to it.” Sorry, the color is built out for the year.

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  14. Bought a 20k mile ‘79 silver L48 Corvette in 1987 (kept it 33 years, 90k miles with no issues to the original power train, 350 ci, 350 hydromatic with a 3:55 rear end). Even back then when my local dealer’s son saw it he said, “Well, you got it primed. What color are you going to paint it”? Some things never change.

    Reply
  15. Most people buy of the lot.

    Car dealers pick neutral colors that people will except. Dealers pick blah colors.

    I would never buy off the lot.

    I order what I want and not what the dealer thinks i want. Why not. I except no compromise.

    George Marik

    Reply
    1. George the only compromise you make is the limited selection of options General Motors has to choose from when you order a vehicle.
      I do agree with you, ordering a vehicle is a much better experience than aimlessly wandering around the Lots trying to find an acceptable vehicle.

      Reply
      1. You could also use the internet.

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    2. I have ordered what I want a couple of times in the past few years and GM has never picked up my orders……long time GM owner……..customer is no longer their concern.

      Reply
      1. i ordered a 2024 silverado 1500 LT in Late Sept. 2023, Picked it up on Jan 2nd 2024. about 3 months 2 weeks time. You need to change dealers, go to one that moves alot of vehicles because the more vehicles they sell, the more open allocations they have to place orders for those who wish to do so. Yes, ordering a vehicle thru GM does still work, unlike with Toyota.

        Reply
  16. DNA is going the same way.

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  17. Red and blue forever!

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  18. Tired of seeing primer gray, black and white cars. Same goes for the interior colors. Whoever thought up black interiors doesn’t drive in the heat of summer. Besides black, gray and white are not really colors.

    Reply
  19. I actually like some of the more nuanced grays out there. If I were buying today, I think I would lean toward one of the Cadillac’s in “celestial metallic” with a black roof and the onyx package.

    I would still love to see more variety and especially more bright colors. Start resurrecting colors from the 70s, maybe.

    Reply
  20. The color options available right now from GM are abysmal. The cost- cutting move that they made that only gives a half- dozen choices for each model is disappointing. Just to use the GMC Sierra AT4 as an example, you can get in the basic (free) white or you can pay more to have it black, three different shades of gray (Sterling Metallic, Titanium Rush Metallic, and Thunderstorm Gray) , or dark red. That’s it.

    RAM offers nine colors on the comparable RAM 1500 Rebel trim line. Toyota offers eight on the Tundra Platinum i-Force Max.

    Reply
  21. I would not own a battleship grey one if it was free.
    Must be a lot of Navy men out there

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    1. Exactly !! For what new vehicles cost, I’m not going to just settle for what the dealer has on their lot. But, alot of people do.

      Reply
  22. It’s Covid Gray. Call it as many eight syllabled words as you like, it’s Covid Gray, evoking those sophisticated times when all you could get was paint-factory-shutdown Covid Gray.
    Also known as BS Gray.

    Reply
  23. Where the Hell have you been for the last 10 years ,that’s all you’ve been shoving shades of grey down out throats .. go back to the 50’s 60’s and 70’s paints …

    Reply

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