Silver remains the UK’s favourite car colour

Over a fifth of cars on the road are silver, although the UK’s long-term colour leader may soon be set to be overtaken.

RAC Insurance analysed latest DVLA data – up to the third quarter of 2017 – to determine that silver has clung onto top spot, even though a 3% drop of 205,326 models dragged its overall tally to 6.6 million.

Black, which continues to hone in on first place, and blue in its various shades make up the top three colours on the road.

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The RAC Insurance Car Colour Rankings include DVLA data on the total number of licensed cars, which stood at just over 32.3 million last year, after growth of 1.5 million.

Broken down by colour, black strengthened its hold on second place, notching a 7% increase in popularity which took it to 6.4 million registered cars – 20% of those on the road.

Blue enjoyed 2% growth to 5.8m vehicles, which represents 18% of the total. The top six colours all have over 3 million cars out on the roads and include grey (4.3m), white (3.6m) and red (3.4m).

It is white, though, which appears to be gaining most ground, recording a 27% increase on its early 2016 standing.

That is eclipsed in terms of percentage increase only by cream/ivory, which has shot up to the tune of 36% since early 2016.

The number of multi-coloured cars remain broadly unchanged at 7,702.

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RAC Insurance spokesman Simon Williams said: “Silver is still hanging on to its title of being the most popular car colour in Britain, but black is catching up fast and may well overtake very soon.

“Blue – in its various shades – remains consistently popular but has lost ground on surging black.

“White is the fastest growing of the really mass appeal car colours as it continues to race up the popularity rankings, now leapfrogging its rival ‘red’ into fifth.”