Car Color Trends In 2022 and Beyond

Car color trends tend to change over the years. The colors available for early 70s Porsches (bright orange, lime green, vibrant sky blue) went out of style, but have come back to some degree.

Below are some of the car paint color trends for this year, as well as some trends among sports car enthusiasts.

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Regular Drivers Go For White And Black

Recent PPG research found something interesting: Shades of white and black – grayscale – were 75% of paint colors in cars, trucks, and SUVs sold in the US last year. This has been a trend for many years. But not every car driver opts for shades of white and black, obviously.

After shades of white and black, the most common colors were white, red, and blue. Generally, there are not as many auto manufacturers making vehicles with bright colors, but there are notable exceptions.

In new sports and performance vehicles, bright colors are still being produced. For example, the BMW M3 and M4 are available in Sao Paulo Yellow. While not every BMW driver will thirst for a canary-yellow car, there’s no doubt it will grab attention and be hard to miss.

Another new car that has gone for the bright yellow shade is the Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition. Honda refers to it as Phoenix Yellow. This makes the Type R stand out even more than it did, which many sports car fans love.

Some new sports car fans are enthusiastic about the 2022 Acura TLX with its Tiger Eye Pearl shade. While we see many grey and black Acuras on public roads, the Tiger Eye Pearl color really does stand out from the rest.

Tiger Eye Pearl is an enticing combination of Isle of Man Green and Sao Paulo Yellow. The color is striking in the sun, but it also can appear more muted on cloudy and dark days.

As it turns out, some of the vibrant, saturated colors from decades ago are still popular with a few drivers. And we think we’ll continue to see some of these brash shades in future years.

Sports Car Fans: Bright, Bold Colors More Popular

When it comes to vintage sports cars, as well as modern Porsches, Lamborghinis, and Ferraris, there are many choosing bright, bold colors.

Garrick Matlock, owner of Elite Motorcars in Bend, OR, says, “I specialize in older, air-cooled Porsches, but lately, I’ve also had quite a number of late-model Lamborghinis come into the shop.”

“What’s funny is I’m seeing the some of the same colors on both the old and new cars: the vibrant orange, lime green, and sky blue that was hot in the early ’70s on Porsche 911’s – then went out of style for decades – is back as the most trendy colors in current Lamborghinis.”

Further, a recent survey of 3,000 Porche owners discovered these colors were the most popular:

Guards Red: 218
Mexico Blue: 169
GT Silver: 159
Miami Blue: 134
Black: 122
Speed Yellow: 102
Alpine White: 89
Oak Green: 83
Forest Green: 81
Irish Green: 81

Of course, bright colors in sports and streetcars are nothing new. If we look back at Mopar colors from the 1970s, there were plenty of bold colors with some wonderful names:

Plum Crazy
Panther Pink
Top Banana
Go Mango
Vitamin C
Rally Green
Bahama Yellow
Tor Red
Sublime Green
Citron Yella

Which Car Color For You?

Car color trends depend on whether you’re talking about regular cars or sports cars. As we’ve pointed out, traditional grayscale shades are usually the most popular for most drivers. But there are many colorful exceptions, and that’s definitely true in the new and used sports car population.

There are two basic strategies for picking your car’s paint color:

Go With Popular Neutral Shades

If you don’t want to stand out or wonder about resale value, it’s impossible to go wrong with silver, gray, white, or black. Year by year, these colors will compete for the #1 spot.

Choose Something Bold

On the other hand, if you want to not look like every car on the road and don’t mind a bit of attention, select a bold color in red, yellow, green, or orange.

And keep in mind those bold colors tend to be available for short times with new vehicles, so strike while the iron’s hot if bold is your preference.