White prestige-badge cars can cost owners

Paint colour has always had a major influence over the residual value of used cars, but never has this been more true than for today’s prestige-brand vehicles. According to Glass’s, making an unwise colour choice when purchasing a new upper-medium prestige car (BMW 3 Series, Audi A4, Mercedes C-Class, etc) could now mean it loses as much as an extra £2,500 off its trade value after one year and 12,000 miles.

In residual value terms, the best performing colour in the upper-medium prestige sector is now metallic black. Silver used to hold the top spot, but the large number of silver prestige cars on UK roads has meant the colour has now fallen back, albeit to a level that still commands a monetary benefit over most other metallic colours.

“The average one-year-old metallic black upper-medium prestige car is now worth around £200 more than silver,” explains Richard Crosthwaite, Prestige Car Editor at Glass’s. “At the other end of the spectrum, an upper-medium prestige car in white typically has a trade value up to £2,500 less than a car of the same specification in silver.”

Prestige upper-medium colour choices – the residual value winners and losers

Black metallic +£200
Silver/grey metallic Glass's Guide benchmark value
Blue metallic -£250
Black (flat) -£500
Green/red metallic -£1,000
Undesirable metallic - gold/purple etc -£1,750
Blue (flat) -£1,750
White (flat) -£2,500

The impact of colour choice on residual values can be even greater in other prestige car sectors. For example, the depreciation figures identified above are around 20 per cent greater in the large executive car sector (BMW 5 Series, Mercedes E-Class, Audi A6).

“There are some extreme examples of how much money can be lost through poor colour choice,” adds Crosthwaite. “Buy a luxury roadster, such as a Mercedes SL-Class or Porsche 911, in white and you can easily expect a trade value after 12 months that is £5,000 lower than if it was specified in a desirable metallic.”

Trade and retail buyers should be aware that there are certain exceptions to some of the general rules regarding the impact of paint colour on prestige car values. “For example, the values of flat red on certain sports cars may perform better than on conventional saloons, because buyers feel the colour is more suited to the character of the car,” concludes Crosthwaite.