What Color Cars Are More Expensive To Insure?

Does car color affect insurance? It’s a fair question and one with a bit of a roundabout answer. Calculating your insurance premium can be tricky, and often the smallest details can have a surprising effect on how much you’ll pay. So let’s take a deep dive into the topic.

Does the Color of Your Car Affect Your Insurance?

The truth is that color does affect car insurance, but not as directly as you might expect.

Demand

The price of your vehicle directly affects the insurance rates you pay, and one of the things that affects price is demand. Because certain vehicle colors are more in demand than others, color can have an indirect bearing on your insurance rates.

A recent study of the most popular car colors revealed these biases in the American market:

• White – 25.8%
• Black – 22.3%
• Gray – 18.4%
• Silver – 12.1%
• Blue – 9.5%
• Red – 8.6%
• Brown – 0.9%
• Green – 0.8%
• Orange – 0.6%
• Beige – 0.5%
• Purple – 0.3%
• Gold – 0.2%
• Yellow – 0.1%

As you can see, white and black are the most popular car colors, meaning the demand and thus insurance rates for them are higher.

Value

The perceived value of your vehicle is also tied to your insurance rates. For example, vehicles with a custom paint job are valued higher and, as a result, have higher rates. Brightly colored vehicles on the other hand tend to have cheaper resell value and are harder to resell than other popular colors thanks to their low popularity.

Because they’re easily noticeable, bright vehicles are also at less risk of being stolen. The decreased risk of theft and lower perceived value to resellers means some insurance companies might offer you cheaper rates for a brightly colored vehicle. So, the cheapest color car to insure is likely one with brighter colors.

Main Factors That Affect Car Insurance Rates

The impact that car color has on insurance rates is still pretty marginal. Here are some more important factors for insurance rates that you should keep an eye on:

Demographic Factors

A number of demographic factors can affect your insurance rates. For example, depending on where you live and park your car, the risk of theft or vehicular accidents can go up or down. Insurance rates for urban areas are generally higher than rural areas for this reason.

Your age, gender, and marital status are also taken into consideration when assessing the risks and resulting insurance rates.

Your Vehicle’s Type, Make, and Model

You’ll also see differences in insurance rates depending on the type of vehicle you drive as well as its make and model. Vans have the lowest rates, followed by trucks and SUVs. Cars, especially those from luxury brands, are the most expensive vehicle to insure. Insurers even take into account model years that are known to suffer from higher rates of theft, crashes, and repair costs.

Your Driving Record

Your personal driving history has a lot of sway on your insurance rates. If you’ve got a history of poor driving, auto insurers will see it as an indication that you’re more likely to file a claim in the future. Because of this, the rates for at-fault accidents will go up a significant amount. Of all the incidents on a driver’s record, the ones regarding driving under the influence (DUI) are what increase premiums the most.

Your Vehicle’s Age

Given the high cost of repairing modern vehicles, age also has an impact on insurance rates. Many modern cars have advanced features like blind-spot sensors and rear-view cameras that are costly to repair or replace, meaning their insurance rates are higher. As a result, it’s significantly less expensive to insure a five-year-old vehicle compared to its brand-new counterpart.

Your Credit Rating

In most states, car insurance companies use credit-based insurance scores while determining premiums. California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Michigan are the exceptions here. These insurance companies believe that policyholders with good credit ratings will file fewer claims when compared to policyholders with lower credit ratings. The lower rates can stack up to thousands of dollars a year depending on the insurers.

Annual Mileage

Insurance companies take your annual mileage into account when calculating their offered rates. Each company will have its own standards for low, average, and high mileage. But, in general, the average number of miles annually driven by Americans is around 13,500. Anything under this 13,500 average can be considered low mileage. Certain companies drop their standards even lower to 10,000 miles though.

If you drive under or over the average annual number of miles, then your rates might go up or down accordingly.

Type of Insurance Coverage

The types of insurance coverage you choose will ultimately affect your car insurance premium. Most states will require you to have at least liability coverage. The other coverage found in car insurance policies include comprehensive coverage, collision coverage, uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, and medical payments or personal injury protection. These differ from state to state as well. Towing and labor costs, rental reimbursement, and sound system coverage are all also available as optional coverages.

Limits and Deductibles

The limit of your insurance policy is the maximum amount it’ll give you to put toward a covered loss. Each coverage in a policy will have its own limit, but you can request to adjust these based on your needs. Just keep in mind that the more coverage you purchase, the more expensive your rates will be.

On the other hand, the deductible is the amount of money you agree to give the insurer before your insurance activates. If you have a higher deductible, you’ll probably find yourself paying less in total for your policy.