"The most important U.S. influence will be economic growth and social confidence to be expressive again," said Jon Hall, manager of Color Development for BASF's Automotive Coatings Business in North America, "Silver must evolve. Silver becomes grey, with the possibility for tints of green and copper. Bright metallized silver will be achieved on special vehicles," Hall said.

Hall predicted that red will head for the lead again. Silver, grey, white and black have dominated the trend, but reds and blues are too classic to be held down for long. New blues will include very dark, luxury blue or fun, bright-turquoise metallic. Copper-brown and orange derivatives may become more important than green in North America.

Hall said to also look for a lot of experimentation with power colors beyond yellow and orange, such as lime, lipstick, turquoise, purple and cream. Even white will be a power color.

More information is available from the BASF website www.basf.com/usa.