By Steven Symes 
Everyone seems to have their theories about paint color and how it affects car resale value, but chances are you’re wrong. Most people come at this topic with emotion, using anecdotal evidence to back up their bold claims. But a new study driven by raw market data sheds some interesting light on the subject.
Jay Leno’s classic car smog check exemption bill in California is in trouble.
That study, published recently by iSeeCars, has some shocking results which come from analyzing over 1.2 million vehicles and observing market depreciation over three years’ time. We expect some people will strongly disagree with the findings, likely out of emotion they’ll argue is in fact logic.
The first big shocker is that out of all the colors available, yellow vehicles hold their value the best, losing only 24 percent of their value in the first three years. The next best option is orange, then green. That right there probably flies in the face of most “logic” on this topic.
When it comes to the worst car colors for value retention, gold is at the bottom at 34.4 percent. Next is white, a popular choice, at 32.1 percent, followed by black at 31.9 percent.
We’ve known a lot of people who try to argue that black or white are the safest colors for protecting against vehicle value depreciation because they’re “classic colors.” That doesn’t bear out in the data.
“We see far more black, white and silver vehicles than yellow, orange or green ones. This suggests those colors are the most popular, but our data confirms there are more than enough black, white and silver cars to meet demand,” said iSeeCars Executive Analyst Karl Brauer. “For new car buyers seeking strong resale value, more obscure colors like yellow, orange and green will provide higher pricing when it’s time to sell.”
When it comes to pickup trucks, everything stays roughly the same, with a couple of twists. Red is the worst color for value retention at 28.8 percent lost in three years. That’s followed by beige at 28.7 percent, then white and black, respectively.
The SUV market segment also sees a bit of a twist at the bottom of the barrel. The color that depreciates the most is black at 33.6 percent, then brown at 33.4 percent, white at 33.2 percent, and finally blue at 33.1 percent.
Sedans pretty much follow the overall market trend, except when it comes to green. Instead of helping value, green lands in the second-lowest spot, just behind gold, at 33.8 percent depreciation.
Read the iSeeCars study for yourself here.
Image via Toyota