During my time as a steward at a road racing event, the first thing we told the drivers was that there should be no ‘hooning’. A hoon is someone who drives a car in an antisocial manner according to their society, and this includes, but is not limited to, practices such as speeding, violating traffic regulations, bullying other drivers, and noisy or dangerous driving. There are even countries with special ‘anti-hoon laws’, such as Australia, where there is the Hoon Boating Act and other 2009 amendments from the state of Victoria, and a bill passed in 2004 allows the Western Australian Police to impound cars whose drivers were found involved in such practices. So it’s clear that being hooned is an experience so abhorred by most motorists, and when VoucherCodesPro conducted a survey of 2,837 UK motorists, BMW drivers were found to be the most aggressive, topping the list which also included Land Rover, Audi, Subaru and Vauxhall drivers. In this case, blue BMWs made the largest number, followed by black ones. The research not only focused on things like speeding and dangerous driving, but also who motorists were most and least likely to commit road rage, finding that men between the ages of 35 and 50 were more likely to be angry. drivers, while women between the ages of 17 and 25 were the least likely to be angry.
In an interview, researcher Paul K. Piff of the University of California Institute of Personality and Social Research told the New York Times that luxury cars were less likely to stop for pedestrians, adding that drivers of BMW were the worst. When car throttle, a British media platform for car enthusiasts conducted similar research involving 7,500 respondents, BMW drivers topped the list of most disliked at 41%, followed by Audi at 13%, Honda at 10%, Mercedes at 6% and Toyota tied with Ford at 4%. On the lower side, Dodge, Subaru, Land Rover and Holden tied at 2%, with Volvo, Nissan, Peugeot, Jeep and Mazda also finishing at 1%. Mitsubishi drivers emerged as the most respected, reaching 0%. This study complements a 2008 Audi campaign on the stereotypes behind Lexus, Mercedes, Audi and BMW, calling BMW owners “techno lovers, inconsiderate and arrogant”. So where does all this lead?
In 2012, train top team Presenter Richard Hammond had this to say of BMW after driving the F30 320d: “Their cars are not about cutting-edge, brand-new technology, breaking new ground and pushing things further, but about doing what’s already known and doing it extremely good”. I have personally driven a BMW M5 V10 along with a Mercedes C63 AMG V8 and can attest to Hammond’s statement. Are all these reports simply inaccurate or exaggerated? Maybe there could be a side to this that hasn’t been addressed. In 2011, global Market Research, a leader in consumer insights and research conducted a survey in which BMW owners claimed to prefer “a fast, forceful driving style.” Some respondents even claimed that it was not their fault, but that the car demands to be driven hard. With this in mind, isn’t it logical to say that all of the above studies are accurate and that BMWs top the charts for all the wrong reasons because the people who drive them are ambitious, excited, cocky and somehow carefree? What can you expect, in any case, when handing over a car that demands hard driving to someone with a rough driving style? Well, in a different study, TrueAccident.com reveals that BMWs cause fewer deaths than Audis, Toyotas, Fiats, and Fords. Don’t worry, then, the next time you see a blue BMW in front of you, because although it may stop when you least expect it and change lanes without signaling, there’s really no cause for alarm.