The Color of your car matters! One of Henry Fords most famous quotes was Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is black. This was back in 1909 but today things are just a little bit different.
Car market
In the current car market, the most popular color for vehicles in South Africa are white. A total of 45% of new vehicles finances are this shade with silver coming in second most popular with 25%. So when it comes to brighter colors like green, gold and yellow, they may affect your ability to resell your car in the 2nd hand market and they can also affect your insurance premium.
Wynand van Vuuren, a client experience partner at King Price Insurance confirmed that vehicle colour does affect your insurance premium but the reason for this might not be what you think it is. Uncommon colors do not get an extra charge, what does affect your premium is the visibility of the colour on the road as this can affect your chances of being in an accident.
To explain, darker colors like black, grey and navy are more expensive to insure on a vehicle because of their increased difficulty in being seen by others while driving on the road, this means one is more likely to be involved in an accident.
Our claims history has shown that ‘less visible’ cars have a higher chance of being in an accident. A charcoal or black vehicle will have a higher chance of being written off, and that gets priced into your premium, Van Vuuren says.
On the other side of the coin white and other light-colored vehicles will likely see lower premiums as they represent the highest visibility on the road. This effect could raise or lower your premium by up to 10% depending on color. It is also worth noting that vehicles painted in metallic or satin paints will also be more expensive to insure but this is due to these paints being more costly to repair.
Factors
Factors that insurers look at when calculating your premium include:
- The make and model of the car you drive.
- Where you park your car during the day, and at night.
- Your driving experience and claims history.
- The visibility of the car on the roads.
When it comes to car crime though color seems to be less of a factor when dealing with car crime make and model of your vehicle is more important.
In the end whilst it likely wont stop you from going out and buying that matte black SUV youve been dreaming of, remember it may end up costing you a bit more on your insurance premiums.
For insurance & finance quotes contact our F&I department at WP Motors. The Color of your car matters!
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