Nobody purchases a vehicle expecting it might someday be involved in a car accident. But we take precautions like insuring our cars in case unfortunate incidents happen. And they do happen. Fortunately, technology allows manufacturers to make safer cars that can help reduce the chances we’ll end up in a collision, as well as the number of injuries and fatalities. 

But despite innovations, some cars still have higher rates of accidents. In fact, the Infiniti Q50 is the car with the most reported crashes. Let’s take a look at a recent list of seemingly accident-prone vehicles and explore why the cars themselves might not be to blame.

10 cars involved the most accidents

Insurify recently released “Major Motor Mishaps: Car Models with the Most Accidents.” The insurance company has a team of data scientists to look at high volumes of data from car insurance applications and other reliable resources. This allows them to provide insights into car accidents and insurance. The scientists looked at the number of drivers with prior at-fault accidents and compared it to the total number of owners of each model to determine a percentage of drivers with an accident on record. On average, about 17 percent of drivers have a prior at-fault accident. In contrast, all vehicles on the list have an at-fault accident rate of at least 24 percent. 

Interestingly, Insurify also found that the cars on this list tend to have some of the industry’s highest safety ratings. This makes the at-fault accident rate seem surprising, yet it’s actually a positive that the cars that may be likelier to get into accidents are designed to keep occupants safe. Some notable cars that fit this trend are the Honda HR-V, Toyota Prius C, and Subaru Crosstrek. These vehicles had prior at-fault accident percentages at 24.57, 24.65, and 25.88 percent, respectively. Subaru actually holds three spots on this top 10 list. 

And to the dismay of its manufacturer, the Infiniti Q50 sits at the top of this list. Its prior at-fault accident percentage of 26.25, over 9 percent higher than average. 

The Infiniti Q50

The Infiniti Q50 luxury sedan boasts a striking exterior, high-performing engine, and comfortable seats. Even the standard Q50 also boasts several advanced safety features. They include a forward collision warning, backup camera, and forward automatic emergency braking. Other optional features are lane departure assist, adaptive cruise control, and blind spot monitoring. 

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety awarded the 2021 Infiniti Q50 superior marks in all four crash tests. And U.S. News gave the Q50 a near-perfect safety score of 9.7 out of 10. Despite its high safety scores, the Infiniti Q50 still stands atop Insurify’s accident list. However, the data comes with a few major caveats.

Consider these points about the data and the Infiniti Q50

Remember, this list is based on the percentage of drivers with prior at-fault accidents, not the model’s total number of accidents. It’s important to keep that in mind because other, more popular models that sell at higher volumes are likely involved in more accidents total. Still, the percentages of drivers with prior at-fault accidents may be lower than the Infiniti Q50. 

It’s also important to note that Insurify’s data is not about how the Infiniti Q50 is flawed in a way that causes more accidents. The relationship with higher at-fault accident percentages with the Infiniti Q50 is a correlation instead of causation. Drivers who tend to get in more accidents may be drawn to this vehicle for unknown reasons. 

This list and its accompanying data are certainly interesting, but they can tell us only so much about the association between certain models and their percentage of accidents.