BMW, Subaru and Porsche drivers 'more likely to cause a crash', study finds

I don’t know about any actual data, but out on the road, in the wild, my wife and I comment on “BMW” drivers for their driving styles.

We comment on the pony cars for their loud exhausts, but for lane changes, darting through traffic, blowing stop signs, “Yup, it’s a BMW”.

And it’s funny because we have a cat (a couple actually), and cats are notorious for getting under feet.

We were walking to the bedroom, with one of our cats, and things were getting crowded in the corner when our orange cat raced up. You could see him stop, paw at the other cat to move aside, dove into the gap to rush in front of us at which point he came to a dead stop.

Both my wife and I watched the whole thing. I turned to her, pointed at the cat, and said “look, a BMW driver”.

After years of driving largely nondescript cars, I bought a bright red BMW in 2016. What was remarkable was how noticeably different other drivers’ attitudes were towards me on the road, like they’re so conditioned by the typical drivers of similar cars that they assume I’ll be driving like an asshole and react preemptively. I try to be a considerate and safe driver–I’m not sure I’d ever even been flipped off while driving other cars, so the difference was really tangible when suddenly there were middle fingers and horns happening regularly.

This might be due to the fact that these cars are so expensive that buyers who stretch themselves to afford them typically don't buy the optional features like side mirrors and turning signal lights.

Wouldn’t insurers already have the most accurate data regarding this? What would “academics” be able to provide? At best, I would expect them to come up with the same answer that multiple insurers already have.

It would be interesting to see how this holds up in the US market. I've always held an assumption that the more driver assist doohickeys on a car makes the drivers worse. More expensive cars usually have more doohickeys than less expensive ones.

I assume Subaru has different marketing and brand positioning than in the US, where it’s more of an outdoorsy version of a Toyota Corolla.

As a side note, it frustrates me that a Subaru is the only way to get a wagon without buying a luxury car, especially because I don’t want a Subaru.

They cite that the data in the study was from 2011-2015. Cars have changed significantly in that time so it is worth remembering that the common stability and traction control, and safety systems on cars sold today are significantly improved from those when this study was performed.

A performance automobile or sports car can certainly perform at levels that raise risks. That said I would rather be in an automobile that spends most of its time operating far below its capacity with sufficient performance reserve to handle emergency situations despite being significantly handicapped by a less than perfect human driver.

That's in the UK and it's a very poor (and 10+ years old) article.

The only metrics that do work are the ones insurance companies are using and that'd be stuff like "at fault accidents by that brand/model" adapted to age and mileage.

Which, shocker, is exactly what my insurer is using to insure my vehicle. And everybody else's vehicles too btw.

Cars/drivers in the US with the most accidents according to those who actually know:

https://insurify.com/car-insurance/insights/car-models-with-...

IIRC Porsche owners on average have less accidents at fault than the national US average.

FWIW I daily drive a Porsche and I pay... 315 EUR (aka 337 USD) per year for my insurance (it doesn't cover damages I'd make to my own car if I were at-fault in a crash though). 315 EUR per year is nothing and the reason it's so cheap is because people with the same car as mine simply hardly make any accident.

I've lived in and driven in several different cities in the US, and driven around the world. What I've observed is that broadly speaking, brand doesn't matter, but affordable sporty cars tend to be driven by younger people who are likely to drive more aggressively and riskier (see Subaru WRX vs Subaru Outback). Also, broadly speaking cars that are older and in worse condition tend to be driven more aggressively, there seems to be some latent rage and general uncaring about yourself/your vehicle that happens when poorer people drive poorer cars (see nearly every Nissan Altima in the US).

All that said, I've also observed that BMW drivers are a special sort of asshole. It's not necessarily that they drive aggressively, rather it's that they drive like they own the road and that nobody else exists. Things like driving at their preferred speed rather than the speed of traffic/the road (e.g. left lane rolling roadblocks and doing 85 in a 40), not using turn signals or merging appropriately into traffic, and poor lane discipline (seems I see more BMW drivers on their phone while driving).

At least in Colorado, I've observed that Tesla drivers are basically BMW drivers that have an even higher opinion of themselves because they're "saving the environment" or they're Ubers, pretty much only one of the two. Everything I said about BMWs applies to Tesla drivers here as well, except you get the addition of them taking off from stop lights with all the torque they can muster to light-speed across intersections within moments of the light turning green (meaning they're at risk of being involved in a crash with somebody who runs a red/squeezes the lemon and misses).

On the other hand, every time I see a Porsche, it's usually an older guy who is meandering along in the right lane, drives very respectfully, and generally drives like they just desperately don't want anyone to fuck up the car that is their prized possession. I have never seen a Porsche driver driving aggressively on the road here, in many many many miles of driving.

I've been fortunate enough to own both Subarus (Imprezas) and Porsches in my time. As another commenter mentioned, I purposely bought these to "hoon around in".

I didn't have a crash but I wonder if this was more down to luck than better judgement/driving skills. I'm older now, have kids and a better grasp of statistics. I drive a lot slower and considerately these days.

With all the AI fuss, I personally don't think it'll be long before cars are, if not driving themselves, will only allow themselves to be driven within the bounds of sense. Cars like this, and the drivers, will be confined to the race track and the "Porsche Experience Centre" at Silverstone, as per the article. I don't think this is a bad thing.

I think the more money you pay for a vehicle, the more privileged and superior it makes you feel. You get a superiority mentality, like all of you plebeians, get out of my way, I'm a rich important person with things to do. Can't you tell by my car?

Interesting since anecdotally in the NYC metro area I always put this blame on Nissan drivers.

I am not convinced that ads cause bad driving. I would put it down to self entitled people being attracted to that same behaviour in the ads. And, yes, I think bad driving is down to self entitlement. My progress is more important than your safety.

Not as funny as the experiment with SUVs and trucks drivers being more likely to swerve to hit animals on the road https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-Fp7flAWMA

See also:

A correlation observed between chocolate consumption and the number of Nobel laureates has recently led to the suggestion that consuming more chocolate would increase the number of laureates. . . .

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23616517/

Subaru seems like an odd one out, I have zero surprise for the other two.

I’m going to go out in a limb and say that Dodge Chargers are more likely to cause a crash in the United States because I’d their erratic drivers.

That’s okay, if bmw and porsche quality keeps downgrading at the rate it does they’ll spend more time fixing the cars rather than driving.

I want to see a study of what contribution to collision rates exists from slow, (overly) cautious drivers.

FWIW research data is almost 10 years old. (2011-2015)

Interesting. I’m surprised Dodge isn’t mentioned.

i'll take one of each, for science; will report back in a few years how i'm getting along.

Today, Tesla drivers woukd top the list.

Wait, is it the car or the driver? I'm a little confused.