Hummer Tops Recent Study Of Most Ticketed Vehicles

A study of traffic tickets revealing the most and least ticketed vehicles reinforces obvious stereotypes: Hummer owners are arrogant, self-centered and over-indulgent, while drivers of Buick Park Avenues appear to have no discernible pulse.

The annual nationwide study of 1.7 million vehicles receiving traffic code violations by ISO Quality Planning in California, reveals Hummer H2s and H3s sit atop the list of most ticketed vehicles. Below, the full list of the top ten most and least ticketed vehicles.

Here's the San Francisco-based company's methodology:

Traffic code violations data for a one-year period from 2007 and 2008 were used for the study. Vehicles that were discontinued for more than 10 years were not included in the analysis. Violations were standardized based on the number of violations per 100,000 miles driven for each model. That standardization accounts for the differences in average annual miles driven by different models. Each vehicle model's violation count per 100,000 miles was compared with the average across all the models to identify the 10 models with the highest and lowest violations, as compared to the average. For example, Hummer drivers were 4.63 times more likely to get a ticket, as compared to the average.

The study found these are the ten most ticketed vehicles, in order from most ticketed to least along with the percentage above the average:

Oh Hummer, why must you consume our pocketbooks? We love you when you run over things, play in the water or transform into a mysterious quasi-governmental robot. With the price of gas coming down, things between us have been more livable, but we still can't afford your ravenous addiction to gasoline. Maybe this is why GM is trying to off you.

Now for the other side of the ticketing coin. The ten least ticketed vehicles in the country, this time from least ticketed to most, along with the percentages less they receive tickets from the average are:

Buicks, Olds and big Chevys? Shocker. An interesting side note: Chevy Tahoes and Hummer H2s are basically the same vehicle mechanically — why the huge difference? Our guess may be it has something to do with the mind-set of the people who drive them. Remember, sometimes stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason — at least when it comes to the type of people who purchase certain vehicles.

[Newsday via Motive Forums, ISO Quality Planning]

Photo Credit: Flickr