Black means safety, blue is calming and red equals strength - the colour you pick for your new car is supposed to be a reflection of who you are. But it could cost you more than you expect.
UK "75" number plates are being rolled out from Monday and "new reg day" is traditionally a busy time for car dealers. Depending on the make and model you are buying, picking a blue paint job rather than red or a matt instead of a metallic finish could add thousands to the cost of a new vehicle.
Many car manufacturers now only offer one "free" colour as standard.
A Nissan Qashqai, for example, will come in red, and if you want it in silver, black, white or metallic blue, you will have £745 added to your bill.
An Audi Q3 comes in white at no extra cost, but an extra £575 gets you a range of colours - from "progressive red" to "navarra blue". White is also free for a BMW X3, but go for "dune grey" and you will have to pay £875, while "tanzanite blue" costs £1,725.
Earlier this summer, the motoring website Auto Express surveyed the costs of paint colours across a range of cars from different manufacturers.
"We're seeing huge discrepancies in paint pricing between manufacturers and they're not always obvious at first glance," says its editor, Paul Barker. "It's catching people out and can turn what should be a fun part of car buying into a bit of a nightmare."
If you are comparing the cost of two different vehicles and have a colour in mind, you need to make sure you know how much the manufacturers will charge for it.
There are four main types of car finish. From the cheapest to the most expensive, they are: solid, the most basic; metallic, which has tiny pieces of aluminium in it to reflect light and give a shine; pearlescent, which shines even more brightly; and matt, a modern non-reflective look.
More elaborate paint jobs can cause other headaches. When you choose to sell your car, a bold colour will probably be harder to shift.
Jonathan Such, of First Response Finance, a vehicle financing company, says white, black and silver cars are timeless and tend to hold their value better.
"Cars that have come in the colour of the 'moment' or a trending colour tend to depreciate quicker, so will lose their value quickly, meaning a lower price," he says.
Barker says you will be unlikely to make your money back from an expensive investment on a unique or niche colour scheme. There is one exception, he says, in the bright yellow Renault 5 - a colour that has been synonymous with the car since the 1970s and adds £800 to the cost of a new vehicle.