1-269-685-3557
Are you the kind of person who insists on purchasing cars in your favorite color? Maybe you’re a car shopper who doesn’t give color much thought. There are many people in both categories.
One thing is for sure: most car buyers don’t choose their color based on safety.
One of the most enjoyable parts of purchasing a new vehicle is choosing the color. However, it seems the color of your car may be a factor in determining how likely you are to get into an accident or be pulled over.
What’s Color Got to Do with It?
A 2007 report by the Monash University Accident Research Center (MUARC) found that white is the safest car color, with silver coming in at a close second. Other colors that continuously make the list of safest car colors include black and gray.
Colors for Trade-Ins
According to Kelley Blue Book, a car's color can even affect its resale value. What was trendy five years ago may or may not still be popular, and what’s popular today may or may not still be hot five years from now.
If you’re looking for something timeless, the four safest colors (black, white, silver, and gray) are your best bet, as they never go out of style. Bright colors like purple, orange, and yellow can put you at a disadvantage when it comes time to trade in your car.
Best and Worst Car Colors for Maintaining
Some cars look great in certain colors but require a lot of maintenance and upkeep to stay that way. For example, black looks sleek on just about any car, but it shows every splash of mud, rain streak, and dirt.
Gray and silver are the easiest colors to clean and stay looking clean for longer. By contrast, white looks newer for longer, and although it shows every bit of debris, it also hides swirl marks from automatic car washes. Blue, red, green, and orange show the effects of the elements easily and become dull when dirty.
The Safest Car Colors
According to MUARC, white is the safest color overall. They claim there’s a 12% less chance of a white car being involved in an accident than a black car in all lighting and weather conditions.
Yellow, gold, and orange cars are easy for other drivers to spot, but these colors may not look good on all vehicles.
That adage about drivers of red cars being pulled over more often is true, though there’s more to the story. Red cars actually come in second place when it comes to being pulled over and ticketed — the first-place winner here is white cars, followed by red, gray, and silver, in that order.
Since white, gray, and silver are three of the four most popular car colors, they get pulled over more frequently for the simple reason that there are more of them on the road.
The next time you go car shopping, consider how the color of your new ride might affect your chances of getting into an accident.