How America’s Taste In Car Colors Has Changed

If you’re curious about the most and least popular car colors in America, a recent study published by iSeeCars.com looked at the most popular exterior hues today, comparing them to those of 30 years ago, in 1996. What they found was a major shift to “grayscale” colors — an incredible 80.4% of the current market consists of cars that are black, gray, silver, or white. The market share for these four colors in 1996 was 47.3%, showing significant growth over the past 30 years. While white increased in popularity from 22.1% to 25.7%, the largest increases were seen in gray (from 3.6% to 22.9%) and black (from 14.2% to 23.4%).

The market share of the most popular non-grayscale colors, which are red, green, and blue, have seen declines. Blue came out best, going from 10.2% to 9.1%. But red is down from 20.1% to 7.0%, while green suffered the largest percentage loss, dropping from 13.4% to 2.2%.

If you’re wondering how iSeeCars did this, the publication analyzed the specific colors of more than 22 million used cars from model years 1996-2025 sold from January 2025 to May 2026. The percentage share of each color for each model year was calculated, along with each color’s difference in share between the model years of 1996 and 2025. While this does not include the 1996 cars that didn’t survive to be counted in 2025, it is likely that they were evenly distributed across all possible colors.

If you’re a sports car fan, the color news gets better. The iSeeCars.com study found the prevalence of grayscale colors was lower among sports cars, with only a 63.6% share. This means that 36.2% of sports cars are purchased in colors, with blue ranking highest at 15.5%, followed by red at 10.8%, green at 4.5%, yellow at 2.3%, and purple at 1.8%. Other colors like orange, brown, gold, and beige each had less than one percent.

The iSeeCars.com analysts had some good news for those who like cars with color. The trend to grayscale cars leveled out around the 80% mark since 2020, leading them to conclude that colors may make a slow, steady comeback soon. This trend may not extend to trucks, where grayscale colors now account for 83.5% of the total market, with the two dominant colors being white, taking 33.6%, and black, the hardest color to maintain, claiming 23.4%. Things are also less colorful in SUVs, where grayscale colors currently take 79.3% of the market.

The reasons for why we have arrived here, with an 80% inventory of grayscale cars, could have a lot to do with dealers who just want to stock the most popular, and therefore easily sellable, hues. Buyers may likewise choose a neutral color in the hopes that future resale is easier. If you’re a fan of color, you do still have options though, as every major car brand still sells cool colors in 2026.