As a seasoned insurance agent, for decades I have been asked a variation of the question, “Do red cars cost more on car insurance; more to insure?”.
The answer is a resounding……………………….. NO!!!
I have never seen the color of a vehicle change the rate. In addition, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III), the color of the car you drive does NOT affect the price of auto insurance.
In fact, the VIN# doesn’t even pull the vehicle color and insurance agents don’t ask that as part of the application so it makes absolutely no difference about the color of your vehicle.
I have thought about this off/ on for many years and the only explanation I can come up with for this “urban legend” is that many sports cars were red in color, going back to the 1950’s. Therefore, red, being a flashy, eye-catching color, that cops likely targeted such cars for speeding violations! More violations translate into higher insurance premiums due to the surcharges applied due to these violations found on MVR/ driving record. Insurance companies run MVRs at start of a new policy and usually once per year at renewal.
So, I think this is how the correlation/ association was made and likely the reasoning behind this was dropped and all people remember is that red cars= higher premium. Its not true, unless that red car gets you violations.