You can see today’s Ask up there, and the obvious answer is “the one you’re doing crime in” or “the one with an APB.” But since you are all 100% law-abiding individuals, let’s go a little deeper and consider which cars are inherently more likely to get the attention of law enforcement, assuming you aren’t doing anything more nefarious than, say, going 65 in a 55.
In my experience, truly shitty shitboxes tend to be cop magnets. I don’t know why this is. It’s like the police are saying, “Everyone is going ten over, who do I nab? This guy looks poor, but he could be poorer” (Flips on blue lights). Fifteen minutes later, the $200 you were saving for school books is instead going to a baloney ticket. And you’re late for class. I do not miss those days.
Some of you might say the flashier and sportier your car is (or Corvettier, based on the topshot), the more likely you are to get pulled over. That feels true, and I can confirm that I got way more tickets driving my red Mustang GT than I did in any other car ever, by like a lot, but I was also speeding constantly, so fair.
I attempted to Google “What cars are more likely to get pulled over” and got an AI Overview because you can’t turn that shit off:
OK, so A. settle down, WRX drivers, and B. those are all cars that encourage and reward “spirited driving,” and cops hate that, but also C. the Mazda 3? Zoom-zoom, I guess. Gotta admit, I got a little hoony when I rented one.
My Google search also turned up this informative Reddit thread in r/AskLE: Are there certain vehicles you are more inclined to pull over?
Therein, an actual Deputy Sheriff commented,
I’m more inclined to pull vehicles over whose drivers are committing traffic violations than I am vehicles whose drivers are not committing traffic violations.
And if certain model/color cars get pulled over more often it’s not a cause/effect relationship. It’s more likely it’s because the people who drive certain types of cars with certain paint schemes are more likely to commit traffic violations than the person driving their kids around in a minivan.
… aaaand he’s probably right, but what comes first: the behavior, which lends one to a certain type of car, or does the car come first, and it warps the driver? I feel like having 400+ horsepower Mustang after owning cars with max outputs of less than 150 horsepower broke my brain a little, TBH.
You all figure it out. Which cars are most likely to catch police attention just by existing? Which cars encourage drivers to be a little fast (literally) and loose with the rules of the road? See you in the comments.
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
Which cars are most likely to catch police attention just by existing?
The correct answer would be the ones with expired tags and safety issues too glaring to ignore but the truth surely lies elsewhere.
Any car I have the keys to….
I can attest seeing cops pulling over 20 years old cars (usually corollas, civics) way more often than lunatics driving newer cars. perhaps the litigation possibility would be a factor?
I imagine there are demographic related reasons as well.
Interesting, in thinking about it, I’ve only ever been pulled over for speeding was in a red vehicle. So probably any overpowered red car.
The number one reason for pulling someone over is if the car / driver doesn’t fit with the area.
Nice car in shitty area? Drug dealer or suburbanite looking to buy drugs.
Shitty car in nice area? Looking to commit property crime or teens from the wrong sides of the tracks trying to bang local teens.
Shitty car in nice area? Looking to commit property crime or teens from the wrong sides of the tracks trying to bang local teens.
Eh. That’s probably just some rich asshole’s help.
The 95 Outback I drove in HS was invisible to the cops regardless of how fast I was driving, even through notorious speed traps and even seeing a cop running radar one day. YMMV. It was in decent shape, but almost ten years old by then.
I see way more jalopy’s pulled over, and none of the brodozer trucks doing 95mph. Come to think of it, have I ever seen a pickup pulled over?
I’d imagine cops and brodozer drivers overlap quite a bit.
Ive been driving 35 years and have 4 tickets including in my F150. That goddamn thing tows like a beast but when its not towing, 450hp easily gets into speeds interesting to the Constabulary.
In 53+ years of driving, I’ve been pulled over twice. The first time in an Ebola Brown Datsun 510 station wagon and the second in a dark metallic gray Toyota pickup truck. The first was legit–I was doing 70 back in the 55 mph era. The CHP officer was nice and only wrote me up for 63. The second was a BS speed trap on a rural road in annexed, but undeveloped land outside of Rochester, NY.
Driving down through Oregon on I-5 about 25 years ago, I was doing about 3 over the limit in my metallic gray Saab 9000 Turbo and a white Camry eased past me at maybe 4 over. She got pulled over. I suspect it’s because she had California plates and I had Washington ones.
Anything that has been ridiculously stanced… EPECIALLY if it’s a stanced WRX or STI.
And that’s because stanced cars ARE stupid and unsafe.
And I wish trucks with sky-high lifts would get targeted to a far greater degree as they annoy me way more than the stanced cars… and they are arguably more dangerous than the stanced garbage.
“In my experience, truly shitty shitboxes tend to be cop magnets.”
This rings true to me. My foot has always been mostly lead, but back in my youth when I all I could afford was crappy cars I got pulled over all of the time–and in a lot cases I wasn’t even doing anything wrong and it was clearly a fishing expedition. Of course my goth/rivethead style at the time (Adrian would have approved) was probably a contributing factor, but still it was a lot of “I saw you swerving a bit”, or some other BS ticky-tack excuse. Even in adulthood, looking fairly respectable, I got pulled over several times for BS (vague reason for stop, no ticket) when I had an Abarth 500 driving in pretty much the same manner as I have in my BMWs and Alfa Romeo that seem to be invisible to police. There was one evening in the Abarth coming home from the grocery store where a local cop started following me at an uncomfortably close distance. I decided to have fun with it and went on a meandering drive around town meticulously obeying traffic laws. The cop tailgated me for nearly half an hour before getting bored and driving off. Whereas on the other hand on the way home from the 1rd Autopian Track Meet in my reasonably fast, very purple BMW there were two occurrences of blowing past cops while displaying an unhealthy disregard for the speed limit that were utterly ignored.
I have a Porsche 944 race car. Totally gutted interior, full cage, graphics and numbers. Its actually plated and insured but oh boy does it attract attention.
almost everything I see pulled over on my commute is a mehSUV cr-v or rav4 or similar. the plainest of Janes. that or lowered and window tinted anything
My previous Polestar 2 gave me 3 “impeding traffic” tickets in one year. As usual, just keeping up with the speed of traffic on the highway but I blame the golden accents and the particular stance the car has with the bigger wheels. Even one cop had the nerve to ask me more about the car, didnt even mention why I was getting pull over.
Please expand on the “impeding traffic” part? Were you that guy in the left lane?
It’s the way for cops to say you were speeding but I am nice enough that I will write it as impeding traffic. They will put a note about your speed in case you go to court to fight it.
I live in NASCAR country (Charlotte area), and people drive like they are channeling their inner Earnhardt on the local interstates. The NCSHP can’t seem to keep fully staffed, and there is very little speed interdiction unless you are breaking the century mark or doing something truly idiotic like racing.
But the answer to your question is pretty much any Dodge performance product (Challenger, Charger) or Ram trucks. The Dodge vehicles are usually pulled over in groups because they were caught racing (most likely both vehicles had the minivan motor). The Scats and Hellcats are usually not pulled over because they can’t get up to hyperspeed before they end up in a ditch with a totalled car so they get their ticket for reckless driving after the crash.
My manta when entering 485 has become, “I will remain calm and reasonable.”
No shortage of Dodges in the pursuit videos on YouTube.
The theme music for all those videos should be from Waylon-Just the Good Old Boys…
When I bought a red WRX I actually slowed down because I figured driving the statistically highest ticket car in the statistically highest ticketed color was just asking for it.
I have previously owned a 2002 Z/28, a 2005 GTO, a 2011 C6 Corvette, and now a 2025 C8 Corvette. All Torch Red for some reason. Never been pulled over in any of them. The only speeding ticket I ever got in my life was in a champaign colored 2011 Chevy Cruze for going 52 in a 25. Ouch.
52 in a 25?!? JFC man, what were you thinking.
Easy to do in rural areas where speed drops from 55-25 in about 500ft. Driving cross state in Michigan I see at least 3 of them. Even if you cancel 55mph cruise to coast as soon as you recognize the ‘reduce speed 25mph zone ahead’, you’ll still be going 45+ at the 25mph sign.
Why don’t they move the warning sign farther out you may ask? To generate more revenue from tourists who won’t bother fighting the ticket hours away from home. Tourists can obviously afford it. The locals know the zones and cops, so it doesn’t snare them.
It was in an office park, two lanes on each side of divided road. Nobody around and 25 is ridiculously slow for the area IMHO. Anyway a cop was hiding in a parking lot and snagged me and my buddy who were on our way to a restaurant. He also ticketed us for drag racing. Yes it was stupid and yes it cost me a lot in lawyer fees, court cost etc. I did get away with no reckless and no careless driving at least.
Motorcycles. I once had a cop follow me for miles, he went down and back up an off/on ramp. Meanwhile, cars are zooming past the both of us.
Red 300ZX.
I got pulled over once, by CHiPs. For speeding, you ask? No, for going too slowly. My shitheap Mercury Lynx wagon was not reaching 45mph that day. They told me to take surface streets if I couldn’t hit 65mph.
This would have left me driving a barely functioning car that probably would have died and left me to find a taxi or a tow I couldn’t afford, at midnight, in the hood, before cell phones, before Uber, before taxis started taking credit cards (I had very little cash on me).
So I got off the freeway as instructed, found a well-lit parking lot, and waited. After about 15 min I got back on the freeway with my hazards on and limped home.
I hope that piece of shit Mercury hasn’t been turned into rebar, because it would fail at that too and hurt people.
If your skin is dark? Any car. 🙁
I used to have an MX5 competition-spec drift car. Welded diff so it visibly juddered around low speed corners, race numbers on the doors, sharp edged bare carbon fibre panels, huge sponsors stickers, mismatched wheels. In seven years it never got stopped.
My Elise on the other hand, got me pulled over for speeding, twice, while I was in a queue of traffic all doing the exact same non-speeding speed. Those cops were just looking to mess with the guy who was in the Lotus. One of them breathalysed me for being drunk after the lack of speeding evidence stopped being fun for him. I hadn’t had a drink in days, and never drink and drive.
Both of these cars stood out, and both cost about the same. I can’t work out why they’d pick on one and ignore the other.
They never stopped the Elise when it had race numbers on it, so maybe that’s the answer.
I used to drive a rusty 68 Mustang with no hood a very loud exhaust around Irvine, CA. I passed many cops, and I was very surprised I never got pulled over.
The mom of an old girlfriend of mine use to race Sprites and such in the 60s. In the 80s, said mom was still a bit of a speed demon and eventually she had some sort Blazer and was racking up tickets with the CHP. The mom eventually quizzed the CHP Officer and he said that as the CHP were using Blazers at the time, they noticed her Blazer thinking it might be a buddy and then looked down at their speedo and realized she was speeding. Bing! Light ’em up!
She sold her Blazer and stopped getting tickets, despite not changing her driving.
My ex-wife had a fairly heavy right foot. When I lived in Cleveland and she lived in Rochester, NY, we’d alternate weekends who made the trip between the two on I-90. On one of her weekends, she got pulled over doing 80+ in PA (speed limit 55 mph). Her car still had CA plates. She still had a CA driver’s license. After like nine months living in NY. Somehow, she got away with a warning. The Force was strong with her.