When it comes to your business vehicle, the color you choose affects the
perceptions of those who see it. For example, if you want to convey a serious
company image, you pick black. On the flip side, wild orange or turquoise might
be appropriate if you sell fruit or jewelry, and pea green expresses your
concern for the environment.
Feng shui principles can provide some guidelines for choosing the right color
for you. According to Harry Rolnick, author of Feng Shui: The Chinese System
of Elements, every color has an energy.
But while feng shui channels good and bad energies, Rolnick points out that a
car is energy itself. Therefore, one should balance energies. "Yang [male]
colors are masculine and strong, like red and other primary colors. So if you
want excitement, pick a red car." However, he says, yang colors can be dangerous
if everything else about the car is yang. For example, a red interior with a red car can excite
the driver. Rolnick suggests choosing a quiet yin [female] interior color to
calm it down and balance the energies.
"If you want a hot car, choose a yang color. For a calm, quieter car, pick a
yin color." White, he says, connotes purity. Red is happiness, virtue, truth and
sincerity. Blue stands for heavenly blessings. Green is for growth and yellow
stands for power and loyalty.
Dennis Fairchild, who wrote Feng Shui Here and Now and has made
presentations to Volkswagen, says you cannot use classical feng shui philosophy
on a car because cars represent movement and feng shui incorporates direction.
Rolnick concurs. "Feng shui was originally conceived to make your office,
home and other living environments stable. But a car does indeed represent
movement itself, so the rules are made to be broken here," he says.
Kathryn Weber, publisher of The Red Lotus Letter, explains in
an article on her
website
that in feng shui, each person has a personal "success" color. That color is
determined by what's known as a "kua" number, based on your gender and date of
birth. Her website includes a
calculator to help you determine your appropriate color.
Don't worry that choosing a particular color will affect your insurance
rates. That's a myth. Only the car’s year, make, model, body type and engine
size, as well as information about the driver, are used to determine rates.
In the U.S., silver, shades of white and black are the most popular vehicle
colors, according to a study by DuPont Automotive Systems. Silver leads every
car segment, especially luxury cars, and white dominates trucks, SUVs and vans.
However, both silver and black cars have shown higher rates of crashing than
white vehicles, according to a study by the Monash University Accident Research
Center in Australia.
Silver is easily lost on the road and is a factor in higher severity crashes,
notes researcher Stuart Newstead. “Even in good conditions, silver has a low
contrast with the road environment,” he says. People should make their silver
vehicle more visible by driving with the headlights on or installing daytime
running lights, he says.