Skoda adds a splash of colour to a sea of grey

General Guides 

For the sixth successive year, grey has proven the most popular colour of new car in the UK. According to the latest registration figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), 63% of new cars registered in the UK last year were finished in either grey, black, or white, with grey being the number one choice yet again.

Unless it’s a Skoda.

It hasn’t always been this way. Muted tones didn’t always dominate the charts – the most popular colour choices in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s were blue and red - but the current greyscale trend has since grown massively in popularity.

Over the last 12 months, grey retained its place as the most popular choice across the majority of segments, including the three best-sellers – supermini, dual purpose, and lower medium. Even the three segments that bucked the grey trend didn’t do much to brighten up our roads, replacing the grey tones with either equally sombre and sensible black (executive cars and luxury saloons) or plain old white (MPVs).

It seems the brightest highlight in this monochromatic trend comes from those colour-loving Skoda drivers.

While grey may have been the most popular paint finish overall, Skoda has revealed it’s only the second choice amongst its drivers. With a range of colour options to choose from, Skoda drivers have brought a flash of brightness to our roads and made blue their most popular choice of 2023.

From being the most popular choices for three decades, blue and red now find themselves in 4th and 5th position respectively. The registration figures show blue was the UK’s fourth most popular choice in 2023 with 15% of the market, while red only managed to account for 7.5%. Even if you add them together they’d still be outnumbered by the grey cars.

Meanwhile, in bright and cheerful Skoda land, 30% of its new cars left the factory wearing a shiny new coat of fresh blue paint. Red also continues to be a popular choice for Skoda customers, with Velvet Red and Corrida Red available on the Enyaq, and the latest generation of the Superb range being given a new colour option, Carmine Red.

Nor does it seem to matter which model it is either because blue was the number one choice for Enyaq, Octavia, Fabia, Kamiq, Kodiaq and Scala drivers. That’s pretty much every major segment of the car market covered in little Skoda-shaped splashes of colour. In fact, one in three cars sold by Skoda in the UK was non-monochrome – with vivid options including Hyper Green, Phoenix Orange and Velvet Red – going against the grain.

The country as a whole may be obsessed with monochrome cars at the moment. Skoda drivers have clearly decided they’re not playing that game, and the world is a slightly brighter place because of them.

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