by "SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
Published 01/05/2017 at 09:00
by "SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
Published 01/05/2017 at 09:00
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STARS: 6
We have always believed that car color impacted the value and pricing of cars. And someone has finally done the math to prove it. You may not want to buy that blue car after all.
I get pitched ideas for podcasts from all angles and I rarely take anyone up on the corporate offers. I even turned down a free radar detector the other week. But the folks at autolist.com sent me a note about the research they did on the impact of car color on pricing. And the math checks out.
There are significant fluctuations in value on color as well as by make and model. All good stuff to keep in mind when shopping for a new car and also when looking at used cars. It might even explain why it is taking you so long to sell your blue truck.
So here is the audio:
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And the video:
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And obviously, the Daytona at the top would sell despite being blue. I just wanted a cool blue car for a top shot.
Follow me on Twitter: @stevelehto
Hear my podcast on iTunes: Lehto’s Law
Steve Lehto has been practicing law for 25 years, almost exclusively in consumer protection and Michigan lemon law. He wrote The Lemon Law Bible and Chrysler’s Turbine Car: The Rise and Fall of Detroit’s Coolest Creation .
This website may supply general information about the law but it is for informational purposes only. This does not create an attorney-client relationship and is not meant to constitute legal advice, so the good news is we’re not billing you by the hour for reading this. The bad news is that you shouldn’t act upon any of the information without consulting a qualified professional attorney who will, probably, bill you by the hour.
"Deal Killer - Powered by Focus" (dealkiller-ii)
01/05/2017 at 09:07, STARS: 2
I like the color on my car. It’s about the only thing I do like about it, at the moment.
"Matt Nichelson" (whoismatt)
01/05/2017 at 09:17, STARS: 1
My car being blue was definitely one of the main reasons I ended up getting it. Same with the 350Z convertible I had before it. I’m sure it’s probably true, but sometimes you just have to decide if buying the color you want is worth it. For me, it was. I would rather have what I want instead of settling for something else. Still, very interesting story and thanks for sharing it!
"Steve in Manhattan" (blogenfreude01)
01/05/2017 at 09:18, STARS: 1
Bought an ‘87 300D new at a deep discount b/c 1) end of the year, and 2) tex, not leather. Dunno if the dark blue (dunkelblau!) color hurt me on resale, but I never liked it. On the other hand, Honda and Subaru have shades of blue that I really like, despite a strong preference for white cars.
"Pickup_man" (zekeh)
01/05/2017 at 09:19, STARS: 2
Didn’t actually read the article, or listen to the podcast, but yes. Blue car is best car.
Edit: My awesome blue truck
"My X-type is too a real Jaguar" (TomSlick)
01/05/2017 at 09:19, STARS: 0
My 1st 3 cars were blue, the first was a light blue 86 Nissan Pulsar in light blue metallic (I think Nissan painted 75% of their cars that color in the 80s), the next 2 we dark blue Saturns I bought new in that color because they did not paint their cars black for some reason. For these reasons no more blue cars for me. Finally I age 40 I finally got the Black Sedan I’ve wanted since I was a teenager.
"CalzoneGolem" (calzonegolem)
01/05/2017 at 09:19, STARS: 4
This makes me like blue cars more.
"SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
01/05/2017 at 09:21, STARS: 0
Someone else mentioned Subaru and they do seem to have a lot of blue cars out there. But on some trucks, the color is a killer on value.
"asenna" (asenna)
01/05/2017 at 09:22, STARS: 2
I love blue cars and that B5 daytona looks so nice!
"SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
01/05/2017 at 09:23, STARS: 1
It’s funny how car companies just cranked out cars in the old days with no regard to what they looked like Chrysler had a weird green metallic color in the 70s which could only have been used because they got a great deal buying the paint in bulk.
"My X-type is too a real Jaguar" (TomSlick)
01/05/2017 at 09:37, STARS: 2
The 70's were the worst, every 3rd GM product seemed to be brown for some reason, I can only guess an entire warehouse of paint got spilled and that brown was the resulting mix.
"Svend" (svend)
01/05/2017 at 09:42, STARS: 4
I love blue, especially metallic blue.
My Piglet is Petrol Blue Metallic (called Lava Blue Metallic in Europe).
The colour really comes alive in the sun.
Blues look great generally.
Blue is best colour.
"wiffleballtony" (wiffleballtony)
01/05/2017 at 09:59, STARS: 2
The color of my car is hardly the first thing on it to change its resell value.
"Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street." (demon-xanth)
01/05/2017 at 09:59, STARS: 2
No, no I do not here’s why:
My dad had a blue VW bug, got hit, spun three times and hit a telephone pole.
My dad had a blue ‘84 GMC S15 Jimmy, got hit when a 14 year old ran a stop sign.
My sister had a blue VW bug, had a rottweiler step out infront of her on a two lane road.
I had a blue ‘91 Grand Prix, my dad and sister both took turns wiping the side down with cars while somehow not taking damage to their own while parked in different spots in the driveway.
My family is allergic to blue cars. It’s not that I don’t like the color, it’s just not safe for us to own blue cars.
"ateamfan42" (ateamfan42)
01/05/2017 at 10:10, STARS: 0
B5 blue has always been my favorite classic Mopar color.
"ateamfan42" (ateamfan42)
01/05/2017 at 10:17, STARS: 3
Chrysler had some truly amazing colors back in the day, with an enormous diversity. Today it seems like so many models only come in shades of gray and silver. But you sure had to be bold to go with some of those Mopar colors. I can’t imagine they sold too many cars in Panther Pink!
"Milky" (jordanmielke)
01/05/2017 at 10:33, STARS: 0
Ha, a blue F-150 had the actual worst resale loss, -$481. Nice color though.
"Pickup_man" (zekeh)
01/05/2017 at 10:36, STARS: 1
That’s funny, not that it matters to me though, the only way this truck is leaving me is if it either rusts in half (before I can save it) or gets totaled.
"Nothing" (nothingatalluseful)
01/05/2017 at 10:43, STARS: 1
Uh oh, we have a True Blue Grand Cherokee. A Blue Ribbon Tacoma was on my list, when I bought mine, too, but Barcelona Red won. I still consider painting my Cougar B5 Blue as well.
On a side note, green with tan interior is on my list of “never buy again”. I’ve had 3 vehicles with that configuration, and all three have had catastrophic mechanical failures.
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
01/05/2017 at 10:52, STARS: 0
Any chance we can get a link to the original study? I went to Autolist.com to check it out (per your suggestion) and couldn’t find the study by normal means. Looking at another article on this makes me a bit suspicious about their methodology.
"camaroboy68ss" (camaroboy68ss)
01/05/2017 at 11:35, STARS: 2
I have always have had a soft spot for blue cars and it runs in my family since we own and have owned many blue cars. Changed my 68 Camaro from red to blue, our 56 Chevy kustom is blue as well as my grandparents 55 bel air. Their old 61 impala was blue, and the latest project will be blue as well. I can maybe see blue being hard to sell because it took over a year to sell the 61.
"SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
01/05/2017 at 12:13, STARS: 0
Not sure why but it is kind of hard to find: you have to buzz down to the bottom of this page.
https://www.autolist.com/honda-civic#make=Honda&model=Civic&buyer_intelligence
"haveacarortwoorthree2" (haveacarortwoorthree2)
01/05/2017 at 12:19, STARS: 1
Uh oh.
"Stephenson Valve Gear" (stephensonvalvegear)
01/05/2017 at 12:27, STARS: 1
...and to think, I was negotiating a purchase of a blue car yesterday.
We couldn’t come to terms, so maybe I dodged a bullet... :D
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
01/05/2017 at 12:33, STARS: 0
Without some real information on how the data was analyzed, I’m suspicious of these results. They don’t bother to present their data, how it was analyzed, what type of regression they used, what level of significance they used, etc.
Let’s put it this way - they could say that the price differential due to color is less than one percent with error rates that are closer to two or three percent. I’d suspect this is the case given the small values associated with color. Notice that there’s no mention of the value of the color in the total price of the vehicle? A $480 price drop for a blue F-150 is a big deal if it’s 10 years old, not such a big deal if it’s one year old.
Without giving us values normalized to vehicle age, mileage, or total sales price, these numbers really don’t mean much.
"NJAnon" (NJAnon)
01/05/2017 at 23:29, STARS: 0
Does the study exclude fleet vehicles, etc? I mean that is weird. Black pickup trucks? Unless those pickups were sold for bodyguard types of things I don’t see many people flocking to only color for trucks. Am I missing something there?
"SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
01/06/2017 at 07:28, STARS: 0
The study simply looks at trends over millions of purchases. Many of the trends aren’t huge (a few hundred dollars on price of tens of thousands) but they are trends.
No one is saying a blue truck is worthless nor are they saying red convertibles are priceless.
"Steve in Manhattan" (blogenfreude01)
01/06/2017 at 18:29, STARS: 1
In the 80s, my GF worked as an asst. Mercedes service manager. She said the easiest sales/resales were deep red, white, and dark blue, more or less in that order. Times change.