Bart!

The thing was stopped at a red light (in the dark) and I swear it seemed invisible to me, plus it was raining... just thought i'd share.. silver cars are dangerous :X

Raptor2k

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therm8

Silver cars just seem to vanish in the rain. I'll never own one. I wish someone would gather accident statistics based on car color. It would probably prove the curse of the silver car.

Dinhx8

? I'd have to disagree here. its called just paying attention. if drivers did what the law said and turned on lights in the rain then there would not be a problem. Color has nothing to do with it in my opinion, its all driver. Accident stats based on car color? The variables are way to high to ever reach a conclusion. Sure 20 silver cars may have been in wrecks versus 5 red ones. but how the heck do you know the drivers weren't just plain stupid.

i like silver cars in my opinion and if anyone were to ever hit me and dare blame the color i'd be furious.

therm8

Kind of hard to solve the problem by "paying attention." I probably the most attentive driver on the road that you'll ever meet. When the car's 50ft in front of you and you can't see it because it's silver/grey, particularly with the spray coming from their tires, tells me there's a problem there. Pay attention all you like, you still can't see it. Any other color has 2-3 times the visibility range in the rain, even black. Even tail lights are hard to see until the brakes go on. Now, I'm used to the southern rains, which are usually torrential, maybe it's different elsewhere...

Bart!

My point exactly, silvers are tough on the eyes man.

Scrapula

I've owned 11 cars so far in my life. Two of them have been silver. I was hit by other cars twice in my life, both times were in the silver cars. One of them, a 99 VW GTI VR6 had daytime running lights, so it wasn't due to me not turning on the headlights. Silver is hard to see.

gonnahanvan8

I also hate silver cars for the visibility aspect. However, my insurance company posts a newsletter every once in a while and there was a study implying that silver was the safest color to have. I still disagree.

Dinhx8

im not doubting your driving at all. I see your point, Im not gonna argue that a red car is easier to see than a silver. But careful driving is ultimately the decisive factor. When it rains, you should increase your driving distance. Point is, unless you're blind, you can see a car in front of you. Not sure what you mean by 'still can't see it'. If you can see spray from the tires, doesn't that mean you can see it? Increase your distance in the rain. And you wont hit people.

Dinhx8

well, what happened? Im sure there are other factors in your accidents and the coincidence is that they are silver.

If a drunk driver is driving a silver car, would you blame the color?

khtm

I guess none of you "silver car" haters have heard about this NZ study:

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4504

spork

bah, my brilliant black car seems to be an accident magnet.

i got in an accident with a drunk driver running a red light. (now that i think about it, i probably could've gotten seriously hurt or killed if i were in that intersection a second earlier)

i was almost in another accident where some guy barreled through a red light right between the guy in front of me and me. like probably was going like 40 and would've completely blindsided me. another one where if i were in the intersection a little earlier, i would've been seriously hurt or killed.

just this weekend, i was driving and the person in the lane right of me in an SUV and like 1 foot away from my car suddenly swerves into my lane. no signal. no slowly turning into my lane to let me know so i can slow down. she flat out jerked her steering wheel really fast... put it this way, if i were a few feet farther ahead, i probably would've been pushed into the next lane.

ugh, i have no idea what it is with this car. with my previous car i hardly ever got into any situation which could've become a serious accident.

Y&Y

I don't believe color should matter. At least at night. Hell a dark green car can look black at night. My point is as long as I can see the headlights and rear lights then there shouldn't be a problem. If its raining well no one should be driving fast. And if you can't see 5 feet in front you, then you shouldn't be on the road. I've driven in pretty bad weather a few times. Most accidents happen cuz at least one side didn't pay attention.

And insurance premiums based on the color of the car, now thats being racist.

Detrich

No one is driving with 100% attention all the time, because we are human. The rods & cones in our eyes adjust to light & to color accordingly. So, to say that color and light make no difference is completely illogical.

Ultimately, the more attentive we are while driving determines what we see. But, anything that can marginally make visibility better is a plus and may potentially make a difference.

portero23

If one particular color is more visible than another, then it is inherently safer, period. Accidents due to poor visibility of the vehicle's color could still be due to poor attention span of the driver, but had the car been bright orange, the accident *could* possibly be avoided...

For what reason do road construction workers wear bright orange vs. urban camouflage? Bright colors can stand out, period, while others can get lost in similar-hued backgrounds. Silver/titanium in grey weather like rain, black vehicles in night, etc...

Color can't be blamed for accidents, but it can exacerbate the problems of an inattentive driver.

-P23

REMillers

What about black cars? Should they be banned? They can have the same affect in the rain, and don't even get started on at night time.

So I guess you want all cars to be bright construction color orange?

But wait that won't help to much either cause everyone will get use to the color and not notice it as much.


Really the only solution; though it isn't the best, is to pay attention and give room were needed.

If you can't see a silver car in the rain with even the lights on, then the color of the car has nothing to help there.

StealthFox

+1 for a good post

Bart!

That was just retarded.

Rotor Kreuzer

I have a brilliant black and I swear it's an animal magnet: cats and iguanas have all run right in front of my 8, a stork nearly flew onto the windshield, a dog hit by a car on the opposite lane bounced right off it and onto my 8! It almost took off my front bumper judging by how much the bumper was displaced, and some missing screws!

I guess we all need to invest in some really bad-*** car neons huh?

Vertigo-1

iTrader: (3)

I can't help but agree with the issue of silvers being hard to see in rain or at dusk. Just recently I nearly got into a major accident because of it. It was a rainy day with the entire sky having a gray overcast, and I just *had* this feeling some moron was likely to not see me, so I turned on my parking/side marker lights, which I had switched out to super whites, so it's quite decently visible. I was doing a left turn at a T-intersection onto a highway, and there were traffic lights for me and the highway. It turned green for me, I did my traditional pause for 2-3 seconds in case some idiot was running the red, and then started turning.

Just as I was about to complete the turn, a car just came FLYING right by me doing probably 50. I mean it barely missed my front right fender. I just could not believe my eyes. Because 1. At this point the light had already been red for probably 7 seconds for the highway side and HE STILL BLATANTLY RUNS THE RED LIGHT?!?! 2. He completely acted as if he didn't nearly take my whole front off, didn't suddenly brake or anything, just kept whizzing on...I certainly slammed on my brakes immediately. I mean really, judging by how close he came to my car, it really was as if he competely couldn't see me!

Another time, I was coming down a two lane road at about 45 MPH about the time right after the sun goes down, and I didn't happen to have my lights on since it was still pretty light, somewhat grayish by then, but I was still able to see just fine. A car on the other side of the lane started to attempt a left turn when I was probably 3 car lengths away from it. I immediately started slamming on my horn...and yet he STILL kept trying to go, as if he couldn't see me coming at all! By then I didn't have enough room to brake and avoid crashing, so I accelerated hard and barely managed to swerve right, and past his front end.

This is most definitely the last time I'm buying a silver car, especially being that I live in probably the rainiest city in the U.S.

Dinhx8

true, but I'd say the difference "safety" factor is hard to determine because you're calling the silver car less safe under an assumption that 'people don't notice it'. That same assumption implies the person is less aware which leads to the conclusion that its more the driver than color.

Sure, flourescent is brighter than some colors. But the simple fact is that they're both visible, period. People act as if silver is invisible. Its not. What separates those that can see silver and not? Its the peopel that don't drive well or don't pay enough attention.

Dinhx8

you said it yourself "some moron was likely to not see me". sounds more like the morons problem than your color.