New study reveals big differences in favorite vehicle colors and types

The findings reveal men’s favorite car color is brown and women’s is beige. For car models, men’s top favorite is the INFINITI FX35 compared to the women’s favorite Kia Sportage. The automotive data and research company also recently released the results of its national 2017 Car Color Preferences by Gender study.“When it comes to car colors, our national study shows that men have much stronger preferences than women,” said Phong Ly, iSeeCars.com CEO. “But in Chicago the results are more even. Local preferences for specific cars are actually stronger than favorite car colors.”

Car Colors Men Prefer More Than Women in Chicago

Car Colors Women Prefer More Than Men in Chicago

Favorite Car Colors in Chicago

“When you’re comparing pre-owned cars in Chicago, the average price for men’s favorite colors is only 14 percent more expensive than the average for women’s favorite colors. But the national average is higher, with men’s favorite car colors at 22 percent more expensive,” said Ly.

So, who is more colorful? It turns out that Chicago men have a stronger preference for more colors than Chicago women do: 7 to 5.

The top three favorite car colors women prefer more than men are beige (26.8 percent), silver (18.5 percent) and gray (1.8 percent). Men’s top three color preferences compared to women are brown (23.8 percent), white (17.6 percent) and green (17.1 percent). Men's top two national favorite colors didn’t fare as well in Chicago: Yellow dropped from 34 percent down to just 4 percent for local men, while local women actually have a stronger preference for orange than local men do. (Teal, the top-ranked national women's favorite, didn't rank in Chicago because the sample size was too low.) In Chicago the average used car price for the colors men prefer is $15,932 compared to $13,952 for the colors women prefer. Average prices for men and women’s national favorite car colors are $18,196 and $14,938, respectively.

Top 5 Favorite Cars in Chicago

National data shows that men have stronger preferences for coupes, convertibles and pickup trucks, while women prefer wagons, SUVs and minivans. These are the local preferences for car models:

Chicago men like the INFINITI FX35 a whopping 1337.7 percent more than Chicago women, followed by the Chevrolet Suburban (735.3 percent) and Chevrolet Tahoe (721.6 percent). The top three cars women are more interested in are the Kia Sportage (235.1 percent), Chevrolet Equinox (212.3 percent) and Saturn ION (207.5 percent). Men’s preferred cars are 65.4 percent more expensive. In Chicago the average used price for men's favorite cars is $17,383 compared to $10,509 for women's favorites.

Cars Men Prefer More Than Women in Chicago

*Averages are based on local used car prices.

Cars Women Prefer More Than Men in Chicago

*Averages are based on local used car prices.

Methodology

iSeeCars.com analyzed data from more than 1.2 million consumer car inquiries made on iSeeCars.com between March 2009 and August 2017. It categorized inquiries as coming from male or female consumers based on their first names, and calculated the share of male and female inquires for each color. The difference in share between male and female inquiries was expressed as a percentage of female inquiry share and male inquiry share to calculate male and female bias toward each color, respectively. In addition, the same analysis was repeated for car models. Only data from Chicago was included in the final analysis. Colors with fewer than 30 total inquiries and models with fewer than 40 total inquiries were excluded from the analysis. iSeeCars.com also analyzed more than 17 million used car sales made between September 2016 and August 2017 for used car prices.

About iSeeCars.com

iSeeCars.com is a data-driven car search and research company that helps shoppers find the best car deals by providing key insights and valuable resources, including the iSeeCars VIN Check report and Best Cars Rankings. iSeeCars has saved users over $406 million so far by applying big data analytics powered by over 25 billion (and growing) data points and using proprietary algorithms to objectively analyze, score and rank millions of new cars and used cars.