This Car Has the Worst Drivers on the Road Today

There are a lot of car stereotypes in the world. While some of them aren’t based on facts and others are actually the other way around, car stereotypes are still fun to know. That said, it’s still possible to make assumptions based on facts, so here are the facts about which car has the worst drivers on the road right now. 

A bad driver using a phone while behind the wheel of a car
A driver uses a phone while behind the wheel of a car | Spencer Platt/Getty Images

How the data was gathered

Car insurance companies have a lot of rules and regulations. Their goal is to essentially make drivers who have a higher risk of getting into an accident pay a higher premium than drivers who have a lower risk of getting into an accident. One of the ways that car insurance companies do this is they force drivers to disclose if they’ve had any reckless driving convictions in the past, according to Insurify.  

With that data, the research team at Insurify looked at over 1.9 million drivers whose data was available to Insurify. The research team then looked at which make and models those drivers currently drove. By combining all of those things, the research team at Insurify was able to find out which car has the worst drivers since 2010. 

That said, a flaw in Insurify’s study is that only drivers who looked for a quote through Insurify’s network were counted. So, drivers who looked for a quote elsewhere weren’t counted and that could skew the accuracy of the data.

The Mazda MX-5 Miata has the worst drivers

While sports cars, whose owners are often stereotyped as speed demons, dominated Insurify’s list, the Miata was the car that had the highest rate of reckless drivers. It wasn’t a close contest either. Insurify says that the national average for reckless driving convictions was 15 out of 10,000 drivers. 

The Miata, on the other hand, had a reckless driving conviction rate of 73 out of 10,000. The runner-up was the Hyundai Genesis Coupe, which had a reckless driving conviction rate of 67 out of 10,000. These numbers may not seem big, as they are out of 10,000 drivers. However, based on the national average, Insurify found that Miata owners were almost five times as likely to have a reckless driving conviction than the average person.

These aren’t Miatas that were powered by a 700-hp engine, either. Most Miatas are pretty normal cars, and in fact, they start with a 2.0-liter, 180-hp engine. That is powerful enough for the Miata, but clearly, it’s too much power for the average Miata owner to handle. 

Why are Miata drivers so reckless?

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Unfortunately, Insurify doesn’t have any data on why Miata owners are so reckless compared to everyone else. Insurify can only say for certain that Miata owners are the most reckless. However, there is a lot of speculation as to why that’s the case. 

One thing that’s probably certain is that it probably isn’t Mazda’s fault. Mazda has been making strides to increase the safety of its cars, so it wouldn’t make sense for Mazda to make cars that reckless drivers love. It’s totally possible that it’s Mazda’s fault, it’s just not very probable. 

However, as Insurify noted, like the other sports cars on the list, the Miata, which can be a coupe or a convertible, is a very cheap one. The Miata starts at under $27,000, which makes it more affordable to the speed freaks who are on a budget. 

On top of that, the Miata’s affordable price could mean that its owners don’t value it very much. As a result, they drive as recklessly as they want, as they know that they could get another Miata down the road. That said, this is all speculation and it’s not currently clear why the Miata has so many terrible drivers.