Grey is the UK’s favourite car colour according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
Half a million of us chose to buy a grey car in 2018 making it the most popular colour for the first time. Just over one in five new car registrations were grey in the UK. More than half of new cars were either black, grey or white.
Car sales fell in 2018 so almost every shade saw a decline in the number of the sales per colour. The exceptions were Orange which gained popularity by 37% and beige which increased by 28%. Cream was the biggest colour to have sales fall with only 559 drivers choosing it in 2018. Silver which was a previous favourite was no longer in the top 5 of most popular colours for cars.
The top 10 car models sold in 2018 were (estimated annual sales):
- Ford Fiesta – around 95k – mostly bought in grey
- Volkswagen Golf – around 65k – mostly bought in grey
- Vauxhall Corsa – around 52k – mostly bought in grey
- Nissan Qashqai – around 50k – mostly bought in black
- Ford Focus – around 50k – mostly bought in blue
- Volkswagen Polo – around 45k – mostly bought in black
- MINI – around 45k – mostly bought in grey
- Mercedes-Benz A-Class – around 42k – mostly bought in black
- Ford Kuga – 40k – mostly bought in grey
- Kia Sportage – around 35k – mostly bought in white
Grey has overtook black in the UK’s favourite new car colour in 2018. There was 495,127 registrations in 2018 for grey cars, black car registrations dropped by 7.3% leaving 478,154 registration in black.
