(FORTUNE Small Business) – Price, performance, safety records--all considerations when buying a company car. But your employees probably care more about how their work wagon looks than how it drives. In a study by Progressive Insurance, based in Mayfield Village, Ohio, 42% of car buyers said color was the most important factor in their choice.

So which hue will keep your workers happy? Terry Cressy, director of marketing for Detroit's Dupont Automotive Coatings, which recently published its "Global Popularity" report, says to stay away from green. The color was popular in the '90s but now is regarded as "too obviously the color of money," he sniffs. What's more, according to a New Zealand study in the British Medical Journal, green, black, and brown cars are the most likely to crash.

Silver cars are the least likely to get in an accident--about half as likely as white cars. Perhaps that's why, according to Cressy, silver recently became the most popular color. But that may not last: Red is making a surge. "We haven't seen this much red since 1989," says Cressy. "Seems people are more optimistic." --NINA SOVICH