Traffic Tickets

Traffic Tickets - Which vehicles get the most?

A yearlong study identifies the list of vehicles -- and it's a big one -- whose drivers get the most traffic tickets. The research suggests that what you drive could indicate how you drive.
Drivers of Hummer SUVs were 4.63 times more likely to get traffic tickets than the average driver, concludes a yearlong study by ISO Quality Planning, a company that helps insurers identify risks.

ISO Quality Planning, a San Francisco company that studied the records of 1.7 million drivers, compiled a list of ticket magnets that confirmed some long-held notions: Owners of the CLK63 AMG and the 507-horsepower Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG received an outsized numbers of tickets, as did the generally young owners of the relatively inexpensive Audi A4 sports sedan and the Scion tC, xB and xA.

But also on that most-ticketed list were the Toyota Camry Solara, Toyota Matrix, and Subaru Outback, three cars not known for great speed or expressing the rebellious nature of their owners. Meanwhile, the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban, virtually identical mechanically to their General Motors sibling Hummer, were on the least-ticketed list.

Who was sharing the bottom of the list? The Buicks, minivans and pickups.

'Sense of power'; Sales of Hummers fell 51% in 2008.

Analysts at ISO Quality Planning were more than willing to pile it on. "The sense of power that Hummer drivers derive from their vehicle may be directly correlated with the number of traffic violations they incur," said Raj Bhat, the president of ISO Quality Planning. "Or perhaps Hummer drivers, by virtue of their driving position, are less likely to notice road hazards, signs, pedestrians and other drivers."

What ISO Quality Planning believed the data show about Toyota drivers was unclear from its news release.

Insurance claims data generally back up ISO Quality Planning's findings. Ratings information from State Farm, for instance, advises Hummer owners to expect to pay significantly higher than standard premiums for their liability coverage. Likewise, Scion owners typically face much higher than standard rates for comprehensive (theft and vandalism) and collision insurance. (You can see how your car compares here.)

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Violations per 100,000 miles driven, expressed as percentage of average.