Let’s start with the safety aspect.

Safety

If you’ve been following V3Cars for a while, you’d know that safety isn’t just about a 5-star rating. We value crash avoidance far more than just crash test ratings.

And when it comes to crash avoidance, nothing beats bright, flashy colors such as neon green, highlighter pink or neon orange. These eye-catching shades are so flashy that seeing them on a sunny afternoon might literally hurt your eyes. But that’s exactly the strength of these shades. Next time you fly, you should notice that your plane’s pilot also wears a neon green or neon orange vest while completing the exterior pre-flight checklist.

These colours not only stand out in daylight, they also offer better visibility at night. When other drivers can spot you easily, they can avoid crashing into you. The downside of neon shades is that they may fade due to UV exposure from sunlight. Although, we didn’t notice any visible fading on this neon green helmet which has covered about 10,000km in the sun in the last 1.5 years.

If these bright colors feel too loud for you, the next best option is plain white. If white seems too much like a taxi, you can also consider silver, blue, red, yellow or orange.

When it comes to unsafe colors, darker shades like black, dark grey, and their matte variants are the most dangerous. You should actually thank Tata Motors for inspiring us to make this video. Kia’s X-Line matte grey is already a risky color, but Tata went a step further and introduced matte black. Their regular black was bad enough, but with the Stealth Edition matte black, they crossed the line.

For a brand that prioritizes safety and even owns a freakin’ airline, Tata should know better. They should understand how crucial visibility is for safety. Black already has low visibility at night, and matte black, being non-reflective, makes it even worse.

We know you aren’t drunk on Tata’s 5-star safety propaganda, and you won’t fall for their “Safety First” marketing gimmicks. But someone in your circle might be blindly obsessed with 5-star ratings, so be sure to share this article with them.

And yes, if safety is a priority for you, don’t buy cars in black, matte black or matte grey.

Climate

India’s climate is generally tropical, meaning that in most areas, we experience high temperatures and high humidity for most of the year. In such conditions, darker cars come with a major disadvantage. And if your car’s interior is also black, then you’re in for even more trouble.

A black car parked under the scorching sun can have body panels that are 25-30°C hotter than those of a white car. Similarly, black vs. white interiors can show a temperature difference of at least 15-20°C.

Apart from flat white, metallic white and silver are great alternatives that help keep your car cooler. Metallic paints literally contain fine metal flakes that reflect light and heat, preventing excessive heat buildup.

Only in cold regions near the Himalayan mountain range, like Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal and Uttarakhand, where temperatures fluctuate between cold and freezing, the darker shades provide any real advantage. Even in such conditions, for better visibility and safety, it’s wiser to choose gloss black, grey or matte grey over matte black.

While DRLs and taillights make your car visible from the front and rear at night, reflective strips or stickers on the sides can help prevent T-bone crashes by making your vehicle more visible. In colder climates, a sunroof or glass roof also offers practical benefits since they help trap more heat inside the car due to the greenhouse effect.

Resale

When it comes to resale value, colors that are widely accepted by most buyers tend to perform better. Standard shades like white, silver, light grey, dark grey and black generally hold their value well. On the other hand, the worst performers in resale are unusual colors like neon shades, yellow, light purple and pink, as they appeal to a smaller number of buyers.

In some cases, unique non-traditional colors like green, brown, dark blue, orange and red can also offer decent resale value, but this heavily depends on market trends and buyer preferences, which we’ll explore later in this article under the Maintenance heading.

Used car buyers prefer neutral and basic colors mainly because they also plan to resell the car after a few years. A more universally accepted color makes it easier to find a buyer, potentially leading to a quicker sale and a slightly better price.

Ease of Purchase

Common and Neutral Colors: Easy Availability & Dealer Stocking

Basic and widely accepted colors like flat white, metallic white, and silver are readily available when buying a new car. Since these colors have mass appeal, dealers keep them in stock, making immediate delivery more likely.

Additionally, white and silver options are available across most variants, so buyers usually find their preferred variant in these colors. However, for grey or black, you might have to stretch your budget to opt for a higher variant, as these colors are often reserved for premium trims.

In some cases, like with Honda, you may have to pay extra for a white-colored car. Some brands use color-based pricing strategies to push their preferred colors—ones that they believe make the car look best. If a buyer still chooses to pay extra for white, the carmaker benefits from additional revenue. If the buyer opts for a more affordable alternative, the brand succeeds in promoting its chosen color in the market. Either way, the brand doesn’t lose.

Maintenance

In this section, we’ll discuss the 3 aspects of maintaining a car’s colour:

• Cleanliness
• Scratch Repair
• Repainting

1. Cleanliness

Beige, light brown and silver are the best colors for hiding dust. Even if a car is a little dirty, these colors make dust less visible. On the opposite end, black is the hardest to maintain — dust particles create a high contrast, making dirt stand out easily. Compared to a black car, a silver car can accumulate twice as much dust and still not look as dirty, while a beige car can have almost three times as much dust before appearing unclean.

2. Scratch Repair

Flat, non-metallic white is the easiest color to repair. Modern computerized paint-matching systems mix dyes to match shades, but since white is the most commonly produced paint, achieving a perfect match is easier and cheaper. That’s why carmakers offer white in lower variants more often.

For DIY scratch repair, flat white and black are widely available. You can find affordable spray paint bottles for quick fixes. Even if the shade isn’t an exact match, minor scratches will be well covered and barely noticeable unless inspected closely.

On the other hand, matte finishes are the most difficult to maintain. Regular glossy paint has a clear top coat, which you can buff out to remove minor scratches.. But with matte paint, buffing turns the surface glossy, making repairs highly noticeable and messy.

3. Repainting

When repainting a damaged panel, there’s always a risk of paint mismatch. It’s best to avoid special edition colors because they are produced in limited numbers, making paint matching difficult and availability scarce. Examples include:

• Tata Kaziranga Edition color
• Tata Jet Edition color
• Old Dzire Regal Edition color

Special editions also come with unique stickers and badges. If a sticker gets damaged, replacing it can be a nightmare. If you’re lucky, you might have to buy the full set of stickers. But if not, you’ll be stuck with an incomplete set, making your car look unfinished.

For easier maintenance, it’s better to avoid special edition colors altogether.

Trend

Like fashion trends, certain car colors become very popular for a while and then lose demand after a few years. Examples of trend-based colors:

• Bright Red: Once made popular by cars like the Volkswagen Polo, Maruti Suzuki Swift, and Baleno.
• Golden Orange: Introduced in Hyundai Grand i10, Ford Figo, Tata Tiago, Nissan Micra, Maruti Baleno, later seen in Kia Seltos and currently in MG Astor and Skoda Kushaq.
• Dark Green: Currently trending in Nexon, Punch, Venue, Scorpio N, Sonet, MG 100-Year Editions and Exter.
• Lime Green: Was quite popular with the Chevy Beat, old Ford Figo, Maruti Alto, and Hyundai Santro, then went out of fashion but recently returned with MG Comet, Maruti Jimny and Skoda Kylaq.

If a trendy color gains mass acceptance quickly, it stays relevant for a fairly long time like a decade. After that, you might face challenges in resale value and matching the paint for repairs as they go out of fashion and their demand declines.

Verdict

Black is an acceptable option from many angles, but due to poor visibility, it carries some safety risks. Matte black is the worst color option you can pick. It offers no notable benefits except for slightly better resale value and easier DIY spray paint touch-ups, while performing significantly worse in other categories like climate adaptability, safety and maintenance.

Neon colors provide excellent safety but suffer in resale, maintenance and long-term trend acceptance.

Finally, we can conclude that whether it’s safety, climate adaptability, resale value or maintenance, white is the best exterior color for an overall superior ownership experience with easy upkeep and maintenance.