A few years ago, Insurify, the major insurance clearinghouse, conducted a study that listed the car models that receive the most speeding tickets. To paraphrase the gun industry, car models don’t get speeding tickets, people get speeding tickets, right? Or rather, people who are attracted to these specific car models I get speeding tickets, so maybe the models had something to do with it. According to the study, drivers “live up to the reputation of their vehicles.”
Percentage of drivers with a speeding ticket, by model:
- Subaru WRX, with 18.8% of drivers having at least one traffic ticket
- Hyundai Genesis Coupe, 17.7%
- Kia Stinger, 16.6%
- Mazda3, 16.4%
- Subaru BRZ, 16.2%
- Scion FR-S, 16%
- GMC C1500, 15.3%
- Volkswagen GTI, 15%
- Subaru Impreza, 14.8%
- Hyundai Veloster, 14.7%
Compare these numbers to the national average, where just under 10% of all drivers have had a speeding ticket. And note that Subaru, the brand that loves kids, dogs and safety, stands out here with three models on the list.
Now, moving the clock forward two years to 2023, Insurify conducted a similar study, this time evaluating the car brands that rack up the most speeding tickets. If you’re talking about an entire brand and not specific hot models like the WRX or Genesis Coupe, you’ll get a different picture.
Percentage of drivers with a speeding ticket, by brand:
- Infiniti, 8.7%
- Sprout, 8.4%
- Volkswagen, 8.3%
- Subaru, 8%
- Mazda, 7.7%
- Audi, 7.6%
- Kia, 7.6%
- Honda, 7.5%
- BMW, 7.4%
- Hyundai, 7.4%
The national average for all brands is 7.1%. How did Insurify come up with this information? The data comes from 4.6 million car insurance applications. One factor that isn’t made clear in the methodology is how far back in a person’s driving history this score goes: You may have a speeding ticket from a year or five years ago on your record that will be noted when you just get one Purchased insurance for the WRX today.
Some other tidbits from this study:
- There is a curious mention in the brand study: in 2023, a newcomer has jumped to the top of the list of car models with the most tickets, and it’s one you definitely didn’t expect: the BMW i3 with 17.6% his drivers received speeding tickets. There was no explanation as to why this might be, other than that it’s nimble and fun to drive. Meanwhile, Z4 drivers are simply cruising the boulevard and enjoying the sun, with 4.5% of respondents citing this.
- The car brands with the lowest speeding violations are Cadillac with 5.4%; Tesla, at 5%; and Volvo with 2.7%.
- The Subaru Ascent significantly lowered the Subaru brand average and offset all of those WRX tickets. Only 1.9% of Ascent drivers had a speeding ticket.
- Police officers carry out 20 million traffic stops every year, 43% of them for speeding. Every year, over 8 million Americans receive a traffic ticket or at least a warning. And for good reason: almost a third of all traffic deaths are due to speeding.