2009 Car Buyers Say Paint It Black, Edmunds.com Reports

2009 Car Buyers Say Paint It Black, Edmunds.com Reports

By Michelle Krebs October 19, 2009

Henry Ford, famous for saying buyers could buy any color of Model T as long as it was black, must be smiling. Black is the No. 1 color choice for buyers of vehicles so far this year, according to Edmunds.com's analysis of sales transaction data.

Black has accounted for 20.3 percent of new vehicles sold so far this year.

Edmunds.com's results are in contrast to other recently released color reports that put silver first. Indeed, in Edmunds.com's analysis, if silver and gray are combined, they shoot to the top of the chart at 30.1 percent of sales. 

Individually, 17.4 percent of vehicles purchased in 2009 came in silver; 12.7 percent in gray. White followed silver and gray with 16.7 percent of sales.

Edmunds.com's analysis is based on sales transactions that occurred so far in 2009. Those sales mainly consist of 2009 models but some earlier models, including ones from now-defunct brands, are included as are some early 2010 models.

 Color by States

By geography, 20 states picked white as their No. 1 choice, 19 states picked black as their first choice and 10 ranked silver first.

Not surprisingly, white was the top choice of vehicles in warm climates of the south and west. Black was the choice of mostly northern states

Interestingly, white was the pick of many typically red states politically speaking; black the pick of mostly blue states.

Color by Make, Category

By brand, black was the best seller for 30 makes followed by silver for nine makes - but, ironically, not the Ford brand. Red and white was the best seller for six brands each.

Black was generally the top choice for buyers of cars and SUVs; white for pickup trucks and vans.

Broken down further by vehicle category, pickup trucks and full-size vans were purchased mainly in white. Silver was generally the top choice for full-size and mid-size cars. Black was the pick for SUVs, sport and luxury cars and exotic cars.

Fast, Slow Sellers

A hint for dealers, don't order yellow and dark red cars if you want to sell them fast. Rather select purple and light green. But for a fatter profit, patient dealers should pick yellow over gray and purple.

Yellow and dark red cars had the longest days to turn - the number of days from the time they are delivered to a dealership until they are driven away by a paying customer. Yellow cars had an average days-to-turn of 117; dark red 108 days.

In contrast, purple and light green vehicles took the least amount of time to sell with both having an average 73 days-to-turn rate

The most popular colors of black, silver and white sold in an average of 87 to 96 days. --Michelle Krebs, Senior Analyst and Editor at Large

Photo by Manufacturers

1 - Black, as worn by Lexus ES 350, was the No. 1 color choice of buyers this year in Edmunds.com's analysis.

 

 

 

 

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.