Are white cars the new cool kid?
I remember that when I was a kid, I hardly saw any white cars on the road. And when I did they were beaten up old rust buckets spewing out power station style smoke out the back.
Just recently I wandered past the BMW garage on Park Lane, and spotted a beautiful M3 coupe in gleaming white. I’ve since seen the same model in various colours, but none seem to show off the lines and shapes in the car’s design as well as the white version. Maybe its the shading caused by the sweeping lines down the sides, or the way the hump in the middle of the bonnet hints at the power below, but it really is standing out as a beautiful car.
Even BMW are using the white model in their advertising and promotional material.
Another stunning white car is the Audi A5, just as visually appealing as the BMW, and for the same reasons: the lines seem to be accentuated by the colour.
Even white used cars seem to be just as popular as other colours these days — Autoquake, labeled as the UK’s largest online used car retailer, found that searches on their site for white cars were almost equal to red, grey and blue (5% compared to 6.6%, 5.7% and 5.3% respectively). However Black and silver are still the leaders (at 65.9% and 11.5% respectively).
As far back as 2008 car makers were starting to see the differences in sales of white cars — apparently sales of white cars increased by more than 60% the previous year.
All the stats are interesting, but I think from a visual point of view current car design really suits a coat of white.