If you feel like every new car on the road looks like it was ordered in the same three shades, you’re not imagining things. Fresh data from Axalta shows that global buyers continue to play it safe when choosing colors, with North America being no exception. Despite years of talk about bolder palettes and expressive design, with brands like Bentley now offering 111 exterior paint colors, neutral tones remain firmly in control, just as they were the year before.
Neutral Colors Still Rule The Road
Volvo
On a global scale, white once again tops the chart with a 29% market share, repeating its position from last year. Black follows at 23%, with gray close behind at 22%. Silver has slipped further to 7%, while blue holds steady at 6% as the most popular non-neutral color. Everything else, including red, green, brown or beige, and yellow or gold, makes up only small single-digit slices of the market.
North America tells a similar story, though with a few interesting wrinkles. White leads at 31%, down slightly year over year, while blue has climbed to 10% and red to 7%. It is not quite a revolution, but it does suggest some buyers are slowly getting bored with the grayscale look. And mainstream brands are starting to join in, just take a look at Mazda‘s new Polymetal Gray Metallic (that’s actually blue), which made a debut on the 2026 Mazda CX-5.
Why Boring Colors Keep Winning
Putting on our tin foil hat, the data suddenly starts to make sense. Neutral colors usually hide dirt and scratches better, are easier for automakers to produce at scale, and tend to be safer bets at resale. Ironically, new resale data shows yellow and orange vehicles retain the most value after three years, while common shades like black and white take the biggest depreciation hit. Design trends also play a role. Today’s minimalist surfaces and sharp creases tend to look cleaner in subdued tones. Automakers try to fool us with increasingly creative color names that differ ever so slightly from a standard color, but cost quite a chunk of change extra. With all that in mind, it becomes clear to see why buyers default to safe options.
Small Signs of Color Making a Comeback
Renault
While neutrals still dominate, the future isn’t entirely bleak. BMW has revived iconic M3 shades like Dakar Yellow and Laguna Seca Blue. Porsche is taking its Paint to Sample process to the next level, where you can replicate virtually any color you see in the real world. Across the pond, European carmakers are especially trying to revive cool colors, just take the Renault Twingo-E as an example: It comes in red, yellow, green and black – white isn’t even an option. Color is not dead. But it’s just fighting an uphill battle, and color often comes at a premium, unfortunately.
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