The Money of Colour

I was recently asked to help a friend who was choosing his new company car. The car of choice was a BMW 320d touring and as a result the budget the company provided left little room for any additional specification. We debated all manner of optional extras but the most contentious of them all was the colour.

The gentleman in question lives in Paris and any reader who is familiar with the French capital will know it is essentially a giant banger race. There are no need for reverse parking sensors in Paris, when you hit the car you are parking next too you stop and go forward!

The 'discussion' centred around his desire for metallic paint and the opportunity cost was an i-Pod connector. 'Why have metallic when firstly it is not your car and secondly half of it will be lying on the Parisien pavement in six months?'.'Because it looks better' came the reply.

It got me thinking about the emotive nature of colour when applied to used cars and trying to quantify how much someone would pay for the 'right' colour?

Of course, early used car salesmen had it easy. 'Yes madam, come and look at our approved range of Model T's.....'

Everyone has a favourite colour for a car and certain cars look fantastic in certain colours. There are colours which possess a timeless air and some which go out of fashion faster than a shellsuit.

In my opinion dark blue, British racing green and black have always had an air of sophistication particularly when coupled with a light leather interior. However, ask some people their opinion and dark blue or green cars are owned by people who are prospected by Saga and black cars are owned by people who have served time at Her Majesty's.

For the last ten years silver has been the most popular colour choice amongst motorists. The major benefit of silver is an ability to retain an air of cleanliness despite being dirty. It is also a colour which does not really offend, the Gary Lineker of colours if you will.

Kent constabulary started the trend of ordering police cars in silver to try and attract better residual values. With some degree of irony, of late many people in the trade have been adopting terms more commonly seen in haute couture by saying white is the new silver. It must be noted that white used to be very popular (and always has been in North America) and silver was the new white, so in essence is white really just the new white??!!

Brown is definitely a colour that we Brits seem loathed to adopt. When I was at Saab we had a colour called 'copper bronze' which needs little description. I tried to find a picture of the colour on Google but in testiment to the popularity of it I was unsuccessful!

This brings me neatly on to names. I was recently driving back from Exeter when I saw a new MINI is the most disgusting colour. Whilst talking to a sales manager from a MINI dealer I asked him why on earth MINI had launched such a bad - in my opinion! - colour and what was it called? 'Interchange Yellow' he told me. If anyone knows why answers on a postcard...

There are a number of unofficial trade names for colours. For example dark non metallic blue is known as 'doom' and bright red is known as 'dog ****'. The best I have heard applies to VW and and the Lupo in particular. When attempting to describe the light green to a trader he stopped me mid flow and said 'I know the colour, kermit...'

In summary, colour is always a matter of personal choice and with regard to used cars, no matter how horrible it may seem, someone bought it once and someone will buy it again but trying to ascertain the worth of a colour in financial terms seems nigh on impossible.

Jamie