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E-mail this ArticleAccording to PPG Industries, the major supplier of automotive paint, silver ranked as the most popular car color in 2005. Silver vehicles accounted for 27 percent of the North American market. Red and white tied for second place (14 percent), followed by black (13 percent) and blue (12 percent).
Meanwhile, in a separate study, a team of researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand ranked silver as the safest color. Compared with white, silver vehicles were 50 percent less likely to be involved in a collision resulting in serious injury. Yellow, gray, red and blue cars did about as well as white cars. The worst colors? Brown, black and dark green cars showed the highest incidence of crashes. These findings support previous research showing that lighter-colored cars have fewer collisions.
Researchers examined crashes over a 14- month period in New Zealand and mathematically accounted for driver age, vehicle condition, safety belt use and other factors that could influence crash and injury rates. The results appeared in the British Journal of Medicine.
