I was wondering about how many of each color I could find on Autotrader. I did a series of searchs with the final criteria:

National search
05-06 LS430
Under 45,000 miles

Results are not surprising:

Black: 68 (28%)
Silver: 46 (19%)
Gray or charcoal: 43 (18%)
White or off-white: 38 (16%)
Blue: 18 (7.5%)
Gold or beige: 13 (5.4%)
Brown: 5 (2.1%)
Green: 5 (2.1%)
Red, burgandy, or purple: 4 (1.7%)

 

I bet if your search criteria was changed to 150k+ miles, silver would be the highest percentage. They have the least amount of problems, last the longest, and are less rust prone than all the others.

 

I think silver looks great on LS 430s. But the reality is that silver is the absolute worst car paint color in terms of longevity. Silver has the most problems with long term wear primarily due to its composition being almost all silver colored metal flake mixed in a clear base with almost no pigment. Exposed to sun silver burns our faster than any other paint color. Can you guess the longest wearing car paint color ? White. But if you are located up north where the sun doesn't shine much silver is a great color and wears well in limited sun.

 

Interesting. So, don't buy a silver car from a sunbelt state. That may explain why my silver Allante, an Arizona car, was repainted.

 

Red and black are also bad. Any paint reflects the wavelengths corresponding to its own color, so red reflects red (long wavelength) and wavelengths around red and absorbs other colors, including those having shorter wavelength like blue/violet and even ultra-violet. Black absorbs all colors, including wavelengths at the edge of the visible spectrum (infra-red and UV). OTOH, white reflects all colors, so it tends to reflect IR and UV (also why white is cooler than black). UV is a key component that breaks down the paint, so naturally, colors that absorb more UV are expected to degrade faster that those that reflect UV.

 

^^^... says the man with the crystal white LS430.

 

where i live at all i ever see is silver ls430's,, makes me really glad to have a flint mica one i can't stand all these silver cars running around... is there like a rule or something that says that all leased vehicles will be silver, cuz where i live at there are an abundant amount of pricey new cars that all i can figure is that they are leased, and like 65% of them are all silver... yuck!!!

 

Then you might've seen the "surfer" surfing past you as i live in DC and girlfriend in Bmore. . Have seen a lot of silver even tho its a color force to be reckoned with.

 

All I have to say is...what color are Diamonds, Titanium, White Gold, and even Platinum trying to be most like? WHAT? WHATTT!!!

 

Ny Is full of black and White LS430s. Those are the most common

 

FL is full of white and silver, these colors reflect heat and are easy to keep clean. Old geezers love white !! Bingo parking lots are filled with white !!

 

My observation in MN lines up with Caddyowner's search results pretty closely.

 

I second that emotion!

 

Interesting analysis. I must say, the LS is an old fart's car off the showroom. Probably ranks right up there with Buick.
I have seen black where the clearcoat peels off, but most of the boiled factory paint jobs in this part of Florida are blue and green Hondas as well as most every '90s Ford

 

I have black love when she's waxed up, but my next ls will be either white or brown yeah that brown is really growing on me. I seen a brown one yesterday with temp tags on it and it look nice and clean.(Gotta have 18s on her thoo)!!