Top 500 Cars Ranked For Traffic Tickets...

[Packy]

There are several articles on this, online--at least one for Top 10 and at least one that lists 500, based by insurance institute data for specific model cars whose drivers get traffic violations. Guess what? My car is Ranked Number Two! Not MY car specifically--but all of those that are the same make/model. I've only got 56,529 miles on my 2004 Pontiac, and never a ticket while driving it. I've never had it over 85 mph, and that was only briefly. I don't drive it hard, because it is an obsolete car(just like Hudson, Willys or Studebaker), with only about 17,000 of them made that year. I cringe when I go on EBay, and see all of the wrecked ones being parted out--at the rate they are going, mine will be the only one left. While it was a $32,000+ car when new, they are now old enough to be affordable for young kids to buy and wreck. It is too much car for a young boy--their Dad should buy them a Honda, instead. Anyway, that's all. My car is #2. Isn't that interesting?

[bae]

Hilarious, the highest ranking car for tickets in my fleet is our Volvo station wagon.

Oddly though, that's the only vehicle of ours anyone has gotten a ticket in.

Most of the rest are in the mid-400s on that list.

[Packy]

Funny thing is--my insurance rates are not much different from my old Chevy pickup. I don't carry full coverage, just liability, medical & uninsured motorist. It's prolly one of the benefits of being a geezer.

[ctg492]

This week I did some insurance switching on two cars(hubby has too many). I wonder how can insurance companies be so far apart apples to apples on cost? Do they follow these lists?

[mschrisgo2]

Top 500? I had no idea there were even that many different cars!

[Packy]

Top 500? I had no idea there were even that many different cars! Apparently so. A result of make and model proliferation. But, my car was made in the "Pontiac" iteration for just 3 years, by Holden of Australia. It's been out of production since the end of the 2006 model year. So, my point is: they are going back a few years to compile the list--not just brand-new models.

[jp1]

This week I did some insurance switching on two cars(hubby has too many). I wonder how can insurance companies be so far apart apples to apples on cost? Do they follow these lists?

Part of the issue has to do with when/how they can change their rates. Each state's insurance commissioner sets the rules on insurance rates, which includes things like "you can only change rates x% per year" and so forth. So when an insurance company realizes the rates for a certain vehicle are out of whack compared to the claims they're paying (both too high or too low) they may not be able to adjust all in one year, but have to gradually adjust over time.

There are also rules in some states that prohibit an insurer from making the rates what they would actually like them to be to match the exposure. For instance in texas rates within any given county can't deviate more than 30%(if I recall the percentage correctly) for a particular vehicle. The counties in texas are massively big, so if you happen to live in a rural area in the same county that Houston is in, you're going to get hosed on your car insurance because even though your likelihood of having a claim is much lower than people in urban Houston, your insurance rate can not be more than 30% cheaper.

Every state has different rules, but they all are wacky in their own ways so it's easy for insurers to have markedly different rates for the same cars.