The Details on Car Colours

The colour of a vehicle can be its defining characteristic, consider “Ferrari Red” or “British Racing Green”. Having been in the industry of detailing for so long, we’ve come to wonder if there are benefits that certain colours have over others in terms of performance, rather than just look. Is there an answer to the age-old question, “Which car colour is best?”

There are lots of rumours and myths floating around about which colour will result in more tickets, or which colour vehicle is most likely to get stolen. We did some research and have come up with these car colour facts that we think you might enjoy:

1. Of all standard car colours, the least common is green. Although a British Racing Green Jag is hard to beat, the colour doesn’t look so good on most other vehicles.
2. According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Auckland, white cars are more likely to be in an accident than silver cars. In fact, silver cars are 50% less likely to be in a serious accident than white cars. Apparently, the difference is that white cars are more difficult to see in the sun.
3. Despite the statistic listed above, white cars are still safer than dark cars during the day, although not by much (10%)
4. Darker colours, like black, dark grey, and red, will absorb heat. That means that when left out in the sun, the interior of a dark vehicle will heat up more than the interior of a light vehicle. This is something to consider based on your climate – if you live somewhere hot, avoid dark cars!
5. To maximize your vehicle being seen on cloudy and snowy days, a lime green car is the best choice. However, for many other reasons, we think a lime green car is not the best choice.
6. A Swedish study of 31,000 accidents found that black cars were involved in 22.5% of crashes, despite only making up 4.4% of the vehicle population. That means that black cars were 5 times more likely to be involved in a crash than any other colour, likely due to the difficulty of seeing black cars at night.
7. The same study found that the safest vehicle colour was pink… but there might be reasons other than visibility for people keeping their distance.
8. According to a survey of optometrists, the most difficult vehicle colour to see is red. We think this is odd, but maybe it’s just because the red cars are usually being driven too fast for people to notice!

You probably aren’t interested in repainting your car, but you might be astounded at the difference that can be made by a simple exterior detail. Many people think their paint is simply “old” and doomed to its faded and diminished state – simply check out our Instagram to see your car’s potential, and give us a call to set up an appointment.