posted 11-14-2004 08:28 PM         

You may not be able to predict the winner of next week's presidential election or what a barrel of oil will cost next year, but at least one thing is certain.

Silver remains the solid favorite among automotive exterior color choices. And it's likely to stay that way for some time.

How much time? It's a question for which the auto industry's big paint suppliers would love to have an answer. "At some point, people will be interested in color again," says Jon Hall, manager of color development at BASF Corp. in Southfield, Mich.

Hall says he suspects that when that time comes - perhaps in five years - rich-looking blues and reds will replace silver.

Meanwhile, Hall says he sees consumers gravitating toward darker grays and dark blues - in some cases, so dark they might be mistaken for black - as they try to stick out from the silver crowd.

The 2004 model year was the fourth consecutive year that silver was the most popular vehicle color in North America, according to PPG Industries Inc. of Pittsburgh.

Lorene Boettcher, PPG's manager of global design and color marketing of automotive coatings, says silver will remain strong.

"Its popularity," she says, "only seems to be strengthening."

Source: Automotive News 10/25/04