White has retained its position as the UK’s most popular new car colour for the third year running.

2016 Figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show demand for a white car growing 2.2 per cent to 564,393 units. Of the 2,635,518 new cars registered in 2015, 21.4 per cent were white, compared with less than 1 per cent a decade ago. The preference for white across most of the UK was not mirrored in the South East where more black cars were registered than white.

Blue cars also enjoyed a resurgence in demand, with more than one in six people choosing the colour. Blue used to be the nation’s first choice of car colour in the late 1990s and, after a period of falling popularity at the start of the century, it has now seen three years of continued growth in demand. 

Meanwhile, after eight years at the top between 2000 and 2008, silver continued its decline. It now makes up just over one in 10 new car registrations compared with its peak in 2004 when almost every third new car registered was silver. Overall, neutral tones continued to dominate, with black cars in second place after white and followed by grey, taking 19.4 per cent and 15.6 per cent of the market respectively.

But it wasn’t all black and white, with more buyers opting to stand out on the roads with brighter colours.

The number of people choosing mauve cars rose by approximately a third in 2015 (30 per cent) to 12,414, taking the colour into the top 10 for the first time. Demand for green cars grew by 31.2 per cent to 28,250 units to take its highest market share (1.07 per cent) for five years. Orange and yellow cars, meanwhile, also surged in popularity – up 25.7 per cent and 12.7 per cent respectively – with a total 30,187 people opting for the eye-catching colours.