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White cars: handle with care

Choosing white paintwork for a new car can seriously harm its trade-in value

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10 January 2012

Choosing white paintwork for a new car can seriously harm its trade-in valueA white car might look fashionable in the company car park, but businesses should think carefully before ordering a new car in this colour. In some instances, it can make the car’s trade-in value L5,000 lower than if it were in a popular metallic colour.

That’s because white cars are still getting a very mixed reception from used car buyers, according to research into prestige marques by EurotaxGlass’s, publisher of Glass’s Guide. This is despite the popularity of white for many consumer products and the recent trend of car manufacturers launching all-new models with a white paint option.

White isn’t always a turn-off for used car buyers, though. In some cases, white examples of selected high-performance cars and models with sports styling kits are now achieving trade-in prices that rank alongside those of the same cars in popular metallics.

For example, an Audi A4 S line model in white currently performs well on the used market, yet a white version of a standard A4 can be worth up to L1,000 less than an identical car in a desirable metallic colour. It is a matter of being selective.

So white is good news for the residual value of a limited number of models, including:

  • Audi’s S3, RS4 and R8
  • BMW’s 1-series M Sport and M3
  • Porsche’s 911 GT3, GT3 RS and Cayman

However, for white prestige-brand luxury saloons and SUVs, there remains a heavy trade-in penalty of about L3,000. Many supercars and luxury grand tourers will be penalised by as much as L5,000.

Our assessment at EurotaxGlass’s is that if supply of new white cars increases significantly, or if white falls out of favour with fashion-conscious buyers, values could fall sharply – even on those sports derivatives which are currently performing well on the used market.

So any business tempted to choose white for a new car should think carefully about what it might mean when they resell it.

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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