Looking for FL Anthracite wagon

[K1W1]

Yes, they do help, but only for people directly in front of you (and you can already see them). I find it is the idiots approaching me from the side or behind that are the real danger, and I can't see whether they have seen me or not.

On a more serious note all I can do is speak from personal experience. We have had anthracite, dark grey or black cars continuously in our possesion since 1982. Those cars have travelled well north of 500,000 kms in total whilst in our ownership. For the last 25 years we have lived in a area that is regularly fog bound at night with less than 50 metres vis and has dark, winding narrow and unlit roads. Not one of our cars has had an accident or incident that could be blamed on the cars colour and another driver not seeing it. In fact the only actual accident is one of the black BMW's being rear ended whilst stopped at a traffic light in broad daylight by a guy talking on a mobile phone.

[Graybags]

Touch wood!

[gregozedobe]

I happen to have driven further and for longer than K1W1 with mostly white and yellow cars, and that was in mainly metroplitan areas where there is lots of traffic, and so far I've had ZERO moving crashes, so does that personal experience also count ? (touch wood, touch wood, touch wood !!!!! )

Individual experiences are interesting, but overall statistics give more information (as long as the raw data is adjusted for relevant factors like % of total distance driven, where it is driven, etc etc).

I did a quick google and amongst a whole lot of older studies this report seemed to be reasonably current and relevant :

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20071206-15983-3.html

Compared to white vehicles, black cars had a 12 per cent higher crash risk, closely followed by grey cars with 11 per cent higher risk. Silver vehicles were next, with 10 per cent, then blue and red at 7 per cent.

While other car colours such as cream, yellow and beige ranked closely to white, no other colour ranked safer than white.

The MUARC research was supported by RACV, VicRoads, RTA, NRMA and the TAC. Using on-road crash data, researchers analysed crashes between 1987 and 2004 in Victoria and Western Australia that resulted in death or injury or a vehicle being towed away.

Lead researcher, Senior Research Fellow at MUARC, Dr Stuart Newstead, said the Australian study was arguably the most comprehensive to probe the link between vehicle colour and crash risk.

"Previous international studies have examined vehicle visibility and colour but have not fully taken into account other factors that may have an impact on crash risk, such as driver demographics," Dr Newstead said.

Dr Newstead said the study findings were clear and demonstrated that white-coloured vehicles had the lowest crash risk in all types of light conditions.

"Conversely, darker colours and colours with low contrast to the road environment, including silver, grey, green, red, blue and black, tend to be associated with a higher crash risk, particularly in daylight hours," he said.

Dr Newstead said the link between car colour and crash risk was found to be weaker during twilight and night driving.

"Car colour was found to be less influential on crash risk in darker driving conditions most likely because colour is harder to differentiate. The use of car headlights also negates the effect of car colour in dark conditions to a large degree," he said.

Interesting study, and the bit about car colour being less important after dark was slightly surprising to me.

However, having worked professionally with statistics in the distant past, I now wonder if there could be a quite different explanation to the obvious "visibility" rationale ie do "riskier" drivers prefer one colour above another ?

In other words, might the increased accident rate in black vehicles be caused by the sort of person who buys a black car (ie they tend take more risks than a person who prefers white cars) rather the car colour itself ?

Certainly I've noticed that a small number of people seem to be involved with crash after crash , compared with others who seem to be rarely (or almost never) involved with crashes at all. So if this small group of crash-prone drivers happen to have a strong preference for (say) black cars, that could easily account for the 12% higher crash rate above white cars, but it really isn't caused by the car colour, rather it is their carelessness/lack of skill/recklessness that is the real cause.

All very interesting, if somewhat inconclusive. Realistically, how many people rate safety as a major priority in choosing the colour of their next new car ?

[K1W1]

I would like to see the assumptions made by the study rather than just the press release.

Is "crash" in the study a multi vehicle crash or does it include single vehicle crashes as well?

Is the "at fault" cause of the crash taken into account? Do dark coloured vehicle drivers get hit by other vehicles or do they actually cause the crash?

Are mechanically induced crashes eliminated from the statistics? They surely are not colour related.

Is the study statistically balanced towards the actual numbers of each each colour on the road? If so how were those numbers determined?

Are any assumptions made as to what the distance travelled of each colour of car is? Most white cars are corporate or fleet vehicles and can range from virtually zero miles per year to huge distances whereas most dark coloured cars are likely to be privately owned and probably travel closer to average mileage per year.

And one last question to gregozedobe. If you are so concerned about safety why have you purchased a vehicle with less than a 5 star safety rating?

I'm happy with my colour choice.

[Graybags]

Red cars are always going to be unsafe because they are always faster!!
Seriously though, lighter cars are easier to see in certain conditions and "harm minimalisation" is not always everyones cup of tea. I mean do you put on a reflective vest and helmet when crossing the road? Sounds good in theroy but there is always the unknown isnt there?
Back to topic Im still looking for pictures of a Anthracite wagon anybody? Has anyone ordered one or am I the first??

[gregozedobe]

I would like to see the assumptions made by the study rather than just the press release.

Seeing as you are so interested I suggest you go right ahead and do the research so you find answers that will satisfy you - I supplied the web address so you could do just that (aren't I just ever so helpful ? )

Feel free to PM me with your answers if they support your thesis

And one last question to gregozedobe. If you are so concerned about safety why have you purchased a vehicle with less than a 5 star safety rating?

I'm pleased to hear it's your LAST question, we've derailed this thread more than enough already

The answer is two-fold :

1 The Octavia is much, much safer than the 19 year old Ford Laser it replaced (no ABS, no air-bags, no ESP etc etc).

2 You probably aren't aware that the Octy that was tested for the result that is currently used for the Oz NCAP rating is quite different to the one I bought (eg the side air curtain bags are worth two stars in the Oz rating, these are on my car, but weren't fitted to the earlier model Octy tested way back then).

From a recent drive.com.au test: "The Octavia was awarded four stars in NCAP crash tests but Skoda says the current version - which picked up a number of upgrades in a 2006 update - should be good enough for five."

I'm happy with my colour choice.

As am I, so is that a win/win scenario ?

Back to topic Im still looking for pictures of a Anthracite wagon anybody? Has anyone ordered one or am I the first??

I'm sure there would be photos on the Briskoda site, but they got hacked recently so I'd stay away for a week or two until it gets fixed properly.

I felt slightly guilty for my contribution to the meandering OT "safety" excursion, so a few minutes of googling found this for you (I'm pretty sure that is what you were looking for)

http://cars.nzherald.co.nz/car/view/c6w33j-/

Happy ?

[Graybags]

Your a champ!

[JAZ_RS]

Hey Graybags, I too ordered an Anthracite RS back in July and hopefully it will be down from Sydney next week...heres hoping, since its been in the country for the last 4-5 weeks...

[Graybags]

Great, don't forget to post pics when it arrives!

[Graybags]

Hey Jaz any pics of the car yet?

[K1W1]

With a bit of luck mine will be ready for collection later this week but I probably won't have time to get to the dealer till early next week. PM me if you want to know where it will be to look at or else it definitely won't be leaving the dealership with photos being taken and posted soon after.
Mine is a sedan.

[Graybags]

Thanks mate, look forward to the pics.

[JAZ_RS]

Still waiting

[Bayford Skoda]

I have some pictures of an Anthracite Grey RS Wagon which just came into our stock if anyone wants them... Send me an email heustace@bayford.com.au

[Graybags]

Thought I would share some holiday snaps of the car at Sandy point from the weekend.