Poll on Worst Drivers by Automobile Manufacturer

[Ronstar]

The worst drivers are not by manufacturer. Worst drivers are by region. And I'll vote for Arizona. When I am in Arizona, hardly a day goes by when I don't see at least 2 car wrecks. And several end up on their roofs.

 

[street]

18 wheelers in my area. Just about every accident and fatal accident a semi is involved. I would go out on a limb and 90% semis are involved in my area and none of those drivers every get hurt and walk away.

Is a terrible thing but a fact.

 

[freedomatlast]

Around here the guys in pickups never seem to be in much of a hurry. Not sure why. I drive one and always keep up with traffic.

Around here, it's usually the diesel Ford Pickup guys jacked way up with small, but wide tires....either pulls right out in front of you on the two lane road and then goes well under the speed limit all the while you get to smell the diesel exhaust, or greatly exceeding the speed limit on the interstate pulling a trailer fully loaded with heavy equipment dropping stones and mud chunks off the back. One extreme or the other....

 

[COcheesehead]

Off topic
Why is it that some drivers will look into their rear view mirror first when the light turns green rather than proceeding forward? Likelihood increases if driver is wearing a hat. LOL

A former co worker, female, said every Corvette driver is a bald old guy and likely wearing white New Balance shoes.

 

[COcheesehead]

The worst drivers are not by manufacturer. Worst drivers are by region. And I'll vote for Arizona. When I am in Arizona, hardly a day goes by when I don't see at least 2 car wrecks. And several end up on their roofs.

My brother lives in Florida and says drivers there are on a ten count before accelerating at intersections and you better hope they are on 4 or 5 when you enter the intersection.

 

[Car-Guy]

18 wheelers in my area. Just about every accident and fatal accident a semi is involved. I would go out on a limb and 90% semis are involved in my area and none of those drivers every get hurt and walk away.

Is a terrible thing but a fact.

Same here. Horrific 18 wheeler wrecks often followed by a white cross being planted on the side of the road where the wreck happened. Not a good sign. At the barber shop I frequent, we often discuss/debate which is worse. Log truck drivers or limestone rock haulers. Last time I looked at the chart on the wall it was about even. Rock trucks have the added "feature" of cracking windshields. Everyone around here knows you either stay "at least" 100yards behind rock trucks or quickly pass them. Following too close for any length of time guarantees you a cracked windshield.

 

[djsander]

The worst are the ones that take their cheap car put an after market spoiler on the back, a loud exhaust system and rims and tires they couldn't afford and now think they are race car drivers.

 

[pacergal]

There is a Maserati driver in my area I see on the freeway about once a month. He appears to think we are all racing him as he exceeds the speed limit while zipping from one lane to another cutting off the slower cars. On day I expect to seem him in a pile of wreckage. In the meantime I avoid such people. They are dangerous.

His brother must live here, same problem.

Many trucks are obnoxious here also, constantly revving their engine, tail gating.

 

[Ian S]

Eighteen wheelers. More specifically, eighteen wheelers carrying logs. a.k.a. Log Trucks

We have a section of I-17 southbound where there is a long uphill stretch where the speed limit is reduced from 75 to 65 mph. Almost invariably, there will be a slow truck in the right lane doing maybe 35 mph and another semi behind it doing maybe 36 mph. That truck decides to pass and of course takes forever to do so thereby blocking the high speed lane wherein, truth be told, most drivers are doing 75. I can't be the only one whose B.P. rises dramatically in that situation. Grrrr!

 

[JoeWras]

A former co worker, female, said every Corvette driver is a bald old guy and likely wearing white New Balance shoes.

What's wrong with bald guys and New Balance wearers?

Your co-worker is an anti-baldite!

 

[Car-Guy]

A former co worker, female, said every Corvette driver is a bald old guy and likely wearing white New Balance shoes.

That's just steroytyping....

And old is a relative term. As an older guy, I drove vettes between the ages of ~50 and ~65. As I got older it got harder and harder to get in and out of my vettes. Just too dang low to the ground. I finally learned how to "roll" out but it's embarrassing. Oh, and I'm only half bald and I never owned a pair of new balance shoes. Now that I'm older I drive higher profile vehicles. e.g. SUV's or Pickups. Something I have to climb "up" to get in.

 

[CaptTom]

We get logging trucks in northern Maine, too. Yeah, they can be scary.

But before we get too far counting wrecks involving truckers, I'd ask how many of those were initiated by some moron in a car slamming on the brakes right in front of them. I've seen it happen too many times. Maybe someone who drives truck for a living can chime in, but I suspect the vast majority of their accidents can be attributed to this sort of behavior by other drivers.

 

[COcheesehead]

That's just steroytyping....

And old is a relative term. As an older guy, I drove vettes between the ages of ~50 and ~65. As I got older it got harder and harder to get in and out of my vettes. Just too dang low to the ground. I finally learned how to "roll" out but it's embarrassing. Oh, and I'm only half bald and I never owned a pair of new balance shoes. Now that I'm older I drive higher profile vehicles. e.g. SUV's or Pickups. Something I have to climb "up" to get in.

LOL, this entire THREAD is stereotyping

 

[Walt34]

When I was working on the road the by far worst driver/car combination was the BMW, followed closely by the Mercedes crowd. They're immune from the laws of physics, or so they seemed to think.

At the other end of the spectrum, a Rolls or Bentley was almost always driven at a stately 5 mph below the speed limit. I guess if you have enough to spend the price of a house on a car you don't need to hurry. I never once saw a Rolls or Bentley driver commit a traffic violation of any sort. Not even a light bulb out.

 

[MichaelB]

That's just steroytyping....

I agree, and would add this whole thread is stereotyping.

I think there’s a big difference between between the quality of driving in and around major cities and drivers on the interstate highways outside of metropolitan areas.

On the interstate highways outside of metropolitan areas my experience is motorcycles have the safest drivers, followed by big rig trucks. Passenger cars are more likely to drive poorly and dangerously, but mostly drive well.

In and around metro areas there are many more poor, bad and dangerous drivers on the road at any time and they aren’t limited to any brand, type or category of vehicle. The ones that stand out for me are SUV drivers in snow, rain or other poor conditions and seem to think that 4WD will let them driver faster than conditions warrant.

 

[Walt34]

The ones that stand out for me are SUV drivers in snow, rain or other poor conditions and seem to think that 4WD will let them driver faster than conditions warrant.

Well, they do drive faster than conditions warrant, because the 4WD enables them to. That's why their crashes are so much better than the pokey 2WD vehicles....

 

[braumeister]

I sometimes wonder if it would be best to require new drivers to start out for their first year or two in a small, underpowered, somewhat unsafe car. That would give them the proper mindset.

It certainly worked for me. My first car was barely able to get out of its own way, and not even that when going uphill. But I loved it since it was mine, and it definitely taught me good driving manners (stay to the right, don't take chances, etc.)

 

[COcheesehead]

When I was working on the road the by far worst driver/car combination was the BMW, followed closely by the Mercedes crowd. They're immune from the laws of physics, or so they seemed to think.
.

My wife drives a BMW. She is courteous and obeys the laws. She obvious doesn’t get how she is supposed to drive.

 

[JoeWras]

Well, they do drive faster than conditions warrant, because the 4WD enables them to. That's why their crashes are so much better than the pokey 2WD vehicles....

Well done.

 

[JoeWras]

At the other end of the spectrum, a Rolls or Bentley was almost always driven at a stately 5 mph below the speed limit. I guess if you have enough to spend the price of a house on a car you don't need to hurry. I never once saw a Rolls or Bentley driver commit a traffic violation of any sort. Not even a light bulb out.

When I lived in S. Florida, there were Rolls and Bentleys everywhere.

The drivers all looked like professional drivers, most wearing the traditional hat. I couldn't see who was in back. These were very wealthy people who employed pros to drive them around. There's a good chance the driver (chauffeur) was assisted by a personal mechanic.

The upshot is these cars were perfect, and were driven by real pros with CDLs.

 

[Chuckanut]

In big city slow traffic the most dangerous vehicles are lane splitting motorcycles. It's also illegal in my home state, though that may not be true of other states.

 

[JoeWras]

In big city slow traffic the most dangerous vehicles are lane splitting motorcycles. It's also illegal in my home state, though that may not be true of other states.

Its legal in California. I used to spend some time in Silly Valley and the first time I encountered it on the 101 I nearly fainted it surprised me so much.

Most riders were fairly respectful, going less than 15 or so. Personally, I think they are taking a huge risk doing it, what with all the distractions people have.

 

[Janet H]

Priuses can be annoying on the occasion when you come up on a driver trying to hyper-mile one, and they basically become a rolling roadblock. I don't know if it's still that common these days, but it used to be a thing, where their drivers would go as slow and gentle as possible, and then brag about the mpg the trip computer was showing.

And they'll do stuff like pull out in front of you, and then take off extra slow because again, they're hypermiling!

This! Still very common in my area. Also Priuses must be VERY difficult to parallel park as I routinely see them sticking out into traffic lanes and still 2 feet from the curb.

 

[cyber888]

Haha. I drive a Bimmer and never had an accident in 30 years. I love it. But yeah, it makes you drive fast at times, because it is a fast car. I think Mercedes drivers are also bad.
I notice how bad BMW drivers were when I drove all around Italy last September. The BMW drivers in Italy really stood out. They were so reckless, and I was driving a rented Toyota. Can't even compare to the bad drivers in the USA.

 

[PatrickW]

From Driver’s Perspective

Something interesting that I’ve noticed: when I was driving my Volkswagen other drivers seemed fairly polite. People would readily let me merge or would let me in during heavy traffic.

Recently we bought a BMW. We don’t see the same degree of goodwill on the road when we’re driving that. I think the behavior of other drivers sometimes depends on what vehicle YOU are driving.

Noticed the same thing many years ago, when I drove a Corvette. Left lane hogs were a lot quicker to get out of the fast lane when I was behind them in the Corvette, versus when I was driving a Honda.