When it comes to cars, there are a few known stereotypes. Mustangs crash. Alfas break. Alfa purists defend the breaks. Camrys get dents. Big diesel trucks fart out black plumes of exhaust when they see Priuses. WRX bros will hoon in the face of anything—including, but not limited to, imminent traffic tickets. Sure, there are many exceptions to the rules, but most can take a joke related to them.
Those stereotypes, though, are based on anecdotal evidence. We car enthusiasts don’t exactly send researchers out to every Cars and Coffee event to count the individual crashes, or have a blip on the radar every time a coal roller inches us one step closer to irreversible climate disaster.
What we can take solace in, though, is that at least one of those assumptions is accurate: The Subaru WRX crowd boasts the highest percentage of drivers with speeding tickets in the U.S., according to a new study—by quite a bit.
The study was done by a U.S.-based insurance-comparison company Insurify, which said it sifted through its database of more than 1.6 million applications for car insurance. Since drivers have to put in personal and vehicle information to apply for quotes, including the model of the car and past speeding woes, the research team had plenty of numbers to compare.
The team compiled a top-10 list, which classifies the percentage of drivers with a particular model who have past speeding tickets versus those who don’t, not the percentage of speeding tickets compared to drivers as a whole. More than 20 percent of WRX buyers included in the study had past speeding tickets, for example, giving it the top spot on the list. About 11.3 percent of U.S. drivers have a past speeding ticket, the study said, making the WRX about twice the average.
All of the cars on the list were pretty normal ones, probably because the folks with the louder, faster, more expensive cars either know better than to call attention to themselves on public roads or they don’t care to waste their time shopping around for the lowest insurance rates on some comparison website.
Either way, here’s how Insurify ranked them by percentage of drivers with a speeding violation for each particular model:
- Hyundai Veloster: 14.48 percent
- Subaru Impreza: 14.66 percent
- Infiniti G37: 14.72 percent
- Dodge Dart: 14.86 percent
- Dodge Ram 2500: 15.32 percent
- Jeep Wrangler Unlimited: 15.35 percent
- Hyundai Genesis Coupe: 15.75 percent
- Volkswagen GTI: 16.92 percent
- Scion FR-S: 19.09 percent
- Subaru WRX: 20.12 percent
(Shout out to the Dodge Dart for always remaining newsworthy, somehow.)
A representative for Insurify told Jalopnik that the Scion FR-S category only includes the Scion FR-S, not its mechanical twin, the Subaru BRZ, or its Toyota successor, the 86. Neither of those made the top 10, despite two other Subarus being on the board. Maybe it’s because Scion was for those #reckless #kids.
But now that we have those answers, if only we could get somebody out there to track the Camry dents. Somebody make a volunteer sign-up sheet.