Sports Car Colors Are Still Cool- For Now

It’s no secret that the color palette of the current new car market is, well, boring. The vast majority of new cars are grayscale, shrugging off the eye-popping yellows, lime greens, and purples of yesteryear. However, there is a notable holdout in the onslaught of gray, black, and white: sports cars. Sports car colors still adorn Ford Mustangs, Subaru BRZs, and Mazda MX-5s in bright, old-school hues. For now, that is.

Although sports car colors are also skewing grayscale, they do so much less than sedans, trucks, and SUVs

Sports cars. We expect them to follow a formula. Fun, flashy, striking, and evoking. As such, sports car drivers, more often than other segments, want car colors you’d expect in a pristine still-life featuring apples, oranges, bananas, and pears. 

Sure, the sports car segment still has a grayscale majority. Frankly, the most popular colors in the segment as of 2023 are gray, white, and black. However, the flashy vehicle style also holds a higher share of non-grayscale colors than the other segments. 

For instance, non-grayscale options make up about 37.5% of sports car colors as of 2023. On the other hand, the passenger car average is about 21.5% non-grayscale color options. What’s more, SUVs and trucks are even lower, at 19.8% and 20.6%, respectively. Still, with a 10.3% decrease over the last two decades, non-grayscale colors will continue to be a segment rarity. 

Sports car model
2023 share (percent)
2004 share (percent)
Percent change

Gray
20.1%
11.1%
81.0%

White
19.4%
6.3%
209.7%

Black
19.4%
19.8%
-2.1%

Red
14.3%
22.0%
-35.1%

Blue
13.2%
10.9%
20.7%

Silver
3.5%
20.9%
-83.0%

Green
3.4%
0.5%
537.0%

Orange
3.4%
1.9%
76.4%

Blue and Orange have enjoyed double-digit improvement from 2004 to 2023. Orange, even with the departure of the oh-so-appropriate Dodge Challenger and Charger in the brand’s orange hues, has risen in share by 76.4%, nearly as much in percentage as the ubiquitous color leader: gray.

That said, green is enjoying a bit of a renaissance among new sports cars as of 2023. In fact, the verdant vehicle color rose 537% in 19 years. Now, that sounds dramatic. And it does represent the highest color share increase by percentage. However, the just was from 0.5% to 3.4% of new sports cars, per iSeeCars. Hardly a majority.