Insurance applications leave a paper trail that reveals which cars attract the heaviest right foot, and one nationwide study mined that data to rank models by ticket history. Sports coupes and hot hatches dominate the results, though a couple of ordinary sedans sneak in as surprising outliers. Here are ten car models whose drivers were most likely to have a speeding ticket on record.
1. Subaru BRZ: Highest Ticket Rate Overall
An insurance industry study found that 23.9% of Subaru BRZ drivers carried at least one speeding ticket, the highest rate of any model examined and nearly three times the study’s overall average across all vehicles surveyed.
The BRZ’s lightweight, rear-wheel-drive setup was built for cornering rather than cruising, and the ticket data suggests plenty of owners treat public roads as an extension of a racetrack, not just a daily commute. Subaru and Toyota co-developed the coupe specifically to reward that kind of enthusiastic, momentum-driven style of driving.
2. Hyundai Genesis Coupe: A Runner-Up For Tickets
The same insurance industry study placed the Hyundai Genesis Coupe second, with 21.9% of its drivers showing a speeding ticket somewhere on their driving record.
Hyundai discontinued the Genesis Coupe years ago, yet the two-door’s reputation for spirited driving apparently still shows up in the habits of the owners who held onto one long after production ended. The Genesis Coupe was Hyundai’s first real attempt at a rear-wheel-drive sports car, and the driving style it encouraged appears to have stuck with owners who kept theirs on the road.
3. Volkswagen GTI: The Hot Hatch Effect
Volkswagen’s GTI ranked third in the same insurance ticket study, with 18.8% of its drivers found to carry at least one speeding citation on record.
The GTI has spent decades marketed on quick steering and a punchy turbocharged engine, and the data indicates a fair number of owners actually use that performance rather than let it sit unused in traffic. Volkswagen has kept the GTI in production for decades specifically because that blend of everyday practicality and hot-hatch performance keeps drawing buyers who want both qualities in one car.
4. Chevrolet Cruze Limited: A Compact Sedan Surprise
A Kelley Blue Book report on the same data put the Chevrolet Cruze Limited at 17.9%, an unexpected entry on a ranking otherwise dominated by two-door sports cars and coupes.
The compact sedan’s appearance suggests speeding tickets are not solely a function of a car’s performance image, and that plenty of ordinary commuter cars end up cited by police just the same. Chevrolet marketed the Cruze Limited as a budget-friendly compact rather than a performance model, which makes its middle-of-the-pack ticket rate harder to explain by styling or image alone.
5. Nissan 350Z: A Sports Car Classic
The same Kelley Blue Book table lists the Nissan 350Z at 17.6%, keeping the two-seat sports coupe among the more ticket-prone models in the full data set.
Nissan built the 350Z around a torquey V6 engine and rear-wheel drive, a combination long favored by drivers who enjoy quick acceleration, and the ticket rate tracks closely with that reputation. Nissan sold the 350Z for years as a relatively affordable alternative to pricier sports cars, putting that kind of performance within reach of a wider range of everyday buyers.
6. Subaru WRX: Subaru’s Second Entry
The Subaru WRX also appears on the same Kelley Blue Book table, with 16.9% of its drivers found to carry a speeding ticket on record.
Having two Subaru models land in the same ranking suggests the brand’s performance-oriented lineup draws a similar kind of driver across different price points, body styles and generations of owners. Subaru built the WRX’s reputation on rally-inspired all-wheel-drive performance, a pedigree that traces back to the brand’s motorsport programs from decades earlier in its history.
7. Scion tC: A Discontinued Brand’s Tally
Motorbiscuit’s coverage of the study’s speeding ticket rankings puts the Scion tC at 15.8%, keeping Toyota’s now-defunct youth brand in the upper half of the full list.
Scion positioned the tC as an affordable sporty coupe aimed at younger buyers, and the ticket data suggests that marketing pitch matched how many owners actually drove the car once they bought it. Scion aimed the tC at buyers who wanted style and driving fun on a limited budget, and Toyota eventually folded the brand back into its own lineup after sales cooled.
8. Scion FR-S: Toyota’s Badge-Engineered Coupe
The same speeding ticket rankings place the Scion FR-S at 15.2%, close behind its Subaru-built sibling on the overall list.
The FR-S shared its underpinnings with the Subaru BRZ, so a similar ticket rate between the two badge-engineered twins lines up with how closely related the two cars actually were under the skin. Toyota and Subaru jointly engineered the coupe’s platform, then sold nearly identical versions under both the Scion and Subaru badges to reach a wider range of shoppers.
9. Toyota Yaris iA: An Economy Car Outlier
According to the same speeding ticket rankings, 14.5% of Toyota Yaris iA drivers had a ticket on record, tying for ninth place on the list.
As a rebadged subcompact built for fuel economy rather than speed, the Yaris iA’s spot on this list stands out as one of the least sporty cars to make the cut at all. Toyota sold the Yaris iA, itself a rebadged Mazda2, as an entry-level option aimed squarely at budget-conscious drivers rather than performance enthusiasts chasing speed.
10. Chevrolet Malibu Limited: A Family Sedan Tie
The insurance industry study ties the Chevrolet Malibu Limited with the Yaris iA at 14.5%, rounding out the ten models with the highest recorded ticket rates.
A mainstream family sedan sharing the bottom rung with a subcompact hatchback reinforces the study’s broader point that ticket history is not simply a matter of how sporty a car happens to look. The Malibu Limited was an older Malibu generation that Chevrolet kept selling alongside its redesigned model for budget-minded fleet and retail buyers.
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