BOSTON -

What’s black and white, and red all over? The used vehicles men are more likely to inquire about, it seems.

In a recent study, iSeeCars.com spent a year tracking and analyzing the colors and types of cars that male and female visitors to its website inquire about.

“It’s one thing to say you like a car color, and another to actually move forward in the used-car shopping process to contact the seller about that color car,” said Phong Ly, co-founder and chief executive officer of iSeeCars.

“We conducted a study of 30 million used cars listed on iSeeCars.com over the past 12 months, and of hundreds of thousands of consumers who inquired about a car on iSeeCars.com.”

Overall, the study shows that men have a stronger preference for red cars than women by 12.3 percent, for orange cars by 11.8 percent, and for black cars by 9.6 percent.

Women have a stronger preference for silver cars than men by 9.2 percent, brown cars by 9.1 percent and gold cars by 7.3 percent.

Among the top color choices by men, red and black are the most popular colors for used sports cars and white is most popular for pickup trucks.

Orange, while representing just 0.4 percent of 30 million used-car listings, adorns sports cars and coupes more so than any other body styles.

For the car color choices of women, used minivans, sedans and wagons are the most popular car types for silver.

Brown and gold/beige make up only about 4 percent of the 30 million used-car listings, but those colors are painted on more minivans and SUVs than any other types of cars.

Black cars ($21,719), white cars ($20,026) and brown cars ($20,019) had the highest average used-car prices among colors listed in the results of this study.

Green cars ($13,194), beige cars ($14,472), and gold cars ($14,953) had the lowest average used-car listing prices. The average price of the cars for the colors women preferred is about 8 percent less than those favored by men, the study shows. 

“These study results could suggest that women are more practical in their choices. For the most part, they may just want to buy a reasonably priced car that safely drives them around,” Ly said. “On the other hand, for men, perhaps they may be a bit more idealistic about cars, preferring something that has speed and is fun to drive.”

Other notes from the survey:

  • Blue is slightly more preferred by women than men; the minivan is the most popular car type in blue.
     
  • The women-favored color cars also tend to stay on the market a bit longer, which the company said may be because colors like gold/beige/brown/yellow are less common.
     
  • Men have a stronger preference for white cars (verus women) by 7 percent, a stronger preference for green cars by 6.8 percent, and a stronger preference for grey cars by 3 percent.
     
  • Women have a stronger preference for beige cars (versus men) by 4.7 percent, a stronger preference for blue cars by 3.6 percent, and a stronger preference for yellow cars by 3.2 percent.

Below are charts provided by iSeeCars that illustrate these findings in further detail:

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