Car-buyers are being advised that buying a car of the wrong colour could damage residual values by as much as £2,500 off the trade value after one year/12,000 miles.

According to Glass’s, in residual terms, the best performing colour is now metallic black.

Silver used to hold the top spot, but the large number of silver/grey prestige cars on the UK roads has meant the new colour has now fallen to black.

"The average one-year-old metallic black upper-medium prestige car is now worth around £200 more than silver," says Richard Crosthwaite, prestige car editor at Glass's.

"At the other end of the spectrum, an upper-medium prestige car in white typically has a trade value up to £2,500 less than a car of the same specification in silver."

The impact of colour choice on residual values can be even greater in other prestige car sectors. For example, the depreciation figures identified above are around 20% greater in the large executive car sector (BMW 5 Series, Mercedes E-Class, Audi A6).

"There are some extreme examples of how much money can be lost through poor colour choice," adds Crosthwaite. "Buy a luxury roadster, such as a Mercedes SL-Class or Porsche 911, in white and you can easily expect a trade value after 12 months that is £5,000 lower than if it was specified in a desirable metallic black."

Colour Residual impact
Black metallic +£200
Silver/Grey metallic Glass's Guide benchmark value
Blue metallic -£250
Black (flat) -£500
Green/red metallic -£1,000
Red (flat) -£1,500
Undesirable metallic - gold/purple, etc -£1,750
Blue (flat) -£1,750
White (flat) -£2,500