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Last Updated:August 22, 2025, 11:40 IST
Where have all the colourful, eye-popping cars gone?
Where did the colourful cars vanish? (Taarzan: The Wonder Car / YouTube)
Rajesh is late to work. He has no time to get ready. He hops onto his yellow Maruti Zen. Wrapped only in his bath towel, he dresses while brushing his teeth with the wiper water. This scene, copied from Mr Bean, became iconic in David Dhawan’s Hero No. 1. Chatur, aka Silencer, summons Farhan and Raju in urgency on the morning of September 5 at ICE’s water tank to remind them of the 10-year-old bet. From there, they embark upon a road trip in a red Volvo XC 90 that forms the premise of 3 Idiots. A tame and unremarkable blue Ambassador becomes Raj and Bonny’s daily driver as they figure out the mystery killer of their friend Sheetal in 1992’s Khiladi starring Akshay Kumar and Deepak Tijori in the lead. Ajay Devgn’s ghost living in a purple Taarzan: The Wonder Car perhaps doesn’t even require a memory jog here.
Fun activity: Take a scroll in your parking lot and look around for cars that aren’t in white, black, grey or silver shades. Struggling to find? You are not alone.
The car manufactures have quietly ditched eye-popping colours for greyscale (white, black, grey, and silver) colours and there’s a legitimate reason behind it.
Endangered Species
A study conducted by iSeeCars analysed the colours of over 20 million cars from 2004 to 2023 and discovered that the greyscale cars had risen from 60.3% in 2004 to 80% in 2023.
(Credits: iSeeCars)
“Obscure colors like gold, purple, brown, and beige have each lost more than 80 percent of their share over this period. But even more mainstream colors like green, red, and blue gave up some share. Interestingly, green has made a small comeback in the last few years as the only non-grayscale color to gain market share since 2020,” the study noted.
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It further added that white cars were easy to maintain and ranked high in durability, hence white cars had seen a meteoric rise and would continue to dominate the market and the roads.
“Colorful cars appear to be an endangered species,” Karl Brauer, iSeeCars Executive Analyst, was quoted as saying. “Despite a diverse palette being offered by automakers, there are far fewer non-grayscale cars sold today. They’ve lost half their market share over the past 20 years, and they could become even rarer in another 20 years.”
Sports Cars – Exception
“Whether driven by dealers ‘playing it safe’ by ordering only popular colors, or consumers wanting to ensure maximum interest when it’s time to sell or trade in their vehicle, grayscale colors play the dominant role in the car world,” Brauer added.
The greyscale colour palette of cars was consistent across vehicle types including SUVs, passenger cars, and trucks with the only exception of sports cars where enthusiasts still enjoyed the luxury of seeing beyond the white, black, grey or silver.
What Do Car Enthusiasts Think?
The car-loving community on Indian Reddit has plenty of opinions on why “boring” colour cars run on the roads.
A user opined that the current generation no longer formed attachments to their cars, largely because vehicles had become “disposable” due to new government regulations and norms. In contrast, the older generation purchased cars and maintained them until they could no longer run.
“I think now, especially in India, people are more concerned about saving money whether it be looking for the most fuel efficient cars or choosing colours that will be easy to sell. We aren’t as attached to our machines as we used to be. Older generation would buy cars and keep it till ran, then build it over and continue, now we change cars every few years and this is even more prevalent due to govt norms that prevent older cars from running like in Delhi NCR,” noted one user on Reddit.
“I actually like colours especially red and black but the summer heat in India make sure that I go for white only (sic),” another added.
iSeeCars’ study noted that outside of the greyscale colours, green had seen an upward trend in the past two decades.
Resale Value
In a separate study, iSeeCars learned that yellow and orange cars retained their value the most during their resale after three years. Gold, white, and black cars depreciated the most in value after three years.
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The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d…Read More
The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d… Read More
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