Many things can affect your auto insurance premiums, for example, how many miles you drive per day and per year, whether you’ve been in any accidents that were your fault and where you live.

One factor you may not be aware of is the number of moving violations you’ve received when driving a particular vehicle. (Parking tickets generally don’t count.)

When assessing risk, insurance carriers look at a person’s driving habits and presume that someone with several tickets for speeding is more likely to get into an accident than someone with no moving violations. In addition, the amount of the claim for an auto in a high-speed accident is going to be higher, with more property damage and possibly bodily injuries as well.

Red cars and speeding tickets

Drivers have thought that the color of the car was a major influence on whether they received speeding tickets. A long-held belief is that red cars are ticketed more often than any other color. But most law enforcement agencies deny that a car’s color has anything to do with whether it will be cited for speeding more often.

According to a recent study from Insurance.com, speeders tend to prefer the same model cars. Drivers and car owners can use Insurance.com’s “Ticket Magnet” tool to analyze how many tickets their car make or model receives based on more than 323,000 insurance quotes for drivers who use the site.

The analysts at Your Mechanic examined the data more closely to determine whether the type of car makes a difference in the amount of tickets it received. When they segmented the models into luxury cars, mid-size, compact, sports cars, pickup trucks, SUVs and subcompact cars, they found some interesting data on what types of drivers are typically getting the most tickets.

Common traffic violations

As Maddy Martin at Your Mechanic points out, traffic violations can differ from state to state, but some of the most common ones are running a red light, driving at night without headlights, illegal turns, illegal parking,or running a stop sign. Speeding laws also fluctuate based on the state and road.

Here are the 10 most ticketed cars by model and percent of vehicle owners, based on the data analysis from Your Mechanic. Note that there are no dates or date ranges provided with the results. They only reflect information from a driver who provides information to the Ticket Magnet tool.

10. Toyota Tacoma – 30.1% of vehicle owners

9. Acura – 30.1%

8. Dodge Stratus SXT – 30.2%

7. Volkswagen GTI – 39.3%

6. Mazda 3S – 30.3%

5. Chevrolet Monte Carlo LS/LT – 30.8%

4. Volkswagen Jetta GL – 31.4%

3. Dodge Charge – 32.1%

2. Nissan 350Z – 32.5%

1. Lexus ES 300 – 33.4%

We get all types of comments from rumors about what is the best car to insure that is safest or less noticable to police officers. None of the myths are really true. Speed or wreckless driving produces tickets on the road. Not much else competes with that.

Please let us know if we can help you with your insurance. EMAIL us at info@BentonWhite.com or contact any of our staff at 615.377.1212. We’re always here and ready to earn your business!
[Portions of this article taken from PropertyCasualty360.com – written by Rosalie L. Donlon]