IF YOU want to be on trend with your shiny new car don't just go green - go grey.

For car sales figures for 2021 show that for the fourth consecutive year, shades of grey shaded out other colours in the popularity stakes with 408,155 grey cars sold, representing almost a quarter (24.8 per cent) of all new cars hitting the roads during the year.

Black - the most popular car paint in Britain from 2009to 2012 - still remains a strong favourite with UK buyers with 20.5 per cent of passenger cars sales, while white was in third place with 17.2 per cent, meaning UK drivers were most likely to choose a monochrome car for the 11th year running.

According to figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) more than six in ten (62.4 per cent) of all new cars joining British roads in 2021 were painted in grey, black or white, although blue edged closer to the top three, increasing its sales for the first time in five years and trailing just 2,638 units behind white.

The rest of the top 10 remained largely unchanged from 2020, although green overtook orange to gain seventh place, cladding 17,927 cars. Sales of green cars rose for the first time since 2015, with 24 per cent more buyers opting for the colour than in the previous year.

White was the most popular shade for mini-sized and sports cars, while larger dual purpose, luxury saloons and executive cars were, as usual, most likely to be black.

Maroon paint jobs are increasingly out of favour with just 12 buyers across the whole of the UK choosing their new car in the colour - the lowest number since 1997 - and Scotland was the least likely place to spot a new maroon car, as none were sold north of the border.

At the niche end of the colour palette, gold, yellow and turquoise were the fastest growing colours, with gold more than tripling its appeal (up 231.8 per cent), yellow up by a third (31.3 per cent) and turquoise up by a fifth (19.2 per cent), although together cars finished in what are know as ‘grabber' colours accounted for less than one percent of the market.

The SMMT's research shows that Bedfordshire was the most likely place to see a new pink car, while Greater London and Buckinghamshire had the highest numbers of green and turquoise motors.

And orange was the new black in the West Midlands, where tangerine-tinted cars accounted for 1,156 registrations, the highest in any UK region.