Colourful Car Insurance

There are many things that insurance brokers take into account when providing potential car insurance policyholders with quotes for their monthly premiums. Some of the things that affect the premium are obviously out of the customer's control, such as the general state of the country's infrastructure and the rising crime rate.

Your vehicle's colour affects your premium If you have a white, red or black car, you could be paying more than someone with a blue or green car.

But what many insurance companies don't tell consumers is that the very colour of the car they drive could actually affect their premiums as well!

Insurance companies work on statistics when they determine a policy rate, and these statistics include the risk factor for certain cars - not only their brands but also their colours.

For example, a white car is considered to be a higher risk as thieves tend to steal them because they are easier to re-spray quickly after a 'job'. In addition, red and black cars are are higher collusion risks.

"We tend to find that the personality of the motorist is reflected in their choice of colour car and that the vehicle will be driven accordingly," said Haydn Marchant, the head of sales for Lion of Africa. "Red cars and black cars tend to be driven more aggressively, which is why they are often the colours of sports cars. Motorists tend to drive them a lot harder, which makes them high-risk. More peaceful colors tend to be driven a lot more carefully."

So which colours are considered 'positive' in the eyes of car insurance companies?

Most agree that green, and especially blue are "good", while colors such as silver gray should be avoided because they are not especially visible at certain hours of the day and therefore come with a higher risk.

"There is no scientific reason behind why red and black are colors that are higher collusion risks," said Marchant, "but these cars have definitely been involved in more accidents at the moment. As to why this is, nobody actually knows."