Nearly a quarter of drivers would refuse to buy a car if its colour represented a certain political party, according to a survey of motorists.
With a general election on the horizon, the report suggests that political consciousness may be rising before the UK heads to the polls.
And there is a similar response level from motorists when quizzed about purchasing a motor in the shade of a rival football team’s colours, proving that allegiances run deep for many Britons.
Does politics play a part when you’re buying a car? A quarter or drivers said they’d avoid purchasing a motor if it was painted the colour of a political party or football club they dislike
Under 30s are most likely to get political in their choice of car colour, with 47 per cent of young drivers polled saying they would refuse a car if its colour was associated with a political party.
Regionally, motorists from Belfast (44 per cent) and Londoners (40 per cent) were most likely to avoid a car tone due to its political connotations, according to the survey conducted by online car sales platform Cazoo.
It quizzed 2,000 UK motorists and found other interesting snippets about drivers’ colour preferences.
It discovered that 23 per cent of consumers would snub a car because its colour represented a rival football club.
In fact, football team allegiances are much stronger in some areas, with buyers from Belfast (41 per cent), Glasgow (38 per cent) and London (38 per cent) most likely to eschew a given paint tone due to the club allegiance it suggests.
Almost one in four motorists would snub a car because its colour represented a rival football club. We can’t imagine many Manchester City fans would want to be seen driving this Chevrolet Trax…
When respondents were asked if they could tell what kind of person someone is by the colour of their car, over half said they ‘probably’ or ‘definitely’ could.
Owners of blue cars are seen as loyal, caring, intelligent and funny, whereas people driving red cars are seen as passionate and vain.
Nearly 17 per cent of respondents believe drivers of grey or silver vehicles are boring.
That’s despite the fact grey has been the most popular new car colour for fourth consecutive years.
While motorists are often faced with a tougher choice when it comes to colour when trying to find a suitable used car (with paint often considered a less important feature), those buying new models have their choice from the palette.
However, they will likely be stung if they want anything other than standard tones, with black, red and blue often the no-cost extra from manufacturers – while white is now an increasingly popular optional extra, especially in recent years.
Yet some buyers are happy to pay extra for a car in the ‘right’ colour.
In fact, motorists would shell out an extra £600 on average to have their preferred paint colour.
And the survey results also reveal male drivers would spend more for their preferred colour than female drivers.
Rishi Patel, buying director at Cazoo, said: ‘Our survey results prove that car colour is an emotive subject and it’s intriguing to find out that almost a quarter of buyers nationwide say they would consider avoiding a car if its colour represented a certain political party or football team.
‘It’s no surprise, then, that a car’s colour can have a big impact on its value, or that 13 per cent of the people we asked would definitely pay more for a car in their favourite colour and 46 per cent possibly would.’
