Want To Stop Car Thieves? Paint Your Car Yellow

If you're looking to keep your car out of the hands of thieves, try getting a paint job. A new study based on automobile data from the Netherlands suggests cars painted in bright, unusual colors are far less likely to be stolen. (Hat tip to Paul Kedrosky.)

At Vox Ben Vollard notes that in the Netherlands students have taken to painting their bicycles pink or yellow, which makes it all that much easier to spot thieves. Applying this idea to cars, Vollard finds that car color has a significant impact on rates of theft. Thieves, it turns out, do a quick economic analysis of the resale value before jacking a vehicle. Black, silver, grey and blue are the favorites; yellow, pink and red are the least likely to be stolen.

Here's more from Vollard:

The three most common colours - black, blue, and silver/grey - are stolen more frequently than the uncommon colours. Pink is the perfect deterrent: none of the 109 pink cars (aged up to three years) have been stolen over the last few years. Noticeable is the rate of theft for black cars, which is higher than the rate for the most popular colour, silver/grey. There may well be something else than colour that makes black cars relatively attractive to car thieves. Black is more popular for luxury makes. However, if we exclude the three luxury makes Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, we find the same pattern - albeit at a slightly lower overall rate of theft (right bars in Figure 2). It could be that the most expensive models (independent of make) are more likely to be black, but that is not clear and not easy to test.

And, Vollard suggests, you might want to think twice before you buy an ear-shattering car alarm: "If the aversion to driving a car in an offbeat colour is not too high - or if someone actually enjoys it - then buying deterrence through an uncommon car colour may be at least as good a deal as buying deterrence through an expensive car security device."

Check out the full study here.

Comments

[Benjo333]

04:28 PM on 07/07/2010

Cars should come in one color...black...just as Mr Ford suggested. Yellow! Never! I have had two vehicles that were not black, both of which I was thrilled to get rid of...

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

01:49 AM on 07/07/2010

This must explain why I still have my yellow 1968 Ford pickup.

[TerryDArc]

08:07 PM on 07/06/2010

What a beeeeyoooteeefullll Scion! Love that car! Scion's rule!

[Slingingstones]

10:39 AM on 07/06/2010

New car option: The Cameleon paint job.

Your car turns yellow upon being stolen, all tires deflate and makes sounds like a "woopy" cushion.

[HighDesertBob]

01:46 PM on 07/07/2010

I like it.

Fanned!

[lastpost]

10:25 AM on 07/06/2010

“Paint Your” (Volks) Wagon?
Law enforcement have for some time been aware of cars that change colour. After they have been stolen.

[Complex757]

10:15 AM on 07/06/2010

I'd take a yellow camaro

I wonder fi they'll buy me one to see if this theory is correct.

[IndolentFlourish]

08:35 AM on 07/06/2010

Yellow is a bright happy colour. No wonder car thieves avoid it. They are sad and ashamed about their behavior. We should GIVE car thieves yellow cars. Perhaps then, the world would be a better place.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

01:46 AM on 07/07/2010

I don't just toss around fanning, but you made me smile from the couch in my yellow submarine. Fanned.

[AlamoSexual]

08:33 AM on 07/06/2010

Terrible survey with a slanted outcome. They didn't work overall vehicle populations into the mix - meaning there must be at least (guessing) 50,000 black and silver vehicles for each pink one.

Using their determinations, I can safely state that not one of 109 black cars with a St. Christopher statue on the dash was stolen, either.

[provgrays1]

08:20 AM on 07/06/2010

The color doesn't matter at all if the thief takes it to a chop shop.

[cvbnm67]

08:16 AM on 07/06/2010

Car theives are not concerned about the make or color of your car, they are more concerned about the background or occupation of the owner.

Think about it.

[Kreskytim]

08:28 AM on 07/07/2010

I'm thinking...still got nothing.

[cvbnm67]

03:04 PM on 07/07/2010

Why steal a car from a cop, FBI agent, gangster, hitman, mobster, millionaire with means of revenge etc...

It is just not worth the trouble. Car theives are more likely to steal a car where they belive the owner will only call the insurance agent and forget about tracking down the perpetrator.

Dangerous people with money drive nice cars of all colors that rarely get stolen.

Just an observation.

[Igor13]

08:11 AM on 07/06/2010

This tip works well for maintaining celebacy too!

[floodmfx]

07:54 AM on 07/06/2010

I think I will risk it rather than paint my car that color

[rel77]

07:51 AM on 07/06/2010

That's a great suggestion, painting your car yellow. Here's a couple of others:
To avoid getting mugged, dress in rags and smear feces over your body.
To prevent a burglary in your home, try painting the front of your house with graffiti.
See where I'm going with this?

[audeo03]

07:58 AM on 07/06/2010

No.

[gayandmarried]

07:26 AM on 07/06/2010

I LOVE yellow cars,, ive had about a dozen yellow cars in my lifetime and drive a yellow toyota yaris now!!
no WONDER i only pay $50 a month to insure that car with full coverage!

[obelis kreative]

06:32 AM on 07/06/2010

A yellow car is truly an abomination, very hard on the eyes, and suitable only for the colour blind.

[Kreskytim]

07:49 PM on 07/07/2010

I think color blind people see yellow?!