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If You Don't Want Your Car Stolen, Make It Pink

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the how-to-quit-smoking-too dept.

pickens writes "A study in the Netherlands illustrates car thieves' preferences. From 2004-2008, the most commonly colored vehicle stolen was black. This may be because black vehicles look more luxurious. Following close behind black were gray/silver automobiles. Of the 109 pink cars in the study, not one was stolen. A bright and uncommon color, like pink, may be as effective deterrent as an expensive security system. Ben Vollaard, who conducted the research, wrote, 'If the aversion to driving a car in an offbeat color is not too high – or if someone actually enjoys it – then buying deterrence through an uncommon car color may be at least as good a deal as buying deterrence through an expensive car security device.'"

9 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. Hm... by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Of course, if everyone who didn't want their car stolen drove a pink car, then thieves would start stealing pink cars, and some other color would become the least popular.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
    1. Re:Hm... by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think that analogy fails: the technical differences between operating systems are a bit more significant than the technical differences between car colors. I could be wrong, though, and it may also be the case that nobody is painting a car worth stealing pink...

      --
      Palm trees and 8
  2. Solution to theft by quatin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Have stuff nobody wants.

    1. Re:Solution to theft by Aphoxema · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My dad drove a POS 94 Ford Ranger up until a few months ago and he never locked the doors. The only time it was broken into in the whole time he owned it was when kids were going around the movie theater parking lot stealing change out of cars. I bet they made a whole lot of money doing that...

      I had a cousin who never locked his doors because if someone was going to steal his shit he didn't want them breaking his windows to do it. Eventually someone got into his car to steal his stereo, but even though the doors were unlocked they had smashed the driver side window.

      --
      "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
    2. Re:Solution to theft by tophermeyer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Electricians I used to work with would replace the guts of their old broken power tools with the guts of the new shiny ones, leaving the old busted plastic casing.

      To be funny, they would then put the old guts into the new shiny cases and leave them lying around for people to find and steal. Eventually people stopped stealing tools from their job sites because even their new pretty tools didn't work.

  3. Maybe it's simpler than that. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Perhaps the thieves prefer to drive something hard to pick out of a crowd?

    Pretty easy to find the stolen pink anything. Not as easy to find the stolen blue Civic. If you have a choice of cars (and in most cases thieves do) you'd pick something you can get away with for longer.

  4. Or you could by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Drive a stick shift :)

  5. Resale Value by bencollier · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Of course, the crazy colour will also affect resale value, so the money you save in insurance you lose in depreciation.

  6. Only part of the story by Palestrina · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For example, pink cars might garner a greater degree of derision, leading to a greater incidence of vandalism. They might be pulled over more for speeding. Their owners might be more often victims of other crimes. Mechanics might inflate prices more.

    What you want to look at is the "total cost of ownership" for the car over a period of time, as a function of color.