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It’s official – silver has held onto its crown as the most popular colour for cars in Britain.
New DVLA data requested by RAC Insurance shows that in the third quarter of 2017 silver cars made up just over a fifth (21%) of all cars on our roads, despite a 3% decline in popularity which has seen its numbers fall by 205,326 to 6.6m vehicles.
The appeal of black has grown stronger, further cementing its second place in the RAC Insurance Car Colour Rankings, with a 7% increase (495,909) to 6.4m registered cars – 20% of all cars.
However, white is still the fastest growing colour in terms of pure numbers, rising from sixth to fifth in the list. There are now 3.6m motorists driving white cars, a 27% increase on early 2016, which means white cars make up 11% of all cars driven.
RAC Insurance Car Colour Rankings
| Rank | Colour | Q3 2017 | % of total | Q1 2016 | Change v Q1 2016 |
| 1 | Silver/aluminium | 6,635,989 | 21% | 6,841,315 | -3% |
| 2 | Black | 6,411,436 | 20% | 5,915,527 | 8% |
| 3 | Blue | 5,789,640 | 18% | 5,689,516 | 2% |
| 4 | Grey | 4,287,082 | 13% | 3,710,965 | 16% |
| 5 | White | 3,608,430 | 11% | 2,833,084 | 27% |
| 6 | Red | 3,445,264 | 11% | 3,237,326 | 6% |
| 7 | Green | 899,880 | 3% | 1,066,496 | -16% |
| 8 | Beige/buff | 230,742 | 1% | 235,683 | -2% |
| 9 | Brown | 188,373 | 1% | 169,656 | 11% |
| 10 | Yellow | 178,149 | 1% | 172,297 | 3% |
“Silver is still hanging on to its title of being the most popular car colour in Britain, but black is catching up fast and may well overtake very soon,” said RAC Insurance spokesman Simon Williams.
“Blue – in its various shades – remains consistently popular but has lost ground on surging black. White is the fastest growing of the really mass appeal car colours as it continues to race up the popularity rankings, now leapfrogging its rival ‘red’ into fifth.”
