Are Dark Cars Bad For The Environment?

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Story Published: May 29, 2009 at 6:18 PM PDT

By Audrey Asistio

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YAKIMA -- Can you really keep cool in a black car? Environmentalists say no. Even California wants to stop selling them. They say it pollutes the air to keep the air conditioning on overdrive. We wanted to test this idea for ourselves. So we asked car specialist Allan Hawkins to assist us. We cranked up the A/C in a black car and a white car. The black car's starting temperature was 109 degrees inside.
The white car's was 108 degrees. After two minutes the black car's temperature lowered to 88 degrees. The white car's dropped down to 80 degrees. "You know, after being here six years, I didn't think there was going to be much of a difference between the two temperatures, but after eight degrees, obviously there's a big difference," said Hawkins.

If this myth is eventually proven fact by the experts, car dealers may not be encouraged to sell dark cars anymore. Hawkins responded, "About 20% of the cars we sell are dark colors so it's not going to be a huge effect if it did happen."

It may not a huge effect on car dealerships, but it could be a large effect on the environment. If you are thinking of buying a dark colored car, but scared it may be a hazard to our environment, local dealerships say they still have dark colored hybrid cars that in a way, alleviates the problem.

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