Rhapsodizing over blue

It was Henry Ford who, in the early days of the automotive industry, famously remarked that buyers could have their Fords in any color - as long as it was black. But that monochromatic view of the world didn't last. It wasn't long before automakers began turning out vehicles in a rainbow of distinctive colors.

Since then, colors have come to denote certain types of cars, and even define automotive eras. The hot red convertible or sports car has grown synonymous with sexy young blonde women and mid-life crisis-afflicted men. Of the primary colors, yellow tends to be least seen on automobiles, as folks don't like their cars confused with taxis. And the black sedan is often thought to bespeak understated elegance, power and wealth, and to be favored by head honchos of major corporations.

Similarly, we tend to think of certain colors when we recall different epochs in the long history of the auto business. Pink and blue pastels and two-tone paint jobs were all the rage in the 1950s, while the decade of the 1970s seemed to usher in an unprecedented number of purple and orange shades. And if a car color has dominated in the first decade of the 21st century, that metallic hue would surely have to be silver.

This supposition is confirmed by the annual automotive color popularity data released in mid-October by Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries, a worldwide supplier of paints and coatings to automakers. That study revealed silver is again leading the pack this year as the world's most popular car color, cloaking 20 percent of the cars in North America, 35 percent in Europe and 37 percent in Asia. But white and black and strong challengers, and a number of other colors are growing in favor.

On this continent, silver's one-fifth share of the market tops by narrow margins the 18 percent commanded by white, and the 17 percent captured by black (a gain of two percent in the last year). The popularity of the leaders is such that silver, white and black are offered on every vehicle line as part of the core color palette, says Jane E. Harrington, PPG manager of color styling and automotive coatings.

Red and blue each hold about one-eighth of the color market, with 13 and 12 percent respectively. Bringing up the rear are naturals with nine percent, other/niche market colors with seven percent and green (which was popular in the late 1980's) with four percent.

Even though we tend to think of silver as the same shiny color it's always been, and similar from one vehicle to the next, Harrington points out that really isn't the case. "We're not dealing with the same old silvers anymore," she says.

"With advances in technology and design, silver shades continue to evolve with the incorporation of hue shifts, color tints, aluminum flake size and appearance."

Even as the company charts the most popular automotive colors today, PPG has charged its Global Design and Color Marketing Team colorists with the task of working on the shades of things to come that will color our automotive world in the years ahead. Colors for the 2011 and 2012 model years, including both exterior and interior shades, were unveiled to automakers as part of "Influences," PPG's recent worldwide color exposition.

Among the more than 130 color concepts developed by the PPG colorists, an array of blue shades appears to be garnering increasingly strong approval. For the second straight year, blue proved the top color in a polling of 1,200 potential car buyers at Detroit's North American International Auto Show last January, Harrington reports.

That's good, because blue works for carmakers as well. "Blue is a very versatile color for automotive, and can complement any vehicle's brand or style," she says.

Indeed, it's blue's ability to take on different color champions at various points along its spectrum that has it being tabbed as "the most vital color focus for the global automotive industry going forward," according to a PPG Industries news release. As a challenger to black and dark gray, dark blue has a strong upside, says Reiner Mueller-Koerber, PPG manager, color styling, Europe. Meanwhile, king of the hill silver may have some competition from lighter blues that appear to be silver-like in color. "Blue has the ability to cover the spectrum, from rich and deep to clean and fresh," he says.

But there will still be plenty of choices in the years ahead for those car buyers who aren't big on blue. PPG predicts an abundance of natural shades, as well as the popularity of such colors as "Bling," a pale gold with a changeable nature likened to gold jewelry, and "Visionary Violet," a brilliantly sparkling dark violet hue. Finally, projections by PPG call for interest in a color it calls "Split & Peel," a creamy light-banana yellow - one that will presumably not be mistaken for a common shade used on cabs.