Which Cars Attract the Most Tickets?

March 2, 2016

Jared Kaltwasser

Article

A new study looks at the makes and models of cars that receive the most (and fewest) traffic tickets.

It’s fairly common knowledge that the type of car you drive can impact your car insurance rates. There are a number of reasons for this. Among them: Certain types of cars are more likely to be stolen; others have poor safety features and thus are more likely to cause serious injuries in the case of an accident.

But does the type of car drive impact how well you drive? That’s difficult to say, according to Penny Gusner, consumer you analyst for Insurance.com. The company recently did a study looking at traffic violation data by car model and while it’s difficult to prove a cause-effect relationship, significant patterns emerged.

“It’s the driver that gets the tickets, not the car,” Gusner said, in a company press release. “But it is interesting to see what vehicle makes and models attract drivers who are prone to traffic violations."

To wit, the company’s report found sporty cars like the Nissan 350Z and Dodge Charger had drivers with higher ticket rates. Drivers of luxury vehicles tended to have the fewest tickets, the study found.

The study is based on insurance claim and traffic violation data form 331 car models and more than 323,000 customers. It covers the two years between February 2014 and February 2016.

Not surprisingly, Gusner said there was also a correlation between traffic tickets and insurance claims.

“It’s notable that cars on the most tickets list also appear to have an above-average number of insurance claims,” she said. Overall, 19% of drivers surveyed had made an insurance claim in the two-year time frame. Among drivers of “most ticketed” models, 23% had filed a claim.

So which models had the most tickets and which had the fewest? What follows are the 10 least-ticketed models, according to Insurance.com, followed by the least ticketed. After each model is the percentage of drivers of that model who received a ticket during the two-year timeframe.

Least-Ticketed Models