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World of Difference Confronts Automakers Watching Color Trends

9 October 1998

World of Difference Confronts Automakers Watching Color Trends

    TROY, Mich., Oct. 8 -- Earth seemingly grows ever smaller and
more homogenous as technology advances, but its people retain their personal
and cultural individuality.  Motorists provide just one example, following
different paths in choosing colors of their automobiles.
    Research by PPG Industries, the world's leading supplier of automotive and
industrial coatings, shows that the most popular car colors in Western Europe
are the black-to-silver segment, blue and red.  In North America, green, white
and red are most popular.
    "Green is peaking in North America, but not in Europe, where the
popularity of silver-gray-black has shown a steady increase over the past
three years," said Robert E. Burrell, coatings color marketing manager at
PPG's Troy automotive technical center.
    But while green has become an established choice on the North American
automotive palette, its modishness will decline as blue's popularity increases
and a new color category called teal emerges, Burrell added.
    As automobile companies go global, PPG watches color trends around the
world.  The company typically works with automakers on a two-to-three-year
lead time on new car colors; the current focus is on cars to be produced in
2002.
    Japan's leading vehicle colors are the black-to-silver segment, white and
blue.  In South America, where varied and vivid colors are common for
architecture and clothing, leading car colors are -- conversely -- in the
silver-gray spectrum.
    What fuels color trends? "Surprisingly, color trends sometimes start on
the street, where people with limited disposable income express their
individuality and creativity through clothing colors," said Burrell.
    "Emerging color trends move through clothing fashion, home furnishings and
contract interiors before reaching their next stop -- the automotive industry.
Automotive color preferences are a very personal thing," he noted.
    A leading supplier to the automotive industry, Pittsburgh-based PPG has
production facilities in the Americas, Europe and Asia. With annual sales of
about $7.5 billion, the company is a major producer of flat glass, fiber glass
and chemicals in addition to automotive and other coatings.