Most popular car colours in Europe are revealed

White is the most popular colour of 2017

 

Consumers choosing white cars

The most popular car colours have been revealed. Axalta Coating Systems has released its 65th annual Global Automotive Colour Popularity report, in which the company found that white is still the most popular car colour in the world with a huge 39% of white cars chosen throughout the year.*

There are no signs of white losing its position, as it’s remained the top choice for the seventh year in a row and achieved 10 per cent growth over the last five years. It’s not just solid white that’s attracting consumers, pearlescent varieties have become more popular in the last year too as it’s considered a more modern look for buyers who want to be ahead of the curve.

European favourites

It’s a similar story in Europe where white still accounts for 25% of all new cars. It’s closely followed by black at 21%, grey at 20% and the perennial favourite, silver at 11%, demonstrating that the domination of the neutral colours shows no sign of disappearing.

But whatever colour you see most often in your body shop, we’re sure you’ll agree that when it comes to collision repair, silver remains one of the trickiest to get right. Silver is the most delicate colour to repair in the body shop as the make-up of the pigment means that it is likely to require a few coats to get the right finish. In this case, it’s essential to get the preparation right.

Ultra-fine grits

In order to stand the best chance of getting a great silver finish, you will need a finer grit when at the final step of the repair. For example, if you would usually use a P600 grit disc on your machine to finish the surface before adding the paint, you would achieve a better result finishing with a P800 grit before applying silver to give an even smoother surface for enhanced application.

When it comes to the edge of the repair area where you need to switch to hand sanding, we advise that you use our Rotolo foam pre-cut sheets, ideal for fine sanding on round edges, contours and curves. You would usually need to use a finer than usual grit here to prepare the surface as well as to help to blend the colours and achieve a more consistent result. But again, you need to keep it in line with your previous processes, so you in this instance, you would need a P1000 grit in Rotolo foam to ensure the correct blend. And remember, it’s much faster and delivers better results if you use the Rotolo Foam before the machine sanding step.

Collision repair on silver car

Norton expertise

Norton is the only supplier to offer a full range of paper discs and Rotolo foam for car repair with a ceramic aluminium oxide grain. Our Norton A975 range allows you to move through the grits, whether machine or hand sanding, giving you greater consistency and the confidence of achieving a perfect finish. We offer both disc and Rotolo foam shapes from 80 to 1500 grit, as part of our ‘Best’ tier, which offer maximum performance, allowing you to get the job done faster with excellent surface finishing results.

So whatever colour you’re working on, we have the product to help you achieve the right finish and win some happy customers.

For more information on our collision repair product range, contact us or speak with your local sales representative.

 

*http://www.axaltacs.com/gb/en_GB/news-releases/axalta-2017-color-popularity-report.html