Maybe I'm gettin the wrong kind of attention..

When I was growing up, my parent's had a yellow car - a '72 AMC Gremlin. I don't know if that's why I've long wanted a yellow car, but I have.

My first car was a hand-me-down, so I had no choice in the color. When I bought my PT Cruiser in 2001, I wanted to get a yellow one, but they didn't offer that as a color at the time, so I went with "Inferno Red", the flashiest color they offered. At the time, I test-drove a yellow Jeep Cherokee, but decided it was "too truck-like".

After several years, a number of electrical malfunctions, and one rim and shock absorber and 3 tires destroyed by Baltimore City potholes, I decided trucklike might not be a bad idea. I wanted something cheap, 4wd, reliable, and truck-based. The thing that fit the category best was the Ford Ranger. I knew a couple people who had put 150k+ on Rangers and B-Series trucks, and Ford was offering $3000 in rebates.

When I went to Ford's website, I built one exactly the way I wanted, and picked black as the color. I then searched for one equipped like the one I built at the dealer nearest me, and found one that was nearly a perfect match - except it was yellow. Bright yellow. Evidently, it was a limited-edition color available at the first part of the year, and sitting on the dealer's lot ever since.

So I bought it. And for the most part it's been good. I can find it easily in parking lots (and from space, if I look up my house on Zillow). People at work know me as the guy with the yellow truck, which is also what the 4-year-old who lives next door to me calls me.

But I'm starting to wonder if having a yellow vehicle brings the wrong kind of attention. Until this year, the last time I was pulled over was in 2000. In the past couple months, I've gotten pulled over twice, both times for not coming to a complete stop at stop signs. It could just be coincidence, bad luck. It could be that cops (in NJ and MD) are both enforcing stop signs more rigorously. Or it could be that having a bright yellow pickup makes me a more attractive target to pull over - either because it's noticeable, or possibly police figure that someone who drives a yellow pickup is more likely to be a criminal.

I also had a commenter on this blog a few months ago who said something like "don't you think driving a yellow truck might hurt your chances of getting dates - I mean, what if a woman doesn't want to be seen in a yellow truck?". I can't imagine picking vehicle color based on the possibility of what a hypothetical woman may or may not like - I suspect that my issues getting dates are rooted far deeper than my vehicle color, and who knows, maybe some chicks dig a guy whose truck is visible from space.

But I think police may not, and I doubt I'll buy another yellow vehicle. I figure it's one of those things that everyone should do once in their lives, and now I've done it.