Car Colour Psychology

We look at the psychology of car colour, how much does the colour of your car reveal about your personality?

Henry Ford famously said “any customer can have a car painted in any colour he wants so long as it is black”. Luckily these days car manufacturers will provide their models in a kaleidoscope of colours (but black still remains popular!).

Just imagine for a second that you are buying a new car; you have done the test drives, read the car reviews on wheelsforwomen.ie, picked the make and model from a shortlist and now it’s time to make the purchase. But among the endless list of options there is one final decision to be made – what colour is your new motor going to be?

You pore over the car brochures and make a shortlist. In a rush of blood to the head will you go for the snazzy lime green that looks so great under the showroom lights? Or will you play it safe and stick to the old reliables?

Well more often than not you will go for the old reliables. Statistics show that silver, black and grey are the most popular car colours.

But what influences the colour we choose for our cars?

Some people will choose the colour based on resale values. Garages will often advise buyers away from the wacky colours in favour of the more traditional, safe colours which will not frighten even the most conservative driver when it comes to selling the car on.

If you bought the demo model for a quick sale then you didn’t have any choice but probably liked that colour anyway.

If you bought a used car it may have been a case of you found a model in good condition with low mileage so you compromised on the colour.

Then some cars just look great in particular colours.

So the point is that there are different factors at work when we choose a colour for our car. However for some people a car is an extension of their personality. Does the colour of our car secretly send a message to other road users about our personalities?

If you believe this then you will enjoy the list we have put together. These are the personality traits that researchers have matched to car colours. You may recognise yourself in the descriptions below or a friend, parent, sibling or partner!

Silver – Cool and elegant.

Grey – Hard working and calm.

Red – Energetic, daring and dynamic.

Dark green – Traditional, trustworthy and balanced.

Yellow green – Whimsical and lively.

Dark blue – Confident and dependable.

Light blue – Calm and quiet.

Purple – Creative and individual.

Pink – Gentle and loving.

Orange – Fun-loving and trendy.

White – Careful and methodical.

Cream – Reserved and self-contained.

Yellow – Upbeat, optimistic and youthful.

Black – Empowered, aggressive and not easily manipulated.

Gold – Independent and attention loving.

We know that silver is the most popular car colour so that means that there are a lot of you cool and elegant people out there!

What influenced the colour you chose for your car? Do you drive a blue car and are confident and dependable?

 

9th August, 2012

Author: wheelsforwomen

Ireland's only website for women on wheels - cars, motorbikes, bikes. Video/ reviews, driving tips - written by women for women.

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