Motormouth: Red is great for a Chinese New Year car, especially if the motorist is Filipino-Chinese and the car is new
You are really lucky and will probably be prosperous if the car you drive during Chinese New Year is shiny red and spanking new.
This phenomenon is strongest during the annual CNY period, when prosperous colours and lucky numbers are most important to the traditional-thinking Chinese, wherever they are in the world, from the People’s Republic of China to Manila's Chinatown in Binondo.
Motorists in the same camp also subscribe to the ancient belief that their amount of prosperity and level of luck throughout their Lunar New Year depend on crucial colours such as red, yellow/gold, orange and green, and golden numbers such as 2, 3, 6, 8 and 9.
Red is the most auspicious colour and 8 is the goldenest number.
Vehicle registration numbers with one, two, three or four 8s in them tend to be valued higher than regular numbers. However, red paintwork shouldn’t cost more than other paint jobs, whether from a car factory or for a local respray in a paint shop, although certain shades of red for some exoticars might require a top-up.
The most exquisite and expensive red metal in the automotive world is the Rosso Corsa of Ferrari, which is the very definition of “great red supercar”, not only on the road, but also in the dream-car dreams of countless small boys and grown men.
Ferrari has such a powerful grip on red as a car colour, for street-legal road cars and championship-chasing race cars alike, that the red used by other automakers just doesn’t work as well. Even fiery Lamborghinis, crimson McLarens and burgundy Bentleys somehow look less great in red compared to Rosso Corsa Ferraris.
