WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2019
 No, car color does not affect your insurance rates. In fact, your insurer probably doesn't even know what color your car is.
This is, to be blunt, one of the sillier myths surrounding car insurance, but — to be fair — you can't blame people for making the assumption that car color and insurance rates are correlated. Auto insurance companies decide on rates and car values based on formulas that they tend to keep as trade secrets. Some of the factors that go into these decisions are well-known — such as a car's MSRP, age and safety features — while others are a mystery to the average driver.
The myth that car color affects your insurance rates does seem to owe to some actual truth regarding car color, though. Here, of course, we find another myth: That red cars are the dangerous ones. Red cars are supposedly more likely to be stolen, and more likely to be ticketed for speeding. In truth, red cars may be less likely to be stolen because of their unusual color. Thieves are looking for something that won't attract attention, and a flashy red, purple or yellow does exactly the opposite.
When it comes to traffic accidents, black cars are the only ones that really show a major spike in risk — particularly at night — given their lower visibility. If you want to reduce your likelihood of being in an accident, white colored vehicles tend to be the safest to drive. Again, this won't get you a discount on your insurance, but it may help you to stay out of a collision.
By and large the statistics show that car color is far less of a factor than make and model, driving record, and where you live. To put it another way: If your car insurance provider doesn't adjust your rates based on the color of your car, then you can go ahead and pick whatever color you like.
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