I've often thought that red is a bad color for little cars. I was just reading about poor MiniCooperJD's double crashes in his CR/W MC, and I thought, "Coincidence?" Or is the red color working against him?

I have a friend who owns a red 1990 Honda CRX. He has been run off the road, out of his lane and almost into a Jersey barrier no less than 6 times. The MINI has the exact same length, front to rear as the CRX, so I figure the comparison applies in this case. I also know a 20+ year veteran driver, who had a red Fiero GT for not even a year and had destroyed it when someone slammed into him.

I think some insurance companies list a red color as a liability, and make owners of red cars pay a bit more on their rates. Is the whole red thing coincidence, old wives' tale, or is there some truth to it.

And for the MINI owners who have crashed, what's the color of your car?

 

I've actually watched a couple episodes of some shows on tv about this. Apparently what it came down to, is that the color red triggers something like fear, caution, danger, and such in a person's head. Which in turn may put too much focus on the car and not what the driver is doing.
Kinda like when I was a teeny bopper, taking my drivers course. They put a chalk brush way up the test course street, and told everyone that it was there, and not to hit it or come close to it under any circumstances. So when the majority of people that drove up the street, wondering where it was and when they'll come up on it, and finally saw it, they ran it over because they put too put attention and focus on it. They were scared to hit it being that the instructor was so demanding on not to hit it, instead of concentrating on where they were driving. I avoided it with flying colors.
Not only that, but red catches ones' eye quicker than a lot of colors out there. And if it happens to be a nice smokin'-hot lady driving a beauty of a red Ferrari, well than their eyes may stay glued to that car and the driver for a bit longer. And then WHAM...a nice big rectal raping of the car in front. :(
But other than that, I think a good part of that whole study is just a buncha hooey. There's a lot more factors at play than just color, when it comes to accidents. But I must admit, there's is some kind of a connection there.
Cheerio,

 

I'm sure there's been tons of research on this....and I wouldn't want to argue with any of it, but my IB/W MINI is recovering from a wreck at a local garage and the guy at the shop said he had five IBs in there getting repaired at the same time. I don't doubt it, as the other day when I was visiting (you know...to keep my MINI's morale up) I saw three of them myself. (...and one DS!) I kept thinking I'd found my car, but it wound up being someone else's banged up IB. Just some random anecdotal evidence for the sake of discussion....

 

I have a CR/W MC and so far thank God nothing has happened in 14 months.

Someone did rear end me at a light once, but barely scratched the chrome trim on the bumper.

That being said, it is a well known fact that "red" causes nervousness, excitement, anxiety in people. THis is why I fear for the new owners with body color dashes. I couldn't drive properly if I had to stare at a red dashboard.

 

Red cars pay a higher premium up here because they are stollen more often,my red truck got stollen.My daughter's red 95 Mazda 323 cost's close to my 03 BRG MC's insurance .

 

The color of your Mini might not matter as much as your name!

The other day on Car Talk they mentioned that the insurance industry has correlated accident claims to people's first names. The female name with the highest claims is Natasha. About 1/3 of all insured drivers named Natasha has filed accident claims! I forget which male name has the highest claims...

:smile:

 

Thanks for pointing this out... but honestly, my insurance company (State Farm) does not upcharge for the color. Indeed, I have bad luck these past couple of weeks... but it pales in comparison to what could have happened. Now, my family thinks that red cars are trouble, and had no problem telling me that when I told them about the accidents...

 

Let 'em think that red cars in general are trouble. Just as long as those family members don't start thinking that MINI cars are trouble. Especially if one of those people is a spouse or some other decision making relative.

And, look on the bright side JD: If they say that lightning rarely strikes twice in the same spot, then it's nearly impossible to strike three times.

 

I had a red Civic EX coupe in the past...loved the car, but was a parking lot accident magnet... in the short 15months I had the car, it got hit more than 4 times. I got sick of it and sold it for a new car in a different color.

Ever since then, Ive never even considered purchasing a red car.

 

In 2003 I was rear-ended witin a two week interval on my both cars, one silver and one light blue. One of the drivers was an un-insured cop wife, the other one an stupid tailgater that hit me even I thou I turned on the blinkers. I don't think the colors played a role .

 

In your case, silver and light blue is not a good color.

 

I've owned both a yellow CRX si and a MR2 Spyder. Both cars lasted less than 48 hours before being hit. The crx was hit no less than 4 times. Two people said they never saw me, one rear ended me and the other plowed into the side of my car (his windows were covered with frost so he probably didn't see me). I went with a black MINI and so far (and I know I shouldn't say this) so good.

 

02 CR/W MCS here with racing stripes and (knock on old TR6 dash) so far no problems.

I think its all urban legend stuff but Murphy's Law will prevail and if you're nervous about it try another color. The yellow is pretty hot.

 

I have noticed that people don't pay attention to red cars for some reason. I have had people pull directly in front of me in traffic as if they don't see me in my Red GTI and MCS. Never happens in any of my other cars. Weird.

 

Well, I don't know if it's like this everywhere, but most of the driving schools (mostly affiliated with the high schools) use yellow cars for student drivers. I assume it's because the instructors at least consider it a safer color (more visible?). I certainly didn't pick my LY because of the safety thing; I just like the color. :smile:

 

When I got a red Honda civic,all my friends said "oh, you got the "arrest me now" red!"" I truley think that the man has it out for red cars,I got 4 speeding tickets with that car and none with the 3 other civics I owned, all different colors. When I got the MCS in DS/W, my brother in law made a statement that he would guess that the color would be dropped almost imediately because it was too close to the color of pavement, and as such would have a higher percentage of accidents.

 

Paying attention keeps you out of most accidents
I do like my white roof,I,m told thats what poeple see:smile: