Choosing the right colour for your car can influence its resale value, says BCA’s Simon Henstock. When a business buys a new car, it’s wise to think ahead and choose one that will be easy to resell.
TO maximise resale values, it’s important to select the right specification. But it’s also true that some colours are easier to resell than others.
The most important resale factors are condition, specification and presentation. Colour becomes important to professional buyers once the other factors are satisfied.
Generally, metallic colours always sell well, particularly when paired with a decent set of alloy wheels.
Smaller hatchbacks and city cars can carry off brighter colours with ease, but remember that highly fashionable colours can quickly become undesirable. Limited-edition models with overly fussy colour schemes tend to date quickest.
In the family car and mini-MPV sectors, most metallics go well, but nothing too garish. At the other extreme, black looks funereal.
In the rugged 4×4 market, buyers like utilitarian colours. Greens, greys and yellows are popular.
For larger executive and prestige models, stick to popular colours but in sober shades – metallic silvers, blues and greens, for example. Avoid cream and beige for large cars.
Sports models can carry off bright, aggressive colours with ease – think Ferrari red or Lamborghini yellow. But they also work with mainstream metallic shades, such as silvers, greys, blacks and, of course, British Racing Green.
Used buyers cannot specify the colour they want, so they choose the best combination of model, specification, age, mileage and condition for their budget – and get the most attractive colour they can.
The message for any business buying a new car is to choose a colour scheme that will attract buyers when it comes to sell the car, rather than one with limited appeal.
Further information
At BCA, we have recently analysed the colour spread of more than 125,000 used vehicles from a huge range of sources. The six most common colours were:
- Blue 23.4%
- Silver 23.3%
- Red 12.6%
- Black 12.5%
- White 9.5%
- Green 9.0%
Go to the Editor’s Blog for more on car colours.
