White remains most popular new car colour – for now
White is still the UK's favourite new car colour, but demand has fallen for the first time since 2005.
New figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that 552,329 new car buyers opted for white last year -- a fifth of all registrations. However, there are signs that its popularity is starting to fade as demand was down 2.1% compared with the previous year.Buyers are heading back to black, the SMMT said: 2016 saw 542,862 black cars registered -- the highest number since 2007. Grey and blue also gained market share.
Meanwhile, yellow cars appeared in the top 10 for the first time since 2013 at the expense of mauve, which dropped to 11th place.
Pink is also gaining popularity. While it may still be a niche colour choice, last year demand for pink cars grew 82.7% to 3,527 units. There was also a 44% rise in demand for bronze colour cars to a record 8,902, and turquoise's popularity grew fourfold, from just 792 registrations in 2015 to 2,718.
Less popular last year were brown (down 40%) and beige (which fell 27.6%), and silver saw the biggest volume decline, falling 22,209, with 273,220 buyers choosing it compared with 843,870 at the height of its popularity in 2004.
The full top 10 for 2016 looks like this:
1. White
2. Black
3. Grey
4. Blue
5. Red
6. Silver
7. Green
8. Orange
9. Brown
10. Yellow
