What Color Car Hides Scratches Best?

We hear many questions from car customers wondering about the color of their car. Most specifically, many wonder which color is best at hiding scratches on cars.

White is the color that hides scratches the best on cars, although other light colors can hide scratches as well. This is because bright colors minimize the appearance of scratches and the color of the car underneath the paint is light/ white, so scratches blend in easier.

So what color should you choose? Are there certain disadvantages to having a light-colored vehicle compared to a dark-colored one? Here is everything that you need to know about choosing a car color.

Choosing a Car Color

Anyone who has ever bought a car knows that choosing a good color can be tough. Car colors have been said to increase the price, upgrade the appeal, or even protect passengers better. People like to choose car colors depending on their favorite color, what they think will be safest, or what they think will create a better appearance.

If you are very nit-picky about the appearance of your car, and you want to minimize scratching, or at least the appearance of scratching, the color of your car matters. Color has a big impact on how minimal or visible the scratches on your car can be.

Which Car Colors Hide Scratches

If you are looking for a car color that will minimize the appearance of scratches, white is the best option. White-colored cars show the least amount of scratches because of how bright their color is. Bright colors easily reflect the sun, which means that it can be hard to distinguish and pick out small scratches on a car, especially on a sunny day.

However, if you are not a fan of white, but you want a vehicle that will hide scratches well, you should go for a light silver-gray color. These light-colored vehicles make it easy for scratches to blend into the paint. Part of the reason that these scratches blend in is that the underlying part of the vehicle is a light, almost white color. When the color underneath matches the color of the paint, the scratches will be almost invisible.

Cons to Light colored vehicles:

While light-colored vehicles are great for hiding scratches, there are some disadvantages to purchasing a light-colored vehicle. Vehicles with lighter colors are more likely to show dirt and smudges, which can be a pain to maintain. White-colored cars are also in high demand and are a very popular paint color, so you might have to pay more to get your car painted white or to buy a white-colored car. If you are somewhere where it snows a lot, a light-colored vehicle will be less visible in the snow and can be more dangerous to drive.

Which Car Colors Show Scratches

White hides scratches the best, so it is not hard to figure out the reverse: scratches will show up easiest on black or other darker-colored vehicles. Scratches become more obvious on black cars because they aren’t as bright and don’t reflect the sun nearly as much. This makes it easier to pick out the imperfections on a black vehicle. The underlying color will show very easily through scratches in a black car as well.

Similarly, darker colors such as red or navy blue show scratches very prominently. The same principle applies to these cars as it does the black cars. Scratches are more likely to contrast with the darker colors and since the cars aren’t as bright, they won’t reflect sunlight, and small imperfections can be easily picked out.

Black vehicles are less desirable because they are less visible at night and therefore are more dangerous. They can also get very hot in the sunlight and will have higher inside temperatures than light-colored cars.

Pros to Dark Colored Vehicles:

While dark-colored vehicles show scratches really easily, they aren’t all doom and gloom. Dark-colored vehicles are actually very popular because of their sleek appearance. The black coloration enhances the shape of the car and is associated with wealth and ambition in vehicles.

Due to their popularity, black cars have a really high resale value, which is another advantage of buying a black vehicle.

What To Do If You Scratch Your Car

While scratches on a car may be purely cosmetic, you should be careful not to scratch your car because paint jobs are expensive, and the resale value of your car goes down the more scratches it has.

That being said, if you do scratch your car, there are some at-home options you can do to get it fixed.

Minor Scratches or Marks: These types of scratches and marks scrape your finish, but luckily, they don’t penetrate the clear coat on your car. Thankfully, these types of scratches can be easily removed without too much difficulty. These types of marks come off when acetone or lacquer thinner is gentry rubbed on them.

Paint Scratches: If you scratch your paint, it means that the scratch goes down to the enamel level of the finish on your car. These types of scratches can be buffed out at home with a specific kit, but the good news is that they do not require a shop visit to be fixed.

These car repair kits generally contain all the materials needed to fix and cover up the scratches, but you should be careful to follow all of the instructions listed on the kit. Before you start to repair your vehicle, you should first thoroughly wash and dry your car. After you have used the kit and worked to get the scratches out, don’t forget to apply a final coat of polish to the vehicle.

Deep Scratches: These scratches go all the way down to the primer layer of the car, and on serious occasions can show the bare metal of your car. These types of scratches are the most serious types of scratches and typically require an in-shop visit to fix them. It can be hard to color match the paint on your own and fix the underlying damage.