Grey on top, but blue is back: UK’s favourite car colours revealed for 2024
For the seventh year in a row, grey is the number one colour for UK car buyers, followed by black and blue
Blue is now officially the UK’s third favourite car colour, marking the first time a non-greyscale shade has made the podium spot in 15 years.
Statistics released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show that roughly 15 per cent of all new cars registered in 2024 were blue, equating to around 300,000 vehicles. Blue has traditionally been one of the UK’s favourite shades, finishing fourth in the popularity rankings in 2023, but the last time it made the top three was all the way back in 2010.
Taking the top spot for the seventh year running is grey, with as many as 28 per cent of new cars leaving the showroom in this colour. Senior valuations editor at car valuation firm CAP HPI Craig Bridgman told Auto Express that he “very much doubts” that any colour will ever overtake grey’s popularity.
Bridgman explained: “As a nation, we’re quite safe with the colours we choose. Grey is a fashionable colour – especially with some manufacturers, like Audi – and it does typically hold a little more value than something more unusual.”
Also for the seventh year running, 2024’s runner-up colour was black, featuring on almost 22 per cent of new cars. White, on the other hand, couldn’t quite make the top three this year, with the number of registrations falling by around seven per cent to just under 15 per cent. Despite this, nearly two-thirds (64.5 per cent) of all new cars registered were monochrome.
SMMT Chairman Mike Hawes said: “While 2024 saw more new car buyers go green with a record number of electric cars reaching the road, the ‘face’ of the market remains familiar, with grey and black proving perennially popular.
“While manufacturers strive to ensure every driver can have their pick of a vast choice of paint colours and personalisation options to suit their individual tastes, it seems UK car buyers’ preferences remain steadfastly monochrome.”
Other than stereotypical British prudishness, Bridgman says that perhaps one of the biggest deterrents for buyers looking to choose a brighter colour for their new pride and joy is that “more unusual shades typically offer less enticing resale values”.
According to Bridgman, the shades that most negatively affect resale values, as well as how quickly a car might sell, are brown and those that he described as “extremely bright colours – like a vivid yellow or pink”. Indeed, the latter, as you might expect, was the least-popular new car colour, despite Jaguar’s recent attempts to make it fashionable on the Type 00.
“If you had two identical cars – one grey and one brown – the former could sell within a few weeks, while the other could take a few months,” Bridgman said. “[Furthermore], if you had two mainstream used cars (circa £15,000) with one in grey and another in brown, the latter could suffer anything between £300-500 in terms of resale value.”
Despite the superstition that green-coloured cars bring bad luck, Bridgman suggested that UK buyers may be beginning to warm to them. “Green was a popular colour many years ago,” he said. “But it seems to be having a bit of a revival right now.” SMMT figures show that it is more popular than it has been for 20 years – although it still only accounts for three-and-a-half per cent of new registrations.
Top 10 car colours in 2024
- Grey – 27.8%
- Black – 21.7%
- Blue – 14.9%
- White – 14.9%
- Red – 7%
- Silver – 6.3%
- Green – 3.5%
- Yellow – 0.6%
- Orange – 0.6%
- Bronze – 0.3%
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