Drivers of these 10 vehicles have the most speeding tickets

Mark Phelan | Detroit Free Press

Which of the cars around you in traffic are more likely being driven by somebody with recent speeding tickets?

Probably not the cars you expect, if your mind immediately turns to sporty models like Corvettes, Porsches, BMWs, Mustangs and Dodge Hellcats. None of those usual suspects appear in the top 10 list of cars whose drivers have the most speeding tickets, according to a survey by insurance shopping website Insurify.

Staid and responsible vehicles like the Ram 2500 pickup, Dodge Dart, Jeep Wrangler Unlimited and Subaru Impreza make up nearly half the top 10.

Insurify analyzed the self-reported violations history more than 1.6 million drivers provided when applying for insurance. Several interesting trends emerged.

FCA represents but where is Ford and GM?

Fiat Chrysler vehicles take up three spots in the top 10, Subaru and Hyundai two each. Massive automakers General Motors, Ford and Honda escaped the list completely. Toyota’s only entrant was the Subaru-built FR-S from the discontinued Scion brand. Nissan’s main brand didn’t make the list, but its Infiniti G37 did.

Notably, none of the luxury brands offering super-performance cars like BMW’s M-series, Cadillac’s V-series and Mercedes’ AMG made the list.

Every vehicle in the top 10 had a base price Insurify describes as “significantly below” $37,285, the average retail price of a new vehicle in June 2019.

“Significantly” is apparently a somewhat malleable term in the insurance industry. The base price of a 2019 Ram 2500 is $33,645, according to Autotrader. That ain’t chicken feed, but it’s not supercar territory, and the prices paid for discontinued models in the top 10 like the Dodge Dart and Hyundai Genesis coupe were likely much lower.

The list includes some models with street cred, like Nos. 1-3, the Subaru WRX, Scion FR-S and Volkswagen GTI. Nearly 21% of WRX owners admitted to a speeding ticket in the last seven years, more than double the national average of 11.78% of drivers with a speeding ticket in the last seven years.

Most speeding tickets

The 10 vehicles with the most speeding tickets per driver, in descending order:

Subaru WRX Scion FR-S Volkswagen GTI Hyundai Genesis coupe Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Ram 2500 Dodge Dart Infiniti G37 Subaru Impreza Hyundai Veloster

Source: Insurify

Other nuggets from Insurify’s number crunching

WRX drivers have 2.29 times the number of DUIs and 1.82 times as many at-fault accidents as the national average.

The FR-S came in at 1.72 times the average for at-fault accidents, but 25% below the national DUI average.

GTI accidents were 1.72 times average, DUI 1.43 times.

Least speeding tickets

The shopping website also found the 10 vehicles whose drivers got the lowest percentage of speeding tickets in three last seven years:

Chevrolet Astro: 4.23% Chevrolet C2500: 4.86% Mazda MPV: 5.11% KIA Rondo: 5.24% Smart Fortwo: 5.77% Ford Windstar: 5.95% Dodge Caravan: 5.98% Chevrolet Venture: 5.98% Audi Q7: 6.17% Ford Contour: 6.21%

Insurify doesn’t claim any deep insights into human nature from the surveys, but you might be a bit slower to assume the worst about the driver of the racy car next to you at the stoplight. They may still be a jerk, but it’s not mandatory.

Contact Mark Phelan at 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter.