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As safe a bet as it may be to go with metallic silver, there is always the temptation to bear in mind other shades that peak in popularity and bring their own residual value benefits.
Williams adds: "It's notoriously difficult to know what car colours will be in fashion in the future - it's a bit like predicting the stock market. It wasn't that long ago that white cars were bad news and some police forces even switched to buying silver vehicles to reduce their loss. Yet today, white cars are in hot demand, especially on certain makes and models."
Henstock says that some more unusual shades are also selling well at the moment.
"We are also seeing softer colours and finishes such as lilac, mauve and pearlescent becoming more popular. But the most important factor is for the colour to complement the car," he says.
Procuring a company car with a flash paint job will probably go down well with the perk driver crowd too. Having a new model in a trendy shade will keep staff happy, as will allowing them the choice of what colour they can have. Williams thinks a bit of free reign is a good idea for that very reason, but that it's worth keeping one eye on the employee's final decision.
"Common sense is the best guide," he says. "Allowing drivers to have free choice of the colour of their vehicle is generally a safe option, rather then limiting choice or the company choosing it for them. This also means that the employee will feel as if it is 'their' car, so boosting employee moral. Having said that, it's best to cast an eye over every car ordered, just in case someone has made a left-field chose."
Henstock says you can get away with this too, but it depends on the model and segment more than anything: "Smaller hatchbacks and city cars can carry off brighter colours with ease, but remember that highly fashionable colours can just as quickly become unfashionable. Limited editions with over-fussy colour schemes tend to date quickest and should be avoided where possible.
"In the upper medium and mini-MPV sectors, most metallics go well, but nothing too garish. Large slabs of bright colour can be hard on the eye, while at the other end of the colour scale, black looks funereal. In the rugged 4x4 market, buyers like utilitarian colours - greens, greys, oranges and yellows work well.
"For larger executive and prestige models, stick to popular colours but in sober shades - metallic silvers, blues and greens, for example."
Let drivers loose with the palettes with caution, though. As always, you have to bear in mind what's going to happen when you sell the cars on. Williams warns: "Drivers will usually want the most fashionable colour at the time of purchase, but it'll be three years before the fleet cars chosen today hit the used market, so it's always wise to stick to the mainstream options. Some manufactures have launch colours for new models, used on adverts and in brochures. Some of these can be a bit gaudy, and date quickly, so it might be an idea to avoid those."
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