While specific auto brands don’t make people worse drivers, it seems to be true that certain types of drivers gravitate toward different makes and models. A recent study from LendingTree found that drivers of some brands rack up more accidents, DUIs, and other citations at much higher rates than others.
Ram drivers were the worst of the 30 brands LendingTree analyzed, with 32.90 incidents per 1,000 drivers between November 2022 and 2023. Only Tesla and Subaru came close, with 31.13 and 30.09 incidents, respectively. The 10 car brands with the most driving incidents in the study include:
Breaking things down further, Tesla drivers had the highest accident rates, followed by Ram and Subaru. The study also found that BMW drivers had the highest DUI rates, with almost twice the number of DUIs of the second-closest brand, Ram.
LendingTree analyzed tens of millions of QuoteWizard by LendingTree insurance quotes from Nov. 14, 2022, through Nov. 14, 2023, to determine the number of driving incidents per 1,000 drivers — gauging accidents, DUIs, speeding, and citations. It noted that Ram drivers had more speeding incidents than all other brands and said that the Ram 1500’s quick acceleration played a role.
Mercury, a brand out of business for more than a decade, had the safest drivers. Pontiac and Saturn, also dead for years, earned the second- and third-best spots on the list, perhaps because owners of those cars aren’t driving them often, or are not filing insurance claims on them.
Beyond the meme potential here, there are real-world consequences to poor driving, and the brands most associated with it can carry higher insurance rates. Getting a DUI or having repeat traffic offenses are great ways to lose your license, and they can also lead to your insurer dropping your policy. Your driving behavior also has a far greater impact on the insurance rates you pay than the type of car you drive, however, as higher-risk clients pay much more on average than those with clean records.
