46. Car Colors

Summary

The Economics of Everyday Things – Episode 46: Car Colors

Date: June 8, 2026
Host: Zachary Crockett (Freakonomics Network)

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the fascinating economics and psychology behind car colors in the auto industry. Host Zachary Crockett investigates why most cars today come in muted tones like white, gray, and black—despite a past filled with colorful options—and uncovers how trends, technology, climate, and even generational preferences shape the palette of vehicles on the road. Featuring insights from automotive paint professionals and design experts, the episode unpacks everything from historical industry decisions to current market data and what the future may hold for more adventurous car colors.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. A Colorful Past, a Monochrome Present

• Opening Anecdote: Zachary Crockett begins with his father, Tom Crockett, reminiscing about his “1965 Chevy Impala” and its “personality,” including the vivid variety of car colors in the 1960s-70s.
  • Quote: “In the old days, we had variations of green and variations of brown, tan colors. There were light blues, lots of different shades of blues...” — Tom Crockett (02:07)
• Modern Contrast: Tom observes that today, “all the cars on the road look the same. Black, white, silver, black, white, silver, black, white.” (02:31)
• Trend Data: 80% of vehicles sold in North America are now achromatic (white, black, gray, or silver), up from 36% fifty years ago. (02:44)

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2. Why Monochrome Takes Over

• History: Early mass-produced cars (Model T) were all black for economic/practical reasons—black paint was cheap, durable, fast to apply. (03:42–03:56)
• Shift to Color: As cars became more common, manufacturers added more colors—including metallics (made with fish scales!), and by the 1980s there was a true rainbow on the roads. (04:14–04:43)
  • Quote: “The 80s was a very colorful decade and the years before. So there was a lot of green cars, red cars, blue cars.” — Mark Gutjar, BASF (04:43)
• Return of Neutral Tones: From the early 2000s, achromatic colors resurged, led by technology trends:
  • Silver became popular: gadgets like phones, stereos were silver.
  • Apple’s launch of the white iPod defined “high tech” as clean and white.
  • Quote: “White was the transporting color of being advanced, high-tech, forward-thinking. The color took over in rapid speed, and it's still number one globally.” — Mark Gutjar (05:48)

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3. Psychology, Practicality & Market Forces

• Perceptions:
  • Light colors (esp. white) reflect sunlight, improve fuel economy, are more practical in hot climates. (06:01)
  • People pick safe, inoffensive colors—often not what they’d like personally, but what feels safest for families or resale. (06:35)
  • Dealers favor neutral colors, easier to sell and to swap if the desired color is out of stock. (06:51–07:13)
  • Gruyter: “Gray colors please a lot of people. That's why they're so successful. We have around 120 different shades of gray, so 50 Shades is not enough.” (07:15)
• Manufacturers & Paint Suppliers: Over half of cars globally have at least one layer of BASF paint; manufacturers work with the likes of BASF to develop and scale new colors (07:33–07:53).

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4. How Car Colors Are Developed

• Determining New Colors:
  • Carmakers like Subaru survey trends in their target demographic—looking at sportswear, ski gear, and outdoor equipment to identify potential colors. (08:21)
  • Quote: “We know our customer really well...so we're looking at snowboards, skis, skate decks, all the clothing.” — Nikki Riedel, Subaru (08:27)
• Iconic Example: “Cool Gray Khaki”
  • Created in response to a trend toward muted, cool tones.
  • Quote: “It's a light gray with a bluish tone...with a ceramic look. No sparkle.” — Zachary Crockett (09:05)
  • Quote: “It has a very flat finish...which also suggests a rugged aesthetic and a more modern, younger look.” — Nikki Riedel (09:21)
  • After color is developed, it’s “tested in a light studio that simulates different settings” and weathered in Florida to check for durability (08:41–10:23).

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5. The Science & Process of Car Painting

• Multi-Step Process:
  • Begins with dipping car parts in zinc phosphate and coating with resin (ecoat).
  • Primer and base coat added by robots—includes effects like sparkles or unique textures.
  • Finished with a clear coat for gloss and protection. (11:03–11:44)
  • Quote: “All the layers together, they make a thickness of [a] hair, so it's extremely thin and it's extremely technical.” — Mark Gutjar (11:44)
• Production Cycle:
  • Bringing a new color to market can take up to six years. (11:53)
  • Small formula and application differences can mean color variations between factories/countries, even in “the same” color. (12:15)

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6. Market Realities & Trends

• Lifecycle of a Color:
  • Subaru’s “Cool Gray Khaki” debuted in 2018, phased out in 2023, and represented 18% of certain model sales. (15:28–15:37)
• Subaru’s Approach:
  • Their buyers are “a little more open to bold colors,” with blue, green, and orange offerings doing well for the brand. (15:55)
  • Example: “Geyser Blue” was made by mixing blue and a bit of green, with no metallic flake, giving an off-road vibe and even outselling black, white, gray on some models. (16:17)
• Keeping Options Manageable:
  • Too many color choices makes logistics difficult for dealers.
  • Quote: “We have to make sure that we've got just enough choice so that our owners can kind of pick what they want...but not so many options that we can't get the car to the right place to the right customer.” — Nikki Riedel (16:55)
• Geography & Demographics:
  • Southern US buyers lean toward white cars (climate).
  • Older generations favor “pops” of color, millennials prefer muted tones like “cool gray khaki” (18:04).
  • Quote: “I think we've maybe bottomed out on minimalism, and I think people are starting to look for character now and personalization.” — Nikki Riedel (18:30)

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7. Economic, Cultural & Generational Shifts

• Color and Economy:
  • Duller colors (gray, black) rise in popularity during difficult economic times; bright tones emerge in good times. (18:41–18:53)
• Hints of a Bright Future:
  • BASF’s Gutjar sees “a huge diversity in colors” and the return of colors like purple/violet, which had faded for decades. (19:00)
  • Automakers experiment: Jeep Wrangler in “Snazberry,” Toyota 4Runner in “Voodoo Blue,” BMW in “Sao Paulo Yellow.” (19:22–19:38)
• Cost & Resale Value:
  • Special finishes cost more, take longer to produce, and require layers (metallics/pearls). (19:42)
  • Surprisingly, colors like yellow, orange, and green hold the highest resale value. (20:19)
  • Most buyers still opt for safe choices, but “even my dad” ended up in a white Subaru (“the only used car on the lot”). (20:31–20:46)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the bland roads of today:
  • “Black, white, silver, black, white, silver, black, white.” — Tom Crockett (02:31)
• On personal vs. practical choices:
  • “What people like personally as a color actually has nothing to do [with] what they buy.” — Mark Gutjar, BASF (06:35)
• On millennials and color trends:
  • “We all know about millennial gray, and that's kind of how it's showing up for our cars.” — Nikki Riedel (03:11)
• On the technical challenge:
  • “All the layers together, they make a thickness of a hair, so it's extremely thin, and it's extremely technical.” — Mark Gutjar (11:44)
• On generational color preferences:
  • “Boomers and Gen X are definitely looking for…those pops of color. And we found that millennials are gravitating to gray.” — Nikki Riedel (03:11, 18:04)
• On the cyclical nature of taste:
  • “I think we've maybe bottomed out on minimalism, and I think people are starting to look for character now and personalization.” — Nikki Riedel (18:30)
• On real-life purchasing:
  • “I bought a white car because it was the only used car on the lot. Believe it or not, I actually like the color white. The only problem is, you know, now when I go out look for my car, I have to sort through multiple white cars to make sure that I'm getting in the right car.” — Tom Crockett (20:46)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:19–02:31 — Vivid car colors in the past vs. modern monochrome roads (Tom Crockett)
• 03:42–04:43 — History of car colors, from Model T to neon 80s (Zachary Crockett & Mark Gutjar)
• 05:00–06:35 — How silver/white became synonymous with “modern” tech and why muted tones dominate
• 07:15 — The existence of “120 shades of gray” (Mark Gutjar)
• 08:21–09:21 — Subaru’s process to identify and create new, trendy car colors (Nikki Riedel)
• 11:03–11:53 — The science of car paint and the years-long process to bring a new color to market
• 15:28–16:43 — Sales success of “Cool Gray Khaki” and Subaru’s colorful experiments (“Geyser Blue” beating out neutrals)
• 17:36–18:04 — Regional and generational differences in car color preferences (Nikki Riedel)
• 19:00–19:15 — Comeback of adventurous hues: purple, violet, etc. (Mark Gutjar)
• 20:19 — Resale value tied to car color
• 20:46–21:14 — Even Tom Crockett succumbs to the white car trend

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Episode Highlights – For New Listeners

• The episode delivers a fun and practical investigation into why most cars are neutral-colored today—even though technology, technique, and consumer taste could allow for more flamboyant choices.
• Reveals how cultural shifts, climate, generational taste, economics, and manufacturing logistics all play a role in determining which colors end up on the road.
• Offers hope for a more colorful future, with experts noticing a revival of interest in bolder car shades.

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Listen for:

• Surprising science behind even “plain” color finishes
• How snowboards and ski jackets inform Subaru designers
• Why your car’s color could mean more cash in your pocket when you sell it

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For fans of Freakonomics and those curious about the hidden economics in daily life, this episode paints a vivid picture (pun intended!) of what our car color choices say not just about style, but society, technology, and ourselves.

Transcript

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[Zachary Crockett]

Like a lot of men his age,

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

my dad likes to talk about how everything used to be better. Shoes used to last longer, musicians used to be more talented, movies used to

[Zachary Crockett]

cost a couple bucks. And cars, they just had a lot more character.

[Tom Crockett]

My first car was a 1965 Chevy Impala. And this was a real car. It was a real car I bought from a neighbor. It had 25,000 miles on it and I paid $400 for it. I mean, the personality that it had, every detail about it. The headlights, the tail lights, the fender, the bumper, the doors. You could punch the 65 Chevy and you'd break your hand.

[Zachary Crockett]

As Tom Crockett tells it, a big part of that character was the multitude

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

of colors that you'd see on the road back in the 1960s and 70s.

[Tom Crockett]

In the old days, we had variations of green and variations of brown, tan colors. There were light blues, lots of different shades of blues. My uncle Guy, it had like a canary yellow Cadillac, he'd drive it with a top down.

[Zachary Crockett]

But these days, he says, it seems

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

like all the cars on the road look the same.

[Tom Crockett]

Black, white, silver, black, white, silver, black, white.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

There is some truth to that. Today's cars are a lot less colorful than they used to be.

[Zachary Crockett]

80% of vehicles sold in North America

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

are, are now achromatic. White, black, gray or silver. That's up from 36% 50 years ago.

[Zachary Crockett]

Now, if you're like my dad, you

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

might say that the automobile industry has lost its flair.

[Zachary Crockett]

But according to car color designers, there

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

are actually more color options than ever before.

[Zachary Crockett]

It's just that those so called boring

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

tones are what today's young buyers actually want.

[Nikki Riedel]

We know that boomers and Gen X are definitely looking for of those pops of color. So they're more interested in, like, the tangerine orange. And we found that millennials are gravitating to gray. We all know about millennial gray, and that's kind of how it's showing up for our cars.

[Zachary Crockett]

For the Freakonomics radio network, this is

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

the economics of everyday things. I'm Zachary Crockett.

[Zachary Crockett]

Today, car colors. For the earliest mass produced cars, paint

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

was more of a practicality than a form of expression.

[Zachary Crockett]

Throughout Most of the 1920s, Henry Ford's

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

famous model T only came in one color.

[Zachary Crockett]

Ford was rumored to have said that a customer may have a car in

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

any color he desires, so long as it is black. Ford's affinity for the color was rooted in economics. Black paint was cheap and durable, and using only one color sped up production.

[Zachary Crockett]

As cars became more common, consumers wanted

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

theirs to stand out. Automakers responded with different color options. In the 1930s, the first metallic finishes hit the market. They were made out of fish scales, and it took 20,000 herring to make a pound of paint.

[Zachary Crockett]

In the 1950s, you could find cars

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

in pink and turquoise.

[Zachary Crockett]

The 60s and 70s were populated with

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

yellow and green muscle cars.

[Zachary Crockett]

And by the 1980s, vehicles came in

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

just about any color you could dream up.

[Mark Gutjar]

The 80s was a very colorful decade and the years before. So there was a lot of green cars, red cars, blue cars.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

That's Mark Gutjar.

[Zachary Crockett]

He's the global head of design at

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

basf, one of the largest car paint manufacturers in the world.

[Mark Gutjar]

And achromatics. The colors that are black, gray, and white and silver, they were not so dominant, actually.

[Zachary Crockett]

But Guccar says that around the beginning of the millennium, car colors became a lot less colorful.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

Silver quickly became the color of choice, largely thanks to emerging technologies.

[Mark Gutjar]

You know, mobile phones were silver, your stereo was silver with a lot of buttons and things to turn like very technical devices. And then this famous American company came in and invented a tool, and the product was white.

[Zachary Crockett]

That famous company was Apple, and the

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

device, of course, was the ipod. It came out in 2001, around the same time the company opened its first retail locations.

[Mark Gutjar]

White was the transporting color of being advanced high tech. Forward thinking. The color took over in rapid speed, and it's still number one globally.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

Today, 34% of all cars in North America are white. After that comes black with 22%, silver with 14%, and gray with 10%. No other color cracks double digits. Now, there are practical reasons to buy a white car. Lighter colors reflect more sunlight, which reduces the need for ac, increasing fuel economy and decreasing carbon dioxide emissions.

[Zachary Crockett]

But the main reason People buy achromatic cars is that they're just sort of inoffensive.

[Mark Gutjar]

We did some research on new car buyers, like what they were looking for and what people like personally as a color actually has nothing to do what they buy.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

There are a few possible explanations for this.

[Zachary Crockett]

For starters, cars are often shared within

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

a family, and achromatic colors make good compromise picks. Dealerships also tend to stock more white, black and gray cars because they're easier to sell than a niche choice like turquoise.

[Zachary Crockett]

If a customer comes in looking for a color that's not in stock, a salesperson can often convince them to buy

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

the gray model on the floor instead.

[Mark Gutjar]

Gray colors please a lot of people. That's why they're so successful. We have around 120 different shades of gray, so 50 Shades is not enough.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

Whether you have a gray car or

[Zachary Crockett]

a pink car, it's likely that BASF

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

was involved in the color. More than 50% of all cars produced globally each year have at least one layer of BASF paint.

[Mark Gutjar]

We work with nearly everybody in the industry to develop colors every year. I think it's roughly 900 colors that are currently running in the market.

[Zachary Crockett]

Every major car manufacturer also has its

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

own in house design team.

[Zachary Crockett]

And when a brand wants to develop a new color, the conversation usually starts

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

with someone like Nikki Riedel.

[Nikki Riedel]

I'm a car line planning manager at Subaru of America.

[Zachary Crockett]

Riedel's job is to help oversee all

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

of the little design choices that go into creating a new Subaru model. From the color of the stitching on the seats to the color of the exterior paint.

[Zachary Crockett]

The first thing Subaru's team does is

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

look at what's popular in the spaces where their customers are interacting.

[Nikki Riedel]

We're really lucky at Subaru because we know our customer really well. Definitely people who want to take the path less followed. They're always looking for their next adventure. So we're looking at snowboards, we're looking at skis, we're looking at skate decks, we're looking at all of the clothing, like ski jackets and that sort of thing.

[Zachary Crockett]

A few years ago, they noticed a trend.

[Nikki Riedel]

We started seeing everything kind of shifting toward cooler tones. And so we developed cool gray khaki.

[Zachary Crockett]

Over the past couple of years, you've

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

probably noticed cars in this color.

[Zachary Crockett]

It's a light gray with a bluish tone.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

And it's got kind of a ceramic look to it. No sparkle. Cool gray khaki is Subaru's invention.

[Zachary Crockett]

But many manufacturers from BMW to Honda

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

have introduced very similar Shades.

[Nikki Riedel]

Cool gray khaki is a cooler, muted tone. It has a very flat finish, so it doesn't have a lot of metallic or pearl in it, which also suggests a rugged aesthetic and a more modern, younger look. When we all saw it, we just kind of knew it was a hit before.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

A color like cool gray khaki is finalized, it's tested in a light studio that simulates different settings.

[Nikki Riedel]

Light is really important, especially when you're talking about a vehicle. The sunlight that you see from a temperature standpoint in southern California is going to be very different from Maine. The other consideration is that these cars will be seen in showrooms. So one of the settings that we have that we check are what our retailers are using for overhead lighting in the showroom. Make sure that that also looks as, you know, as good as we want it to.

[Zachary Crockett]

They also have to make sure the

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

paint formula can hold up in different environments.

[Zachary Crockett]

Many car manufacturers send painted car parts

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

to weathering facilities in Florida, where they're put out in the sun, sometimes for years, to see how the paint is affected.

[Zachary Crockett]

The state has high intensity sunlight, lots

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

of rain, and high humidity, which makes

[Zachary Crockett]

it an ideal place to test for

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

cracking, peeling, and moisture sensitivity.

[Zachary Crockett]

Once a color has passed all the

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

tests, manufacturers work with paint suppliers like BASF to produce the color at scale.

[Mark Gutjar]

So what they get from us is like a mixed material with all the ingredients that are in.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

Even a seemingly plain color, like white or gray, is a lot more dimensional than it seems.

[Zachary Crockett]

When a car is painted at a

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

factory, the process begins with something called an eco.

[Zachary Crockett]

The car parts are often dipped in

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

a bath of zinc phosphate, and an electrical current binds a layer of resin to the surface. The parts spend time in an oven, and then robots spray them with primer and a base coat that includes all kinds of effects.

[Mark Gutjar]

So you have these glitter sparkles that you could put in, like, you know, very different textures, very soft, silky textures you can generate.

[Zachary Crockett]

The final step is typically a clear

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

coat that gives an extra glossiness to the finish, but also protects the paint from UV lights and bird poop.

[Mark Gutjar]

All the layers together, they make a thickness of a hair, so it's extremely thin, and it's extremely technical.

[Zachary Crockett]

From conception to production, bringing a new

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

color like cool gray khaki to the market can take up to six years.

[Zachary Crockett]

So in 2024, Subaru's team might be

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

working on the new colors for the 2030 lineup.

[Zachary Crockett]

And even after all that work, Riedel says that there are still slight variations

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

in the final product of any given color.

[Nikki Riedel]

Every time you formulate the color, it's not going to be 100% exact. They're virtually imperceivable. But if you put one body panel next to another, there's a chance that you could see the difference. So the way that they're spraying our white in Japan could look slightly different from what we're spraying in the US Factory.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

So will every hit color be another variant of gray? Probably not.

[Zachary Crockett]

Some industry experts are predicting a more vibrant future.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

That's coming up

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[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

Subaru debuted cool gray khaki in 2018 and phased it out in 2023.

[Zachary Crockett]

It accounted for around 18% of the

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

company sales for the models that were available in the color.

[Zachary Crockett]

If you go to Subaru forums, you'll find customers singing its praises, but the

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

company doesn't just stick to grays.

[Zachary Crockett]

Nikki Rydell says Subaru fans are a

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

little more open to bold colors than the typical car buyer.

[Nikki Riedel]

We're able to sell bright blues and greens and orange colors. We're lucky because we have always been kind of that quirky, fun car. So we kind of lean into that and make sure that we're offering really fun colors as much as we can.

[Zachary Crockett]

Take, for instance, a color called Geyser

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

Blue, which debuted on some of Subaru's 2022 models.

[Nikki Riedel]

We took blue and mixed a little bit of green into it. Green is not usually a great seller for cars, but Subaru does it really well. And then we took all of the metallic flake out. So that kind of psychologically signifies that it's more of a rugged off road color. It's beating out black, white, gray, and that's pretty tough to do. Yeah.

[Zachary Crockett]

Cars are an expensive product and color

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

has a big impact on sales.

[Zachary Crockett]

So car companies like Subaru have to

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

make sure they produce the right amount of models in each color.

[Nikki Riedel]

So we don't want to have too many colors in the lineup because then we're splitting the ratio of cars out and then every retailer might not be able to get that color. We have to make sure that we've got just enough choice so that our owners can kind of pick what they want and personalize their car, but not so many options that we can't get the car to the right place to the right customer.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

Subaru keeps a close eye on data from dealerships. They look at things like how quickly certain colors are selling.

[Zachary Crockett]

If they see demand for particular shades

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

slowing down, they adjust accordingly on the factory lines.

[Zachary Crockett]

And dealerships tend to keep reliable colors

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

like white, gray and black on hand.

[Nikki Riedel]

It's a lot easier to convince somebody to buy a white car than it is a bright orange car.

[Zachary Crockett]

Some colors tend to sell better in

[Nikki Riedel]

certain regions, the Sunbelt area, so the southern part of the country is going to sell more white cars than they would black cars just because the heat. So we would probably allocate maybe more white cars down there.

[Zachary Crockett]

Riedel says there are also some generational

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

differences in who buys certain car colors.

[Nikki Riedel]

We know that boomers and Gen X are definitely looking for some of those pops of color, so they're more interested in the tangerine orange, the bright oranges. And we found that millennials are gravitating to colors that are closer to, like the cool gray khaki. They're always attracted to more muted colors compared to other generations.

[Zachary Crockett]

But even millennials are starting to come

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

around to more colorful cars.

[Nikki Riedel]

I think we've maybe bottomed out on minimalism, and I think people are starting to look for character now and personalization.

[Zachary Crockett]

Some research has suggested that there's a

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

correlation between car colors and how the economy is doing. Somber tones like gray and black rise during times of hardship.

[Zachary Crockett]

And when things are looking up, brighter

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

colors tend to re emerge.

[Zachary Crockett]

At basf, Mark Gutjar has noticed a

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

slight shift away from the dominant achromatic colors.

[Mark Gutjar]

What we see is a huge diversity in colors, so there's more and more color shades coming in. Last year's production showed in every region of the world purple, violet colors, and that was something really not there for a long, long time.

[Zachary Crockett]

Nearly every car brand on the market has experimented with an adventurous color or

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

two in recent years.

[Zachary Crockett]

Fiat Chrysler offered the Jeep Wrangler in

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

snazberry, kind of a reddish maroon.

[Zachary Crockett]

Toyota released a four Runner in an

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

extremely vivid voodoo blue. BMW had Sao Paulo yellow, which looks like a highlighter.

[Zachary Crockett]

Colors like this will sometimes set you

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

back a few more bucks at the dealership.

[Nikki Riedel]

There are different pigments, and pigments vary in cost. There's also the application process. If it's a single coat, dual coat, or a tri coat, there's all different effects. So we call a metallic a pearl or a silica finish. Every time you add another layer of paint, you're adding time to the line.

[Zachary Crockett]

These bolder colors may cost more, but

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

they could also pay you back in the long run.

[Zachary Crockett]

The vehicle search engine IC Cars analyzed

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

pricing data on more than a million

[Zachary Crockett]

used cars and found that color has

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

a surprisingly strong impact on resale value.

[Zachary Crockett]

The colors that retain the most value

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

yellow, orange, and green.

[Zachary Crockett]

But at least for now, most car

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

buyers still spring for the less exhilarating hues.

[Zachary Crockett]

And a few Years ago, when he found himself in the market for a

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

new car, even my dad, Tom Crockett, joined the club.

[Tom Crockett]

I bought a used 2014 Subaru Impressa.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

What color did you get?

[Tom Crockett]

I bought a white car because it was the only used car on the lot. Believe it or not, I actually like the color white. The only problem is, you know, now when I go out look for my car, I have to sort through multiple white cars to make sure that I'm getting in the right car.

[Zachary Crockett]

For the economics of everyday things.

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

I'm Zachary Crockett.

[Zachary Crockett]

This episode was produced by me and

[Zachary Crockett (Narrator)]

Sarah Lilly and mixed by Jeremy Johnston. We had help from Daniel Moritz Rapson.

[Tom Crockett]

In those days, you didn't wear seatbelts, and so I would pile 1012 hippies in the car and yeah, but that's another story for another time.

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