Safest car paint colour: white (Australian study of 850k crashes). Avoid black!

[cfg83]

[gone-ot]

...as I recall a similar USA insurance institute study found SILVER best and BLACK worst.

[Peter7307]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Also interesting is that white was NOT under represented in the sample. In fact white cars were more popular than any other colour in Australia in the period studied.

Most likely due to the high Summer temperatures here.
My own car is dark blue and is hard to see damn near anytime but more so in shadows near trees and again the black bitumen as well.

Last car I will have that colour.

Pete.

[Frank Lee]

this should pretty much cover every safety scenario :roll:

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

this should pretty much cover every safety scenario :roll:

At first I thought those were pics of my neighbor's car: he kinda can't stay away from minor accidents and replaces his panels and doors so often that they're not even worth painting

I remember hearing about an insurance company charging its clients more for dark colored cars, and less for white and red.

I think that a skirted-and-boattailed car will draw attention no matter what its color!

[FastPlastic]

Add mine to the list of deathmobile's. Oh, and I did buy it when I was 18. So it sounds like they are right on par with the statistics.

[Whoops]

This is a really interesting study, thanks for sharing it.

I have been leaning towards white, on a paint job, primarily because I feel like it seems to be generic enough in color that the police don't notice the car, nearly as much as they do some other colors.

I don't know about anyone else but my experiences have left me in a framework where I am fundamentally pretty paranoid about the police. If I see an officer, I immediately feel I must somehow be doing something or might be doing something or they might find something to use as an excuse to pull me over.

Consequently, it seemed to me like white was probably the most neutral color I could paint my car, so it attracts as little attention with them, as possible. I'm glad to hear it will also contribute to a safe ride.

[cfg83]

Whoops -

I like white because it reflects more sunlight in the summer (but I agree it doesn't help when the car is parked in the sun for hours on end), and it lends an "architectonic" look to the car. What I mean is, the black moulding is in stark contrast to the white paint.

I think 95% of cops are ok, but I always assume I am in the presence of the 5% bad cop, so I tread lightly.

CarloSW2

[Frank Lee]

Cops =

I had a tail light bulb give a little trouble- wiggle it and it would come back on. A cop saw it when it was out and decided that was a worthwhile basis for an entire electronic rectal exam. After sitting there for an eternity, which made me late for where I was going, the punk cop says "I'm lucky" to be getting off with nothing. Lucky?!? Luck had nothing to do with the fact that I had 99.9% compliance with all known traffic rules and regs; the .1% was my intermittent bulb. BTW it was only the brake element of the bulb that acted up sometimes, not the running light. Hello, there are two other brake lights back there too. Doofus could have got my attention at the stop light and yelled out to fix that light but nooooo, he has all afternoon for that b.s.

[alohaspirit]

he was probably hoping for a ticket

someone gotta pay for all the gas those HEMIs burn