Hummers Top List Of Most-Ticketed Vehicles

If you drive a Hummer, chances are there is a ticket in your future.

According to an annual nationwide study, drivers of Hummer H2s and H3s are ticketed by police at more than four times the rate of the average driver.

That was the highest of all vehicle models studied by San Francisco-based Quality Planning, a company that helps auto insurers spot high risks.

While the findings feed into the stereotype of the aggressive sport utility vehicle driver, the study also found that the drivers of Chevrolet Suburbans and Tahoes, SUVs that share structural and mechanical basics with the H2, are among the least likely to get tickets for moving violations.

Another surprise that emerged from the statistics is that three Scion models made the top 10 most-ticketed vehicle list.

Scion tC's average customer is under 25 years old and the brand's demographic skews to the early 30s, according to parent company, Toyota. That popularity with youthful drivers, who typically correlate with a higher incidence of violations, may partially explain the new-found notoriety, Quality Planning said.

Outranking only the Tahoe and Suburban on what Quality Planning called the "Well-Behaved Vehicle List," the Jaguar XJ was the least-ticketed vehicle, with its drivers being ticketed at a rate of about a 10th of the average driver.

The Chevrolet C/K 2500/3500 pickup, whose drivers are ticketed at 28 percent of average driver's rate, and the Buick Park Avenue sedan, with 32 percent, rounded out the top five on the least-ticketed list.

Why exactly certain vehicles' drivers are ticketed more or less frequently is open to debate.

"Hummer drivers feel like kings of the road because of their elevated driving position," Mark S. Foster, author of "A Nation on Wheels: The Automobile Culture in America Since 1945," told Quality Planning. "As these statistics show, they are leading the pack when it comes to violating the law, which may reflect their driving attitude."

Quality Planning also offered its own spin on the findings.

"The sense of power that Hummer drivers derive from their vehicle may be directly correlated with the number of violations they incur," said Dr. Raj Bhat, president of Quality Planning, in a statement. "Or perhaps Hummer drivers, by virtue of their driving position, are less likely to notice road hazards, signs, pedestrians, and other drivers."

The report is based on a study of tickets issued nationwide in a 12-month period that ended last year by drivers of more than 1.7 million vehicles.