White remains car-buyers’ favourite

White remains the most popular car colour in the UK for the fourth year in a row, according to figures from the SMMT.

It topped the charts with 20.51% of all new cars registered in 2016, which is 552,329 cars.

Black was the second most popular choice, with grey in third place, with market shares of 20.16% and 17.29% respectively.

However, 2016 represents the first year since 2005 that registrations for white cars hasn’t grown – demand has fallen 2.1% from 2015. It’s already below black in several regions of the country including the South East, East Anglia and the West Midlands. Meanwhile, registrations for black and grey cars have grown by 6.5% and 13% respectively.

The most popular primary colour in the UK is blue, and it comes in at fourth place with 414,160 registrations, or 15.38% of the market. It’s also gained market share in 2016, up 7.2% from the previous year.

The biggest loser in the top ten is brown. Demand is down by 40.1% from 2015, suggesting that the country has fallen out of love with the divisive colour. It now occupies ninth place, beneath red, silver, green and orange. Beige fell by 27.6%, while perennial favourite silver fell by 7.5% to hit its lowest level since 2004.