Forget fuchsia. Puce is practically passe.
The hottest color on wheels is white.White was the color of choice on most cars and trucks in 1995, according to an annual survey released Tuesday by paint supplier DuPont Automotive.
"I think it's just a nonoffensive kind of color," said Bob Daily, Du-Pont Automotive's color marketing manager. "It's kind of bright and clean, and it looks good on all sizes of cars."
More white luxury, full-size and intermediate cars, trucks and vans made in the United States and Canada were sold this year than any other shade, the survey found.
Dark green and white tied for first in 1994. This year, dark green ranked No. 1 among sport and com-pact cars and was second in all other categories.
Other popular greens were lighter shades such as "fern," "willow," "spruce" and "sea foam," Daily said.
Light greens, which didn't even make the list's top 12 colors last year, covered between 3 percent and 4.7 percent of the cars and trucks made this year, the survey found.
White, by comparison, was the choice on 23.8 percent of trucks and vans and 18.9 percent of full-size and intermediate cars. The other colors in the top four spots in all categories were black, light brown and medium red.
Other survey findings include:
- Teal and aqua's popularity faded in all categories.
- Black, like white a perennial favorite, gained for the second con-secutive year.
- Silver went up in all categories.
- Light brown gained in all but the sport-compact category.
DuPont Automotive, based in suburban Detroit, analyzes color trends to advise industry designers and stylists. The survey of domestic and foreign-owned automakers that manufacture in North America began in the early 1950s.