Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes announced the 2014 top 20 OEM color codes needing collision repair in the past year. The list is based on data collected from 9,500 users of the FormulaExpress Online Color Retrieval System, the Web-based color formula retrieval system from Sherwin-Williams.
“We often hear about color popularity in terms of new car vehicle sales; however, we rarely hear about color popularity in terms of cars being repaired,” says Phil Matisak,?Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes marketing manager – Global Color Publication.?“While new car sales are important, what matters most to body shops and collision centers across North America are the cars that are being repaired.”
Matisak notes that in the past few years, white, black and silver were reported to be the most popular car colors in the world by automotive OE manufacturers. The data compiled by Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes reveals the trend has lasted as North American consumers primarily continue to repair their cars with those same hues. In fact, all of the top five vehicles requiring paint repair were of those shades: General Motors’ Olympic White scored the top rank for the third year in a row; with its 8555 Black coming in second; then Toyota/Lexus’ Classic Silver Metallic and Super White II in third and fourth respectively, and Ford’s Oxford White taking fifth.
As a result, says Matisak, “Just as White, Black and Silver dominate the North American sales market, these colors also dominate the collision market. However, there is a lone chromatic color in the top 20 – Toyota’s Barcelona Red Mica, code 3R3 – coming in at number 19. It just goes to show that even on the ‘grayest’ of days, a little color will shine through!”
