Maybe the next econobox should be called ‘The Napoleon’

MIAMI — Call it the short-car syndrome.

Drivers of economy vehicles think they can get away with more illegal stuff, according to a survey released this week by LeaseTrader.com.

The leasing company polled 2,017 drivers in four different sets of vehicles: economy (e.g., Focus); mid-sized (Camry); SUV/truck (Tahoes or F-150s); and luxury cars, such as BMW 7 Series.

They asked the drivers if they believed they could get away with certain traffic violations, like running reds, speeding or parking illegally.

Across the board, mostly drivers of little cars felt they can escape the law more than the drivers of the bigger vehicles (no wonder big rig drivers, then, are statistically the safest on the road).

For instance, only 28.2 percent of econobox drivers think they’d get ticketed for going 10 mph over, whereas a full 63.2 percent of luxury drivers feel they’d get nabbed.

Forty-five-point-eight percent of mid-sized cars figured they’d get a ticket, and 41.2 percent of SUV drivers said they’d get caught.

And get this: Just 15.7 percent of tiny-car drivers feel they’d be likely to get a ticket for running a red. (That’s downright alarming, to any driver with even a semblance of good sense.)

Drivers of luxury vehicles again were highest (62.1%) when it came to getting ticked for running a red; followed by SUV/Truck (43.6%) and mid-size (35.7%).

The only area in which luxo-pilots felt more confident was parking. Almost 72 percent of them felt they wouldn’t receive a ticket for parking illegally.

Who knows why?

Mid-size drivers were next (62.8%) followed by economy drivers (54.2%). Only a few SUV/truck drivers feel they wouldn’t get a parking ticket (21.4%).

The survey didn’t include heavy duty trucks, but it’s safe to guess that 100 percent of truck drivers would say they couldn’t get away with squat. 


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