I thought it was usually surveys which determine the color of vehicles or sales of the previous years. Auto companies choose paint colors that they believe will sell. You may enjoy these articles:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/09/autos/car_colors/index.htm
and this one:
http://www.californiagreensolutions.com/cgi-bin/gt/tpl.h,content=878

I saw an absolutely beautiful orange-rusty color recently. It sparkled and was similar to 'burnt orange.' I loved it. I have a white car simply because it stays cooler in the summer heat when you're driving around North Carolina :o)



>>>To me the worst eyesore are all those colorless vehicles. Poor people probably didn't have the money for the color version, so those graphite, dull gray, metallic, drab and whatnot family defense vehicles are everywhere.
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>>I know what you mean ... I can't stand silver/grey vehicles. I don't know why people think that's a good "color". Give me a brightly colored, "arrest-me" red, Porsche 911 Turbo any day!! <g>
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>I made a brief poll on the age-old BBS (yes, one still works!) back home, about year, make and color of cars. The sample I got was just 8, but the only ones which weren't gray were made in the early nineties. Someone offered an explanation that "it can get a bit dirty and nobody would notice". Well, dirt is a problem over there; the structure of the soil is, well, just too rich and it gets everywhere as mud is much more sticky than here. But then, I prefer to have a car which gets a "nice car, but needs a wash", then a car which looks like shi* washed or not.