More Car Buyers Saying "Color Me Blue"

TROY (WWJ) - While white remains the most popular car color, it looks like blue has become the emerging color of the year.

"We can do a lot with blue," says Jane Harrington PPG's manager of auto color styling. "It can be anywhere from a silky blue, to a vibrant chromatic blue."

Harrington says blue is appearing on more vehicles at auto shows, and that's a reflection of blue's growing presence in other parts of consumers lives.

"We're starting to see blue starting to become an acceptable color in interior design, as well as architecture."

Every year, PPG shows auto designers a palette of new colors for future vehicles. This year, they are showing more than sixty different variations of five colors.

Red is also an emerging color, with bold colors like orange and yellow becoming more popular on sporty vehicles.

While red and blue are strong emerging colors, white remains the most popular color overall, with 25 percent of all vehicles having some variation of white. Silver is in second place.

"You're starting to see silver wane a bit," said Harrington. "Silver was the most popular color for 12 years or so. Now, you're seeing it take more of a back seat to grey."

Basic colors like white, silver and grey will generally be among the most popular, Harrington says, because they are generally available on all car models.

And when that color is finally on a vehicle, Hararington says it will not have a mundane name like blue or red. Harrington says it's more likely to be a "Bonnie Blue" or "Ruby Red" to try to catch car buyers imaginations.

"We always have a lot of fun naming our colors every year for our automotive trend show."

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