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The Myth About Red Cars

Urban myths come in all shapes and sizes from the faintly horrific stories about what might make your large pet dog ill, to the suggestion the color of a vehicle helps it go faster. The latter is usually justified by piles of statistics drawn from official and informal sources. The official sources are usually reports compiled from police and court reports, with additional material from ambulance staff and others attending the scene of traffic accidents. There are further statistics pulled from hardcopy newspapers and magazines, as well as all the digital reports now carried on the internet. When you put all these sources together, they appear to show more red vehicles involved in accidents than those painted black, blue or yellow. There also appear to be more tickets written for those driving red vehicles. Yet, if you were to ask insurance companies, they would all deny quoting higher rates for red vehicles. How can this be true?

It's at this point we come to the way in which a literal mind works. Sometimes, it takes time to work out what the right question is if you want to hear the complete explanation. Let's start with a statement of the obvious. A vehicle is a vehicle. On the factory production line, they all start off as parts which are assembled into a completed whole. Only at the end of the production process are the vehicles sprayed and fitted with their trim. So, allowing for mistakes in the assembly process and for some of the parts to be defective in some way, it's random chance for any one vehicle to be red as opposed to black. Their performance should be identical regardless of color. This means the main variable between one vehicle's performance and the next is the driver.

Some people are skilled and safe drivers no matter what the color of the vehicle. The safer the driver, the lower the premium rates. Now ask yourself which vehicles are most likely to be painted red. The answer is higher powered vehicles tend to be painted red and other primary colors. The manufacturers have done their research. They know people buy a vehicle not just as transport, but also as a personal statement about who they are. Psychologists confirm the color red attracts more attention. In the Asian and Chinese cultures, red is the sign of good luck. So, as a buyer looking to make a statement about who you are and whether you are a success in this competitive world, buying a red car will turn heads as you drive down the street.

Remember, it's perfectly possible to drive a red sports car safely so long as you stay within the speed limit and obey the laws of the road. But that's not how many drivers actually drive these vehicles. They want to ensure they are seen and so drive them up to their limits. The police do not profile cars, but they are often driven recklessly. So, if you compare the color to a measure of the driver's aggressiveness, you will usually find hot drivers in hot cars pay higher auto insurance rates. Now average out the car insurance quotes for red vehicles as opposed to black. The red drivers will probably pay more because they are fast drivers buying the fast-colored cars. That means some urban myths are true.