My friend reckons a white car costs much less to insure than the equivalent black car

[Marcos]

Not sure whether to believe him. Something about night time visibility.

[Jim - ASUS]

It would be quite easy to check, though IIRC when you use the comparison sites unless you type in a specific reg number they don't ask the colour - I'd be interested to know!

[Dooms]

There is this article from 2010: http://www.ratecity.com.au/car-insur...our-car-colour

To test this myth, RateCity compared comprehensive car insurance quotes for a white, red and black car from Youi, NAB and Allianz using the same driver profile of a 30-year-old single male living in Sydney's north-west who drives a 2005 Toyota Corolla.

The results showed that out of the three colours, white cars were the cheapest to insure and black cars were the most expensive overall. Red and black were on par in the price stakes for two of out the three car insurers, with one proving it costs more to insure your car if it is black.

For instance Youi offered the cheapest quotes overall but they also had the biggest gap in price between a white and a black car, with a difference of almost $113, compared to NAB and Allianz who both had an average of $30 difference.

According to Youi the difference in price is due to the fact that darker coloured cars tended to be involved in more accidents, especially at dusk. This doesn't mean that painting your car white will mean you're a safer driver, it means that in comparison to other colours white stands out more and is seen to be less of a risk than darker colours.

Read more at http://www.ratecity.com.au/car-insur...6ts6uWmYVrZ.99

but then there are loads more articles calling bollox on the whole thing and it just comes down to the car and how many were sold / still exist in the world etc.

[shaithis]

Wouldn't surprise me.

Lots of insurance companies have a plethora of variables they plug into their insurance quote generator, some even have an "X Factor" (how sensible you sounded to the operator). If statistically, a darker coloured car is more likely to be in an accident, you can be sure that at least some companies take that into account.

Time for some plastidipping!

[abaxas]

Surely a white car is easier to spray when you have a prang?

[Knoxville]

Strange, I'd heard that about red cars (something about them being universally more visually appealing and as such more thievable) but never about black cars, doesn't really shock me though.

[virtuo]

and it just comes down to the car and how many were sold / still exist in the world etc.

And not forgetting that every car insurance algorithm ever written is largely based on a random number generator.

[DanceswithUnix]

ISTR in the 80's the Ford XR3i was more expensive to insure in white.

I was playing with a new car selector the other day, and black was the default colour with anything else costing more. If others do that, perhaps there is some selection bias for cheap as you can configure cars?

[Ttaskmaster]

It is claptrap.
If it's too dark to see the colour of your car, you should have your headlights on anyway.
By contrast, white and silver cars are harder to see in mist and fog, so the risk and cost should average out.

It's like motorcycle kit with reflective piping - If you cannot already see my whopping great headlight, no 4mm strips of 3M shiny tape will be of any help.

[Smudger]

It's all about which is most likely to get nicked for speeding when the police are playing snooker. Maybe.

[hb904460]

Most comparison sites i have used dont ask what colour the car is....

[Saracen]

I haven't done any testing on this for a long time, but years ago, I had direct access to (and a test account on) an insurance quotation system. I regularly ran all sorts of queries, comparing changing details, or comparing quotes over time using the same details.

A few things quickly became clear.

First, quotes were incredibly volatile. Using identical data, the quote varied hugely between companies, AND over time. The best company (in terms of quote) today likely wasn't best next month, maybe next week and possibly even later today.

Second, a factor that might cause company A to load a premium might be of little importance to company B.

I had a long chat with an insurance company actuary (one of the firms for whom we were developing the system) and his comments, considerably summarised, were that quotes are based on statistical analysis of data, loaded by factors the company can apply, to reflect perceived risk AND company policy strategy. For instance, if they decide high performance cars are not profit-making they either load them, or withdraw altogether.

In short, there's a HUGE number of factors influencing quote system, not all of which are viewed consistently either between companies, or over time within a given company, and that trying to analyse what affects what is a mug's game.

So, do white cars affect premiums? Dunno, and don't care, because even if it does today, it may not tomorrow. When getting insurance, always get comparative quotes. When buying a car, colour might affect today's quote, but might not affect it, or might even have the reverse effect, on renewal.

[Zak33]

I have never ever had to tell anyone the colour of my car... and no insurance system online has asked it...so unlikely.

[BobF64]

Most comparison sites i have used dont ask what colour the car is....

I have never ever had to tell anyone the colour of my car... and no insurance system online has asked it...so unlikely.

No system needs to.

The DVLA systems have it recorded already against your car plate and they would retrieve it from there if it was necessary.
And if it was recorded incorrectly, your insurance would probably be void or at the very least you'd never be able to claim.

[DanceswithUnix]

I have never ever had to tell anyone the colour of my car... and no insurance system online has asked it...so unlikely.

I have, but I think it is just a check.

They ask for registration, which tells them everything they need to know.

They then ask for make, model and colour, but they don't seem to be taking time to enter anything so I think they are just checking that what I say is what they have on screen.

[hesham1516]

White cars are cheaper because boy racers prefer black or other dark colours, so dark colours get into accidents more often.
Harder to keep clean though, the lightest I would go for is silver.