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Honored Contributor
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Registered: ‎08-08-2010

@Abrowneyegirl wrote:

We are shopping for a new car and 1 of the things on my list of deal breakers is it CAN NOT be asphalt gray.

 

You know that dark silver, charchoal gray color that is the EXACT same color as the road!

 

For safety reasons only this color is a No!  It is the disappearing car - especially at dawn, dusk, fog and rain.

 

I was talking with one of the dealership owners about this and after he studied his car lot and turned to me and said "you are right, it is a perfect match to asphalt.  You just ruined that color for me."  He agreed with my point about safety

 

 


 

I have said the same thing for many years now. 

 

Cars that are grey, black, various shades of tan and white just don't stand out in the horizon of the road, and I'll never own one. 

 

Can't understand why all these blah colors are the majority of the vehicles on the road. I have to think it must be cheaper to manufacture with those colors, as I really don't see how that many millions of people like them or don't see the safety issues.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,640
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

I had a 1979 Chevy Malibu coupe in silver with black leather interior that I bought new & owned for 7 years & in those 7 years, I think I offed about 7-8 birds.   It was like the car was invisible to birds & they'd fly right into the side of it as I was driving or into my path & I'd smack them with the front end or the windshield, it was the weirdest thing!  Id never hit birds before that car & haven't hit any since & I even had another silver car, a 2003 Forester that I owned for 14½ years, so don't know if it was the color of that Chevy or the shape that made it so stealthy for birds.

 

Current car is a 2017 Forester in Sepia Bronze Metallic, which is sort of am metallic dirt color!

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Registered: ‎08-18-2016

@Abrowneyegirl,

Almost 50 years ago I had a driver's ed teacher who ranked cars by the color most frequently involved in accidents.

We were all surprised red was in the top 5.

Nowadays there are metallic and pearlized colors that were never used on cars back then, so I consider some of the info obsolete.

 

I'd suggest contacting your auto insurance co. and telling them you're looking at new cars, and ask if they recommend avoiding any particular colors.

 

That teacher also told us teachers, lawyers, and priests were occupations that reported higher than average number of accidents. 

Saturday was the worst day to be out on the road, and Independence Day the worst holiday.

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Registered: ‎05-09-2016

@Mominohio wrote:


I have said the same thing for many years now. 

 

Cars that are grey, black, various shades of tan and white just don't stand out in the horizon of the road, and I'll never own one. 

 

Can't understand why all these blah colors are the majority of the vehicles on the road. I have to think it must be cheaper to manufacture with those colors, as I really don't see how that many millions of people like them or don't see the safety issues.


When I purchased my current vehicle, grey, black and white were all they had the lot. The sales manager told me those were the "standard" colors and most people don't want to wait to order another color. I did wait though. I ordered the color I wanted and waited 10 weeks for it to be manufactured. It's a beautiful color called "Atlantic Blue Metallic" and since it was a limited run in limited models, I'm the only one in town with a car that color.

~The more someone needs to brag about how wonderful, special, successful, wealthy or important they are, the greater the likelihood that it isn't true. ~

Respected Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-19-2010

@noodleann wrote:

It's not just that the asphalt-colored car could be more likely to be hit. If you don't see the car, you can be hit.

 

I was T-boned by a car I did not see until it was almost upon me. I asked the officer in the ER whether it was pavement-colored, because that's what I thought the hood looked like when it was 2 feet away from me, and he confirmed it was. My ruptured spleen and broken ribs healed, but I learned a lesson about car color. It does matter.


@noodleann  I so agree.  Some colors of grey just seem to blend into the vast pavement that my vision to brain signal seems not to register it as quickly compared to other colors.  I just noticed that while driving earlier this week.

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Posts: 5,601
Registered: ‎10-01-2010

I have a grey Rogue...haven't been hit yet.  But I was hit twice in my red Buick!

Trees are the lungs of the Earth
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@Abrowneyegirl: When l read the title of your thread, l thought wow, you read my mind!! I notice that the majority of cars on the road seem to be either black, or shades of grey. They blend into the road, and are generally harder to see than brighter-colored vehicles, especially in one's peripheral vision.

 

It's a matter of personal taste, but l've never owned a black or grey car. I like brighter colors. My favorite color car was emerald green metallic, back in the 90s. I wish green cars would come back into style. The color choices these days are so boring and limited, IMO.

~~Be careful when you follow the masses. Sometimes the 'm' is silent.~~
Honored Contributor
Posts: 24,105
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

We get a lot of fog here in southern NJ in the fall and those silver and grey cars (especially the older ones without running lights) pretty much disappear into the fog. They also disappear in the rain, but in NJ you're supposed to turn on your headlights whenever you have the windshield wipers on, but a lot of drivers ignore that and those silver and grey cars become much harder to see in the rain also. 

 

Ever since we had that light green Cougar the first thing I do after starting the car is turn on the headlights. It doesn't matter how bright it is outside, or the weather, if I'm behind the wheel, those headlights are on. If anyone tries to say they didn't see me, then they really shouldn't be out on the road. (I drive a blue car now by the way.)

 

In the country the light green cars are harder to see due to the greenery. I suspect in a city setting the silver and grey would be harder to see as they'd be more like the colors of the buildings around them. The daytime running lights have likely eliminated a lot of the problem of car colors, and for older cars like mine, just keeping your headlights on whenever you're driving keeps you safer.

 

I can state quite positively though that the wrong color car in the wrong setting can make you a bigger target. We almost got hit dozens of times with that light green Mercury. We couldn't really figure out why for quite a while. It was like a whole lot of the population suddenly became incredibly reckless drivers. Then when we figured it out and turned on the headlights whenever we were driving the incidents disappeared. Color can be important. If your car blends into the background it makes it harder to see. Battleships are painted "battleship grey"  not to stand out to the enemy, but to blend into the background. A car painted a similar color would likely blend into the background also.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,415
Registered: ‎11-25-2011

Did a quick Google search...many debunking the color=accident theory.  Here’s a good article. Best line...”If car color did have an effect....car insurance companies would be all over it.”  Or...if it’s dangerously foggy, should you be arrested for driving a silver/grey vehicle in the fog?  Or black car at night?  I think those believing these myths are indictative of an older generation.  At the end of the day, like it was said, if it was an issue we would’ve heard about...and paid for it...by now. 

 

Will people crash into you because of your car's color?

By Jeffrey Steele, Insure.com - Last updated: Oct. 28, 2014


Is a white car less visible, and therefore more dangerous to drive, in wintertime Minnesota? Are green vehicles more crash-prone in the leafy Pacific Northwest? Is a silver car dangerously invisible in the rain? Are beige cars driven more cautiously because their owners are not exactly risk takers?


Is a crimson car more likely to catch the eye of the cop with the radar gun?
Not once in a blue moon, say the experts.


If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you've probably fallen victim to urban legends linking vehicle color with car safety. In fact, the notion that red cars cost more to insure because they’re more likely to get ticketed is the No. 2 most popular insurance myth, according to a recent Insure.com study.


The issue of car color is so off the radar that experts rarely bother to research it. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety doesn't have any research findings related to car color, reports spokesperson Russ Rader. "A brighter color could make a vehicle more visible to other drivers, but the effect is likely small," Rader says. "For example, daytime running lights have been shown to reduce crashes during daylight hours by up to 5 percent.
"If car color has any effect, it's probably smaller than that," he says.


If car color did have an effect on crashes (and therefore insurance claims), car insurance companies would be all over it. But Karl Brauer, senior analyst for Irvine, Calif.-based KBB.com, says, "There is not enough real world evidence to justify insurance companies modifying rates based on color alone," he says.


While people often point out that a white car on a frozen tundra would be barely visible, any color car could be more risky in settings where its hue blends in with surroundings, Brauer says. "But we thankfully live in a very colorful world," he observes.


"The idea a specific single vehicle color would have a disproportionately higher tendency to blend in more often is pretty much implausible,” Brauer says. Background colors behind cars are constantly changing. “You have gray streets, brown hillsides, snow-covered mountain roads and lush green trees.”


Lack of evidence
In a 2004 white paper titled "Car Color and Safety," the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety noted the glaring lack of studies "directly addressing the relationship between car color (conspicuity) and crashes among passenger vehicles."


The white paper noted that the relationship between car color and safety is about as clear as mud "because only two scientific investigations of the matter have been conducted to date, and the authors of both studies admitted that they were not able to draw clear or generalizable conclusions."


While people often make car-purchase decisions based on color, it’s unlikely that someone who hates the color orange, for example, will crash into an orange car on purpose, says the AAA Foundation.


The report's authors summarized their findings succinctly. "The bottom line is that there is presently no scientific evidence supporting the selection of one particular vehicle color as the unambiguous best choice for safety."


Car colors and resale value
OK, there’s one time when car color really is important: Selling your vehicle.
Car hue really does make a difference is in resale value, Brauer says. Lighter-colored vehicles don't show damage as much, tending to age a bit more gracefully, he reports. How well a car ages is one of two color factors affecting resale value. The other is demand for a particular color.


"That's why you see a lot of dealers and individuals showing a lot of interest in white and silver," he says. "Because everyone thinks people like white and silver vehicles, many people buy white and silver vehicles to help ensure a higher resale value and leverage a wider spectrum of demand for a vehicle."


The resulting higher resale value becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, he says. Other than that, car color is a real gray area.

 

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Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,028
Registered: ‎04-03-2016
In addition to color of the car , one can add the lack headlight usage to driving hazards. People ASSUME their lights are on and make them more visible from the front and the REAR. Snow and rain can be present and drivers still don’t help others to be seen. What is so difficult about oullingbon light switch?!