Seagull magnets?
The exterior colour of a car presses many a person’s button but I wonder if the colour of a car has any other flow on effects?
Something a little funnier, though. Britain’s Daily Mail has recorded some results that some scientists have found out about car colour. Crimson coloured cars are much more likely to be splattered by bird poo! In a study, the scientists found that 18 percent of red cars were found to be poohed on, compared to just the 1 percent of green cars. Green cars were the least soiled of the car colours. I wonder if the red colour of a car spells danger for birds, which results in the bird having a bowel movement.
Silver is a very common colour for a car, and it’s amazing to see the number of times it takes out top spot for colour. One of the reasons for this is that silver does show off the car’s exterior lines very well. Choosing a grey car also helps to hide the dirt. So if you happen to live in an area with a high bird population, either buy a green car for a low hit rate or grey to hide the droppings. White and red are the worst for displaying bird droppings, though!
To the issue of safety: white cars are safest, so too are yellow cars. Green, black, blue and grey cars are not so easily seen, particularly in some lighting scenarios. The colour of your car does play a role on how easily seen you will be on the road.
Now, what about other sorts of grub and the car colours that suit them – or don’t suit them – best. Let’s take the type of car that’s most likely to get grubby: a 4×4 that actually goes bush rather than just transporting the family around town. Ideally, the best colours for these would be sort of brownish greens – khaki would be good. And you do see some green ones around. However, they tend to be darker green, which shows off all the light coloured dirt and mud. This may actually be the idea. Worst colours would have to be white and black. As many people have said, there are two sorts of dirt: the light sort attracted to dark objects and the dark sort attracted to light objects. So black and white 4×4 (meaning black ones and white ones; zebra striped Safari styles are good dirt-hiders) are mud magnets.
Trade vans also end up looking shabby. The ever-popular white van might be great for displaying logos and advertising but if the job involves anything dirty, there’s a chance you’re going to get it on the paintwork. So maybe white may not be quite so good after all. This is a good topic to mention a mate of mine who was an interior plasterer. He couldn’t find a cheap white van – not even a good old bog-standard Mazda van – but saw a dark pink one (Metallic Rose would have been the description if it had been a lipstick) that nobody wanted because pink isn’t the colour for a Real Man. He bought the pink one and is now very recognisable as The Guy With The Pink Van And The Bulldog. It’s good advertising, I guess. But white would have suited a plasterer.
The final word? Well, it really depends on how often you want to head to the car wash or spend time with a bucket of warm soapy water!
Level 2, 9 Help Street