Seeing city streets clogged with cars finished in unimaginative beige, brown, and grey colors can be a depressing sight. We often wonder what possesses someone to buy a boring car in an equally boring color. Perhaps the owners don't want to attract attention in contrast to those who want to show off their pride and joy to the world and choose the most outlandish color possible. Then there's the argument that a car with a more generic coat of paint will retain its value better since it has a broader appeal. According to a new study that isn't true.

Turns out there are other benefits of owning a car in an eye-catching color other than reducing the risk of an accident in low visibility. According to a study by research site iSeeCars, cars with more striking colors depreciate significantly slower than cars with boring colors. After analysing 2.1 million used car sales, the study found that cars finished in yellow hold their value the longest, depreciating only 27 percent over three years. The average car depreciates 33.1 percent within the same time period. Orange cars came in second place, depreciating by 30.6 percent. So why do yellow cars retain their value longer than any other color?

"Yellow cars are relatively less common, which could drive up demand and help maintain their value," explained Phong Ly, CEO of iSeeCars. "Our analysis shows that yellow vehicles have the lowest depreciation of any color for lower-volume cars like convertibles. Interestingly, yellow is also the color with the least depreciation for popular body styles like SUVs and pickup trucks." It makes sense, as yellow is typically offered for special edition models and flashy exotics which are obviously less common. Other colors that depreciate slower than average according to the study are green, white, and red. Common colors such as blue, black, and silver are close to the average depreciation rate.

However, gold was by far the fastest depreciating color at 37.1 percent, followed by purple at 36.7 percent and beige at 36.6 percent. "Across almost every bodystyle, gold color vehicles have some of the worst depreciation rates of any color," said Ly. Something to consider next time you're choosing a car color.