Why Are Red Cars More Expensive To Insure: Fact Check

Colour psychologists who studied cars and drivers’ behaviour think that drivers with red-coloured cars are more likely to be extroverts. Extrovert or not, you have every right to buy a red car for yourself if that’s the colour of your choice.

Many Americans (as many as 44% of them) tend to believe that red cars are more expensive to insure. However, there’s no actual evidence to support this claim. This article aims to clarify if the colour has any direct (or indirect) influence on your insurance cost. Moreover, we’ll also discuss the factors that actually and directly affect your car insurance cost.

Car Color Preference

Axalta, in their 68th Global Automotive Car Popularity report 2020, has published the car colour preference of the average global car buyer.

White retained the top stop, with 38% of the car buyers opting for white cars – 27% preferring solid white and 11% going with pearl white. Grey came second with 15%, followed by silver (9%) and blue (7%). Red garnered a distant fifth, with only 5% of the total car buyers choosing red-coloured cars.

Since red is now a minority colour, it is easy to spot on the road, and its striking appearance makes heads turn – possibly even of the police officers and the traffic cams. This led to the popular belief that red cars are fined more, leading to their high insurance premium cost. However, a study revealed that non-flashy cars like grey and silver are involved in more accidents than red ones and are thereby responsible for most of the fines.

Do Red Coloured Cars Cost More To Insure?

Let us settle this once and for all. The colour of your vehicle–red or otherwise–does not have any impact on your car insurance premium. An insurer does not charge a car insurance premium based on the car’s colour because there is simply no provision in their terms and conditions that allows them to discriminate between two cars based on their colour.

As highlighted earlier, there’s no statistical evidence either that proves that red cars are fined more. Hence, we can conclude that there is no correlation between your car’s colour and your insurance cost.

However, there are several factors a car insurance company takes into consideration before deciding the car insurance cost. Although the colour is not a direct determinant of the premium you have to shell out, there are certain scenarios where your car’s colour can affect other factors, which indirectly affect the car insurance premium.

When Color Can Affect Your Car’s Insurance Cost

Although the car insurance company does not take interest in your car’s colour, it considers your car’s total value and repair costs. Depending on the car’s model and service history, your car can have varying amounts of insurance premium.

Custom paint on your car increases your car’s overall value and, in turn, its repair costs. Simply put, custom paint implies that you will have to shell out more insurance premiums. Moreover, any additional spare part can also shoot up your car insurance cost.

Red cars are easy to identify on the road, so a speeding offence most likely wouldn’t go unnoticed. So, if you get a lot of tickets (regardless of the colour of your car), the cost of your car insurance will automatically go up. 

What Factors Are Responsible For Your Car’s Insurance Cost

Your car insurance provider takes into account several factors, including your driving pattern, to decide the insurance premium of your car. They do this to get an estimate of your chance of filing a claim. Also, they want to zero in on the repair costs they will be looking at if you do file a claim.

Here are the factors that influence your insurance premium:

1. Make and model of the car:

The make and model of your car are important because they ultimately decide the value of the car. The more the value, the more will be the insurance premium.

2. The driver of the car: 

The drivers are directly responsible for the accidents; hence an inexperienced driver or a driver with a poor record will raise the premium. All past repair schedules as well as speeding tickets and accidents are tracked to know more about the driver’s driving behaviour.

3. The number of miles you’ve driven:

This helps in deciding the driver’s driving pattern and the life and health of the car.

4. Your neighbourhood, town, or city:

Your complete address will be needed. A bad neighbourhood or one where accidents are common will demand a higher insurance premium.

5. Your home’s parking facilities:

A lot depends on where you keep your car – whether the parking facility is covered or not and how secure it is.

6. Your age and gender:

The age and gender of the owner are needed to analyze the driving pattern further. Generally, older drivers get by with lower premiums, whereas younger ones have to shell out more.

Notice how the above-mentioned factors mostly cover details about your driving behaviour and the car’s make and model, not your car’s colour!

How To Find The Best Car Insurance For Your Red Car

If you’re trying to find the best car insurance for your red car, keep in mind that there’s no car insurance designed specifically for your red car. If your car doesn’t have any custom paint or custom parts, and your driving behaviour is reasonably good, your car insurance premium will not be as high as you might think.

Also, the absence of previous claims and major accidents will keep your insurance cost low. However, before you purchase car insurance, it is advisable that you get at least three quotes from different car insurance companies; so that you can avoid any unwarranted high price.

Endnote

Red car insurance costs more is a myth. It all depends on how expensive and unique the paint and make of your car is. Before you put your foot down on a specific car insurance scheme, visit this site to compare the quotes from Canada’s leading car insurance companies. This will not only help you in finding the cheapest car insurance but also the one which will give you maximum coverage and other benefits.