You may not have given much thought to the colour of your new car, but there are good reasons to. A paint job does a lot more than alter the look of your vehicle.
1. The colour-crash connection
While it’s true that insurance companies don’t care if your car is red or blue, a study conducted by Monash University in Australia concluded there is, in fact, a correlation between car crashes and car colour. Using actual crash data from police, and taking into account factors like vehicle type, light conditions, driver skill and environment, the research team determined that colours such as black, blue, grey, green, red and silver are more accident-prone than others.
The team also found that white is the safest option, as white cars are 10 per cent less likely to crash, possibly because a light-coloured car is easier to see.
2. These car colours are for the birds
If you are still thinking of buying a red or blue car, here’s one more reason to reconsider. According to a study conducted on 1,000 cars across five English cities, birds are most likely to deposit their droppings on red, blue and black cars, over their white, grey, silver and green counterparts.
There is no scientific reason as to why birds prefer certain colours over others, but there are many theories among drivers. Some suggest that red signifies danger to birds, which prompts them to “attack” the car. Others argue birds confuse blue cars with small bodies of water. Or that deeper colours are more reflective, which encourages birds to tackle their own reflection.
3. White is right for resale
If you are planning to resell your car after three or so years of ownership, you might want to consider getting a white one. According to the 2012 DuPont Automotive Colour Popularity Report, white is the most popular car colour in North America, ahead of black and silver, and it has been that way for many years. This means that you can resell a white car for a potentially higher price than a vehicle in a less popular shade, such as orange or green.
However, there are times when your colour choice won’t affect your vehicle’s resale value at all. For instance, if you are leasing a car, then its colour shouldn’t matter, because you won’t have to resell the vehicle yourself. Your colour choice also shouldn’t affect resale value if you are planning to own the vehicle for 10 years or longer since at that point colour plays no role. Of course, if you don’t care about resale value in general, then any colour should do just fine—as long as you take our other tips into account.
4. Colouring your auto biography
At the end of the day colour is all about personal preference. Just like the company you keep, the colour of your car can say a lot about you and your personal style. Do you drive a bright-red vehicle? Chances are you like attention, and red is good at capturing it. Perhaps you’re more conservative. Grey and silver cars are often chosen by those who prefer to avoid risky choices or unnecessary attention. If you are more of a deep thinker with simple values and tastes, then you might just be into beige cars. This list can go on and on, but the main point is that you don’t want whatever it is you are driving to give off a wrong impression of you.
Smart Tip provided by Unhaggle. Unhaggle helps Canadians get the best prices on new cars.
