New Study Of Over 2.1 Million Sales Of Used Cars Finds Yellow Vehicles Hold Their Value Best

What color car do you own? Did you consider how the color of the car will affect its resale value when you bought it? And if so, were you under the impression that basic colors like black, silver and gray would probably hold up the best as far as resale value? If you did, we’ve got some surprising news for you regarding which color used cars are the selling the best.

Used-car search engine site ISeeCars.com recently conducted an analysis of over 2.1 million used car sales and discovered that in most cases, but not all, the brighter the color on a used car, the higher its resale value will be.

While the average car depreciates 33.1 percent in the first three years of ownership, yellow cars hold their value the best and depreciate by only 27.0 percent. On the other hand, gold cars depreciate the most by 37.1 percent.

“Yellow cars are relatively less common, which could drive up demand and help maintain their value,” said Phong Ly, CEO of iSeeCars.com. “Our analysis shows that yellow vehicles have the lowest depreciation of any color for lower-volume cars like convertibles. Interestingly, yellow is also the color with the least depreciation for popular body styles like SUVs and pickup trucks.” SUVs and pickup trucks overall depreciate 30.9 percent and 20.9 percent, respectively, while yellow SUVs and pickups depreciate only 25.8 percent and 10.8 percent.

Here’s the average three-year depreciation of cars by color, according to their study…

Yellow 27.0% (-18.5% difference compared to the average car)

Orange 30.6% (-7.8% difference compared to the average car)

Green 30.9% (-6.9% difference compared to the average car)

White 32.6% (-1.6% difference compared to the average car)

Red 32.7% (-1.4% difference compared to the average car)

Average Car: 33.1%

Blue 33.5% (+1.0% difference compared to the average car)
Brown 33.5% (+1.1% difference compared to the average car)
Gray 33.5% (+1.2% difference compared to the average car)
Black 33.6% (+1.6% difference compared to the average car)
Silver 34.0% (+2.6% difference compared to the average car)
Beige 36.6% (+10.3% difference compared to the average car)
Purple 36.7% (+10.7% difference compared to the average car)
Gold 37.1% (+12.1% difference compared to the average car)

Hard to believe that people aren’t down with gold-colored cars.

This, however, I totally get.

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