Is Cool Blue the New Hot?

Yo, listen up, here's a story.  Right now the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show is in full force.  Many new production and concept cars have debuted in the past few days to great acclaim from automotive enthusiasts.  The biggest trend I can take away from the slew of debuts is that blue is a very popular color for show cars. 

Ferrari 488 Spider proudly wears its blue paint

From the Frankfurt show alone, the Audi S4, the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo Concept, the Ferrari 488 Spider, the Jaguar F-Pace, and the Lamborghini Huracan LP610-4 Spyder are on display in varying shades of blue.  Earlier this year, Ford debuted the GT supercar, the F-150 Raptor, and the Shelby Mustang GT350R all in blue.  The Lexus GS F has so far only been displayed at shows and in press photos painted blue. 

Car and Driver published a piece looking at the various colors one can specify on a car.  The study found that there are 1284 distinct colors on the market.  This total accounts for overlap across multiple brands, for example, Crystal Red Tintcoat is available across multiple General Motors brands.  Of all the brands selling cars in the United States for 2015, all but one of them offer a shade of blue.  The lone abstainer is Alfa Romeo, whose 4C only comes in black, gray, two reds, and two whites.  The 4C Spider will add a yellow to the mix when it goes on sale.  Blue is the second most varied color on the market with 191 shades.  Only grayscale with 237 shades is higher.  Despite the popularity of blue on a car maker's pallet, it is not terribly popular on the road.  Last year auto industry paint giant PPG determined that white is the most popular color for the fourth year in a row, accounting for 28% of all new cars to roll off dealer lots.  Blue ranked even lower than natural colors and red with a take rate of 7%.


Something is not adding up.  Why are car makers using blue to advertise their newest products if the color doesn't reflect customer purchases?  I can only speculate as to why this might be the case.  Perhaps people fear that blue will hurt the resale value of their car.  Some cars simply look better in other colors.  For example Ferraris tend to look best in red or yellow, but here is the company itself disregarding that by showing off its latest car in bright blue.  Maybe people don't want to draw too much attention to their cars.  My mom chose blue for her 2013 Honda Fit as a means to stand out.  Suffice to say, it looks good, infinitely better than gray, silver, black, or white.  But not everyone is as free spirited.  Bankrate describes blue as a practical happy color for many; more lively than grayscale, but not as in your face as red or yellow.  According to Bankrate, blue projects stability, truthfulness, and serenity, and acts like a flash of blue sky against gray roads.


Will blue ever reach the popularity in people's driveways as it does at auto shows?  Who knows.  But as a way to express one's desire to be coolly different, there is no other color better suited to the task.