Correlation between car color and political leanings?

Interesting observation. I’ve been scratching my head on this, and I only seem to be able to recall four people with white vehicles. Those people are conservatives, and they were all raised in the Christian faith, though not all were devout. That said, I know there are an awful lot of conservative Christians out there that drive something other than a white vehicle.

You may be on to something. For the last 20 years I driven a white Ford Ranger pick-up and I’m a conservative GOP supporter. I’ll keep my eyes open for this.

I can extinguish one false belief, concerning red automobiles and traffic stops by the police.

Red autos are no more attractive to police officers, than any other color on an automobile.

I ran my own survey for a year. The vehicles I have stopped on a traffic violation, mainly are silver or grey, not red.

This may have nothing to do with your question, but its a need to know, maybe?

Here are some more details on why I think there may be something here….

- In every part of my family, and the family of my close friends, there is a handful of right-leaning Christians. Without exception, they drive white cars/SUVs. Nobody else I know drives a white vehicle.
– Again, could be confirmation bias, but I’m not so sure: whenever I see a white car/truck with some kind of bumper sticker, I drive up closer to see what it is. My guess is that 99% of the time, they are right-wing messages or “Got Jesus?”.
– I have conducted some surveys with my coworkers at various jobs without discussing my intent. In almost every case, if he drove a white vehicle, he was a very religious Republican.

@gondwanalon, if you discover that there is something to this, I’d be curious to find out why this is.

Truck owners vs car owners vs alternative powered cars vs sports cars…. I can see.

Car color itself, I doubt.

(especially since automakers are required to limit certain colors and make en-masse others…. count how many brand new red cars you see on the road….. compare that to white and black)

Also, at first I thought it might be a socioeconomic thing, assuming that white cars were less expensive. Having lived in very blue-collar towns over the years, and now living in a snotty white-collar town, I still see the white car thing.

In the working-class towns, the cars were more beat up. In my current town, the Christian
church parking lots are filled with white, expensive SUVs on Sunday morning.

And again – I’m not calling out individual people who may or may not drive a white car. Rather, I’m asking if anyone has observed this as a larger trend.

Well, my sister drives a white car, and she is a very liberal atheist. If that is of any use. I also used to drive a white car, and I am not Republican or religious. My father, on the other hand, probably fits your description, but has always driven a brown/tan truck or navy blue.

Does anyone know how to remove a question? A “regret” button?

I owned a white car, and I am liberal and socially forward.

I owned a white car once. It was a 300Zx, I drove it like a bat outta hell. I’m no Christian nor do I car about politics.

I think I may have offended people with this question. I am still seeing claims of individual ownership. Since I can’t delete this question, maybe I can try one more attempt to rephrase for the social scientists in the house. Actually maybe not.
Thanks to all for humorung me with my stupid question.
I may try someday to get some sociologist friend in the future to see if there is any data on this in Massachusetts. I know for a fact that there is no apparent correlation in southern California, Vermont, NH, and Maine.

I don’t think you offended anyone with the question; everyone is simply answering with what they know.

Just for the record, I didn’t find your question offensive. Much like @WillWorkForChocolate said, I just offered the information that I had, personally. The only observations I’ve made on this particular subject involve myself/people that I know – in which case no, I have not seen what you see.

My first car was white. I am not a conservative.

When I think about it, I’ve known very few people with white cars, conservative or not.

I love white cars. I have one currently. I am not conservative or Christian. The most conservative person I know has a black Hummer.

I became socially and politically progressive before I got my first car.

My first two cars were white and my last two have been green.

I got the white cars because because they were inexpensive, in good condition, and sold by private parties. I mention private parties because in those circumstances I had no choice of color, and it wasn’t a concern of mine then anyway.

I bought the green cars when they were new.

I don’t think I was that concerned about the color of the first green car.
I chose a green for my latest car because according to Robertson Honda, there were no 1997 Honda Civic EX’s available then.

Although I don’t see that much correlation between choice of car color and political orientation, I like your question. :-)

Thanks, @Brian1946. You are in Massachusetts?

@tom_g

Nope. All that happened in California, which is where I still live.

I think MA is a great state, especially considering that they gave full marriage rights to same sex couples 7 years ago this month, and AFAIK, haven’t had any efforts to nullify those rights since then.

What gave you the impression that I live there?

@Brian1946, the white car conservative correlation thing only applies to Massachusetts.

Yes, same-sex marriage is still here. Will be attending one in June. Suprisingly (sarcasm), it hasn’t demolished opposite sex marriages, Massachusetss has not fallen into the ocean, and I am pretty sure this is not the apocalypse. The only thing that seems to have changed is the fact that all of the same-sex “married” couples I knew prior to seven years ago were able to shed the quotation marks and actually obtain the rights they should have always had.

Perhaps this is all about safety?

Conservative political ideas seem a lot safer to me than progressive liberal ideas.
White colored vehicles offer a safer ride on the roads.

The reason that I like white trucks is simple:—->white is a safe color.

I went to a Ford dealership in Daly City (near liberal San Francisco) to buy my first white Ranger (1991) but all they had was asphalt-gray and light-brown colored trucks. I thought that those colors are like putting camouflage on a truck. They seemed like the least safe colors to put on any non-military/combat vehicle. Of course the salesman really wanted to sell me a truck so he got a white one from another location.

I now live in liberal Washington State. I went through the same thing here trying to get a new white truck (2007) here to replace my older white truck.

Maybe Ford dealers know that conservatives like white trucks and cars so the send most of them to conservative states?

By the way my neighbor across the street has one white pick-up truck for him and a white Prius for his wife. When their adult kids come over to visit they drive white cars. Yes they’re conservative.

Note: As you likely know, the good jelly fish here on this web-site are vastly liberal so of course they will skew things up quite a bit.

I drive a white Camry. I am NOTHING like your white car stereotype. Polar opposite.

@gondwanalon

I’m just curious what you meant by a white car was safer.

Did you mean a safer color choice as it is neutral and not garish?

Or did you mean safer in terms of physical safety on the road, less accidents, etc. ?

@Buttonstc White painted vehicles are involved in fewer accidents because they are more visible at night and also more visible against grey asphalt during the day. White color equals safety.

That’s really interesting. I never knew that. Thanks for the info.

I never heard of this one, but I haven’t paid attention either.

I am curious what having a large skull on my hood says about my political leanings and how it affects my odds of being pulled over by @john65pennington.

Let me add my vote to the “don’t worry, you’re not being offensive or silly” camp. :)

I don’t think there’s a hard-and-fast rule for this sort of thing, but a lot of the time there do seem to be trends… enough for perceptive people to kinda scratch their heads and go “hey, is there a correlation here?”

The area I live in has, in recent years, been taken over by big-city transplants. The political trend seems to lean more left now in this area, but there is also a big uptick in snotty, better-than-thou attitudes. And many, many more white vehicles.

And just to round things out, I’m a Christian, moderately conservative, and I ended up with the car someone bought me. It was the best deal to be had at the time (a nondescript silver sedan). However, if given a choice, I’d get a red red Volkswagen and put big black spots on it. Cuz in the kindergarten crowd, I’m “The Bug Lady”.