Looking at the 535i and 550i on local streets, at dealers, and in online listings, I've been struck by the popularity of black and near-black. It seems to be a colour the BMW marketing types like. Most of the Launch cars were Dark Graphite/Sophisto and four (or 31%) of the thirteen colours offered in the USA are black or near-black (38% if you include Imperial Blue).
I happen to think the 5-Series looks better in a somewhat lighter metallic, such as Space Gray, which shows the character lines better under most light conditions. BMW seems to agree -- the current marketing brochure features a Space Gray 535i.
Just for fun, I looked at a couple of external sources to provide an objective measure of this apparent 'leaning' toward black/near-black.
Dupont Corp publishes an annual survey showing the "most popular" colours in particular geographic markets.
http://www2.dupont.com/Media_Center/...ity/index.html
Here is what Dupont's 2010 data show for the North American market
White 21%
Black 18%
Silver 17%
Gray 15%
Red 11%
Blue 9%
Brown/Beige 5%
Other 4%
In the absence of BMW sales data, I looked at the reported colours of new 5-Series vehicles listed on Cars.com. Among the 3,100 535i listings that reported colour, 40.7% were black. Among the 718 550i listings that reported colour, 43.5% were black. Combined results for the two models (quite similar) are shown below:
Black 41.2%
Gray 18.2%
White 17.0%
Silver 11.9%
Blue 8.9%
Beige/Brown 1.6%
Green 1.2%.
Since Dark Graphite/Sophisto is probably included in Gray on the Cars.com listings, the popularity of black/near-black for the BMWs is, if anything, understated.
Overall, it would appear that roughly 40% of all US purchasers of a new 535i or 550i will choose black, a percentage that is more than twice the average reported for the industry overall (18%). The likelihood of the BMW owners to choose gray is slightly above the Dupont average (18% vs. 15%). By the same measure, both white and silver have popularity among the F10 fraternity that is below the industry average (respectively, 17% vs. 21% and 12% vs. 17%).
Comparable data for the 2011 E-Class suggests purchasers of the Mercedes continue to show above-average enthusiasm for silver (23%). But that's another story.