Car Color: A Sign Of The Times? ned NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES: If you start seeing a lot more blue cars on the road, it may be because the color silver reminds consumersof the one thing they’d mostrather forget. (NAPSA)—It turns out the bursting of the tech bubble didn’t just decimate millions of Ameri- selection as well.” One North American trend Hall expects to continue is in- cooled our love affair with the new cars that reflect a hot rod heritage. “Hot rods reflect a simpler time can’s 401(k)s. It may also have color silver—at least when it comesto cars. Silver, you see, is thought to equal high technology in consumers’ minds. And since many tech stocks are anything but the “high-flyers” they once were, leading forecasters in automotive trends predict we’re about to witness a distinct shift in color preference over the next few model years. The new hotcolor? “Look for a greater variety of blues that are more colorful and include more metallic and more sparkle,” says Jon Hall, a color expert at BASF, which helps manu- facturers forecast car design trends and is a major supplier of automo- bile coatings. “Blue represents stability. Our cars are an important expression of our personalities, but world events strongly influence our creasing interest in hot rods, and for many people,” says Hall. “These cars will be outlets for bold color statementslike reds andyel- lows.” Hall notes that auto-color trends tend to be played out over several model years and are generally more conservative than fashion trends— mainly because, as he puts it, “a car isn’t something you can hide in the back ofyour closet.” So what were the most popular car colors for 2002 models? According to BASF, silver (28 percent), white (17 percent), black (15 percent), blue (10 percent), gray (nine percent), beige (eight percent), green (six percent), red (five percent), orange (two percent), and yellow/gold (less than one percent). For more information, visit www.basf.com/usa.
