View Full Version : Thoughts on picking the color of a car/truck (LEO's please chime in)
30 cal slut
06-23-10, 06:38
I was just musing over some random thoughts this morning ...
What do you guys think of the positives and drawbacks of particular (production) car/truck colors?
Examples:
Red - looks great. Other drives can easily see you. But it's an LEO magnet if you're speeding, I think. :D
Black - aesthetically pleasing for some. But, I surmise it's harder for other drivers to see you, it collects heat in the summer, and you generally pay a little extra for a scratch-resistant finish.
White - nice to have in hot weather, other drivers can see you. But may look constantly dirty, and I hear it's a fashionable color for bad guys in the sandbox :eek:.
Thoughts? Would love to hear what LEO's think.
-slut
I'm not an LEO, but I thought that I read something over the last few years that studies have shown that red vehicles do not get pulled over any more than other cars do. Definitely something to do more research on.
I have also read where navy blue is harder to see than black at night.
Personally, I like vehicle colors that are classic and do not go out of style. Both of my vehicles are metallic silver, and they always look clean, whether they are actually clean, or not.
Nathan_Bell
06-23-10, 07:08
Most of the vehicles I have owned have been a tan, grey, or silver of some sort. Stay clean appearing during the winters and are not a complete MFer to keep waxed. Easy to get color matched should you ding it.
Black have had two, looks awesome when detailed, polished, and waxed. Royal PITA to keep looking that sharp. Need to find a pretty good body shop to get work done as black is a bit of a challenge to blend.
White, I have never owned one, too many chip and seal roads around here for that.
Burgundy really seems to be a LEO invisible color. I had two that color (Chrysler didn't call it that but its freakin burgundy!) and in about 250k miles only got two tickets.
I just bought a white Tacoma. It is already filthy and showing it with only 1k miles on the odo. My intention is to drive it through a carwash from time to time, the kind you get free with a fillup, and otherwise ignore it. I like that the Taco is white because it's lighter in the sun down here and it will be mistaken for a work truck.
My first truck and my Escalade were silver and in terms of dirt by far the easiest to deal with and the least prone to showing dirt, and I rarely washed either. My GTO was black and I'll never own another black car again.
Best car ever for color in terms of dirt? My '87 Ramcharger. It started life as a kind of silver and gray and simply faded to a more dirt color. I do not recall ever washing that vehicle.
Even if the studies on red cars getting more tickets were right, that's likely more to do with the kinds of people that buy red cars and their driving habits than any propensity for LEO to stop them. My '71 Torino was a very, very light blue and I swore that the pointed hood made me invisible to radar as I drove right by many speed traps at 90+, but in fact I think that LE just figured I couldn't afford to pay the ticket anyway. :D
Robb Jensen
06-23-10, 07:18
I think it's much more about how you drive vs. color for attention from LEOs. When I had a 2001 Mustang GT in True Blue (Navy blue) I used to drive it...say 'proactively' what some would call 'aggressive'. It's a very spirited car with lots of power and torque and with a 5 speed manual transmission. Now that I drive a pick-up and SUV which are much slower I drive much less aggressively and I've only been pulled over once since 2002 for dark tint right a dusk in the pickup and once in the SUV for going 10 over on radar in MD, I got a written warning for that. We have a medical waiver for tint and didn't get any ticket or warning. Had the officer run my tag before he pulled me over he would have seen the waiver as issued from VA DMV. I got only 1 ticket in the Mustang but got pulled over probably 4 times and followed by LEOs a bunch.
Moose-Knuckle
06-23-10, 07:30
I want my next vehicle to be in FDE... :cool:
My second car was black, never again to hot here in TX. My first Tacoma was white and I miss it as it was cooler and actually seemed to stay cleaner longer. I now have a target indicator red Tacoma. :D
Color doesn't matter much. The insurance industry has looked at color as it relates to visibility, causal or mitigating factor, in crashes. I don't recall their specific results but there wasn't a significant deviation.
Whether or not you get stopped depends chiefly on how you're driving.
It will also depend on how well you and your vehicle blend into your surroundings and look like you belong there. Do things to get noticed, or go places you stick out, and the possibility of LE attention goes up.
Staying out of bar areas at peak drunk time helps. As does keeping the driver's appearance up so as not to look like a dirtbag, too.
White - But may look constantly dirty,
-slut
Not a LEO but I will comment anyway. This is a myth. I have both colors, and have also run a wash business. White will hide dirt and small scratches and dings much better than black. If you don't believe me then go find a vehicle of each color and wash them , in about an hour you will be able to see the dust on the black far better than you can on the white. I am not saying that white does not get dirty, you just wont see it as fast. The reason everyone believes the myth is because of clothing. The cloth has no gloss to it and absorbs what ever is spilled on it so the black hides it while when the white is white all around it and highlights it. With vehicle paint nothing is absorbed. Since we do not really see objects, but instead the light reflected off of them( so in other words if what you see is red that object is absorbing all but the red band width of light, and that it reflects) the black (or darker colors in general) will absorb most of the light and what little is reflected will highlight and show case whatever dirt is on it or dings are there. Since white is a reflection of all colors the it reflects more light and tends to hide the dirt and dings, at least until you get a clean spot ;). This of course is not all white colors, for example the white that is so popular on the Cadillac models these days. Because of the mixture of paints that they use to get it, and the semi pearlized look that it has,it will not hide the dirt and dings as well.
P.S.- I love the darker colors like black, blue, dark green and charcoal, but it is more work to keep them looking good
My second car was black, never again to hot here in TX. My first Tacoma was white and I miss it as it was cooler and actually seemed to stay cleaner longer.
Absolutely
30 cal slut
06-23-10, 08:42
interesting comments (keep 'em coming thx).
i guess i'm interested in keeping a relatively low profile on the road.
my friends tell me i drive like an old lady :D , especially on my way to training events, but I honestly get a little nervous driving through 2A hostile jurisdictions (NY, in particular NYC, and, to a lesser extent NJ), where getting pulled over by an LEO can mean getting thrown in jail if an LEO is not aware of FOPA.
hence the anxious rumination this morning.
Good info here, thanks. I have a white car that I was considering painting (has a lot of rock dings) another color, maybe I'll just get it touched up instead.
My truck is white (on purpose). My Passat is a dark gray blue. The truck looks cleaner all the time. My parents only get white cars. They are highly visible and they really do seem to hide dirt and stuff better in my experience.
Lighter color dirt on dark shows up more than on the white.
Obviously driving through mud puddles and stuff will make any car dirty, but normal day to day dirt and grime and dust are less noticeable in my non scientific experience.
I have also read that the insurance industry says that white and light colored vehicles are less likely to get in an accident due to being more visible in low light.
My last 4 SUVs have all been white and my next will probably be white also. I rarely wash them. I find that if I just keep the alloy wheels clean the whole SUV looks clean even though it isn't. The SUVs get a full wash maybe once a year, twice if they are lucky.
If the SUV has been in mud then it is whole different story, but any color looks dirty with mud on it. I would offer that black with mud on it looks about the worst to me.
Darker colors don't show dirt as bad.
My past 6 trucks have been white. Who cares if they look dirty.
Darker colors don't show dirt as bad.
It is hard to speak generally, but actually darker colors tend to show dirt more for some reason. Both of my dark cars look dirtier than my white truck and I almost never get around to washing them and cars are almost always dirtier after rain here due to the amount of dust in the air...
I've had two loud RWD V8 2-door cars...one was red and the other was a very nice shade of blue (Azure, which really give away the model of the second car). No extra attention from the police, but I tried to be relatively smart about getting on it.
Two cars after that were both silver...easy to keep (looking) clean.
Currently have a white SUV and the wife has a black sedan. Both look dirty very easily. Both also admittedly need a good scrub down and wax application. Black car can get warm.
Given the choice in the future, I'd get silver or charcoal in a heartbeat.
Belmont31R
06-23-10, 12:34
I like a darker silver. Ive had my 350Z for over 3 years now, and never been pulled over in it. The color is good enough you can't tell if it hasnt been washed in a week. I don't like eye catching colors be it white, red, bright blues, etc.
Ive been pulled over 8 times in my wife's Jeep Liberty...:eek: It has an electrical problem where one of the tail lights will randomly shut off for a few days, and then turn back on. 4 of those 8 were on a hwy, and all in less than an hour. All by Texas DPS. By the time the 4th guy pulled me over I just handed him a stack of warnings from the other officers. Gave me another one anyways. We've spent over a thousand dollars trying to get it fixed, and it still does it. The color is a dark silver/brown. Last time I got pulled over in it came over a hill, and right after the crest was two moto cops pulling someone over. The 2nd officer pulled me over because they just passed a law where you have to slow 20 MPH under the limit when passing an emergency vehicle on the shoulder. As soon as I got over the hill, and saw them I hit the brakes. Got me for going 48 in a 60. No way I could have slowed down to 40 or below that quickly. Got a warning for it...
I've had a silver car, a blue car, a blue/silver truck, a dark grey car a white truck and currently drive a white car.
I like white. Especially with light colored interiors which helps with the whole "hot car in the sun" thing. After my dark grey/charcoal interior Mustang I swore I would never get a dark car with dark interior again. I think white hides dirt and dust quite well, until you get a smudge or handprint on the tailgate that shows everyone what the color of the car actually is. White won't hide mud, but nothing does.
Silver/grey has been the most popular car color for about 10 years now, if memory serves. If you're looking to blend, that'll do it.
Darker colors don't show dirt as bad.
Not true at all. Believe me, I have made a living in the wash business and have seen every color out there. Read my previous post.
Silver/grey has been the most popular car color for about 10 years now, if memory serves. If you're looking to blend, that'll do it.
Here is a little known fact, silver paint will not last as long as other colors. As I was told by a paint rep, because of all the metallic that is in the paint that is required to make it silver, it reflects the sunlight within the paint causing it to break down faster. Not being a chemist I have no idea if that is true,but he was supposed to be a expert of DuPont
Moose-Knuckle
06-23-10, 13:13
Here is a little known fact, silver paint will not last as long as other colors. As I was told by a paint rep, because of all the metallic that is in the paint that is required to make it silver, it reflects the sunlight within the paint causing it to break down faster. Not being a chemist I have no idea if that is true,but he was supposed to be a expert of DuPont
I have heard of that too, not sure if it was a urban legend or not but you don't see to many old cars around with silver paint.
Black is by far the hardest to keep looking clean. Dark colors like navy or deep greens are almost as bad.
The easiest is what we always called "champagne", kind of a shiny metallic tan. Toyota calls it "desert sand mica" I believe. It was real popular a few years back, i don't see it as much now.
The silvers/pewter type colors are pretty good too. The darker they get, approaching charcoal colors, they get worse.
Bright reds are also hard to keep looking their best long term, in my experience.
Last time I got pulled over in it came over a hill, and right after the crest was two moto cops pulling someone over. The 2nd officer pulled me over because they just passed a law where you have to slow 20 MPH under the limit when passing an emergency vehicle on the shoulder. As soon as I got over the hill, and saw them I hit the brakes. Got me for going 48 in a 60. No way I could have slowed down to 40 or below that quickly. Got a warning for it...
Didn't know about that one. Thanks, you probably saved me some $.
Red - looks great. Other drives can easily see you. But it's an LEO magnet if you're speeding, I think.
I almost never travel at or below the speed limit (except when going through school or construction zones or the like). Never been pulled over either (I drive a bright, firetruck red Silverado)
Bright reds are also hard to keep looking their best long term, in my experienc
This is also true.
White is the easiest to detail, shows swirls the least, and is generally a quick wash away from looking nice. I have a blue car and it shows the chips like nobodies business, white did not. My white car is easy as pie.
On dark cars and heat, the values I looked at a few years back for DuPont and PPG paints indicated to me that paint color is not the concern for getting hot. Interior color and material will determine this more than the paint. Most dark cars have dark interiors, the materials for the interior did vary from light to dark, so dark got hotter. I was able to prove this when I owned two white VW's, one had a grey interior, the other black. The window treatments were the same, and the black interior car was 20 degrees hotter in the same conditions. Just some food for thought. The emissivity, or ability to reflect/absorb radiation was the deciding factor.
If you also look at the representative from CA a few years ago who wanted to paint roofs or something, this came up again. Most paints are really close in emissivity, so close that it becomes a moot point.
I generally like whatever color happens to be on the most vehicles. Around here it's white or silver. There's something to be said for blending in, I think.
That said, I bought a maroon-ish color Element a few years ago and it's been good to me so far. I didn't personally care for the interior on the silver one, so I compromised, and it's worked out ok. It doesn't show the dirt too much, and it looks nice when it's clean.
My next car will be ACU camo. I will be invisible. :D
I wonder what a MC wrap job would cost...
I tend to drive vehicles that are considered a little on the drab side, and do so consciously.
In my younger days I drove some sportier vehicles/motorcycles and which were brightly painted and tricked out. My last muscle car was 1976 Chevrolet Chevelle, 350 Ci, bored .030 over, edelbrock intake and cam w/ Holley carb. I owned that car for close to 10 years and in that time it was broken into 3 times. Stereo's stolen, wheels stolen etc...
In my ripe old age of 45 I choose to drive low key vehicles. I don't allow bumper stickers or window decals on the vehicle as I see no reason to advertise to a thief that I am a memebr of the NRA. Or that I own and shoot X-Brand of rifle, Pistol Shotgun etc...
In my opinion you might as well put a sign in the window that says. Attention thiefs, if you break into my vehicle there is a good chance that you will be able to steal my Glock handgun, or my AR-15 carbine.
And I laugh everytime I see a Bob Marley decal in a teen's car window...Do you LEO's see these as a good indicator that the driver probably smokes Marijuana?
Didn't know about that one. Thanks, you probably saved me some $.
This law is in effect in Missouri as well.
304.022. 1. Upon the immediate approach of an emergency vehicle giving audible signal by siren or while having at least one lighted lamp exhibiting red light visible under normal atmospheric conditions from a distance of five hundred feet to the front of such vehicle or a flashing blue light authorized by section 307.175, RSMo, the driver of every other vehicle shall yield the right-of-way and shall immediately drive to a position parallel to, and as far as possible to the right of, the traveled portion of the highway and thereupon stop and remain in such position until such emergency vehicle has passed, except when otherwise directed by a police or traffic officer.
2. Upon approaching a stationary emergency vehicle displaying lighted red or red and blue lights, the driver of every motor vehicle shall:
(1) Proceed with caution and yield the right-of-way, if possible with due regard to safety and traffic conditions, by making a lane change into a lane not adjacent to that of the stationary vehicle, if on a roadway having at least four lanes with not less than two lanes proceeding in the same direction as the approaching vehicle; or
(2) Proceed with due caution and reduce the speed of the vehicle, maintaining a safe speed for road conditions, if changing lanes would be unsafe or impossible.
3. The motorman of every streetcar shall immediately stop such car clear of any intersection and keep it in such position until the emergency vehicle has passed, except as otherwise directed by a police or traffic officer.
http://www.moga.mo.gov/statutes/c300-399/3040000022.htm
Belmont31R
06-24-10, 12:25
Didn't know about that one. Thanks, you probably saved me some $.
Yeah you either have to slow down 20 under the limit or move over a lane. If you move over a lane such as on a freeway you don't have to slow down. On a two lane road like I was on you cant go into the oncoming lane, and where I got pulled over it was a double yellow because of the hill.
Id have been livid if I would have gotten a ticket for that since there was no way I could have slowed down any more than I did. Two motorcycle cops, and one was dealing with the pulled over car, and the other was running radar for the 20 under thing. As soon as I was let go he went after a truck that passed us...probably for the same thing.
i drive a forest green subaru 5 door hatch ("wagon")
it's pretty LE-invisible i think. about 1 in 4 cars in colorado is a green subaru. :o
she still rips though... like a little rally car :D
it's good to blend.
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