Which car colors help, hurt resale value? The answers might surprise you

Mainstream colors such as white, black, and silver, are popular among automotive consumers.

But are those the best colors for helping a vehicle maintain its value? The answer is no, according to a new study from car search engine iSeeCars.com.

Actually, more obscure colors tend to hold their value better than common and popular colors, said iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Brauer.

Overall, the vehicle color that holds its value best, depreciating 45.6% less than the average vehicle, is yellow.

“Yellow may not be a widely desired car color, but there are enough people who want yellow, versus the number of yellow new cars being ordered, to make yellow cars more desirable than others on the used market,” Brauer said in a news release.

Brauer also said, “In fact, yellow is among the colors with the lowest vehicle share, and is most commonly a color for sports cars and other low-volume vehicles that hold their value relatively well.”

iSeeCars compared the prices of more than 6 million new and used cars between 2017 to 2020, determining which colors help, hurt, or have minimal impact on a vehicle’s resale value.

Brauer said that like yellow, orange is most often found on low-volume sports and muscle cars. Orange ranks third among vehicle colors that hold their value best.

“Orange is such a novel color that it is often the choice for popular special edition vehicles, like the 30th edition Mazda MX-5 Miata, which are typically limited production vehicles,” Brauer said.

Another uncommon car color is beige, which is the vehicle color with the second-lowest depreciation, according to the study.

“Beige cars also comprise a small vehicle share of less than 1 percent,” Brauer said. “Although the term ‘beige’ has become synonymous with boring, it encompasses a spectrum of hues from off-white to a light brown and stands out in a parking lot while still being a neutral color.”

But rarity is not the only factor in how much a vehicle depreciates. Purple, brown and gold are the three paint colors with the highest depreciation. Those also have low market share, but they depreciate far worse than average.

“Rarity alone does not equal value,” Brauer said.

He also said, “If a color doesn’t resonate with enough used-car shoppers, it will hurt resale value, even if it’s uncommon.”

Black, white, silver, gray, red, and blue are the most common car colors, and they are all close to average in terms of depreciation.

“Because there are so many of these vehicles in the used-car marketplace, buyers can shop around more easily if they're interested in these colors, reducing the amount of pricing power for dealers,” Brauer said. “This means black, white, and silver are the safe colors to buy if you're satisfied with average value retention, but not if you're trying to do better than average.”

The iSeeCars study also highlighted car color depreciation by vehicle segment, noting that yellow SUVs hold their value best, but beige SUVs depreciate the most. As for trucks, beige retains value the best. Brown trucks depreciate the most. In the convertible category, bright colors retain the most value. Neutral-colored convertibles depreciate the most.

Blue is the lowest-depreciating color for minivans, and yellow holds its value best in the sedan segment.

iSeeCars said consumers selecting a vehicle should understand that color choice is more than just a cosmetic decision.

“A car’s color affects its value, which is especially important for drivers who plan on turning in their vehicle after a few years,” Brauer said. “While bolder or less common hues may seem like they would hurt a car’s resale value, there are many instances where the opposite is true.”

Vehicle Depreciation by Car Color

Chart source: iSeeCars.com.