Got pulled over for speeding? It may be the car you&#39;re driving

Are you a traffic ticket magnet?

If you drive a Mercedes-Benz SL Class convertible or a Toyota Camry-Solara Coupe or a Scion TC, don?t be surprised to find yourself squarely in the sights of a police officer?s radar gun.

Certain cars --or is it their drivers? -- seem to attract the attention of law enforcement officials, according to a study by Quality Planning, a San Francisco firm that double-checks policyholder information for auto insurers.

The company looked at the propensity of various vehicle makes to attract tickets based on the number of moving violations per 100,000 miles driven. It found that drivers of stylish ?spirited?-looking vehicles and the outsized Hummer were the most likely to be cited by law enforcement officials.

Drivers of the Mercedes-Benz SL Class roadster were more than 400% more likely to get a ticket than the average for drivers ofall vehicles. Camry-Solara drivers were second at 349% and Scion TC drivers were third at 343%. Hummers came in fourth at 292% more likely to get a ticket, and the Scion xB was fifth at 270%.

Quality Planning surmises that the propensity to get cited for a violation is linked to how one drives, and that?s expressed in the autos people choose. Ticket magnets were likely to be sporty cars while the vehicles least likely to get cited tended to be SUVs and minivans.

The Buick Rainier SUV was the vehicle least likely to get a ticket at just 23% of the average vehicle. It also had the oldest drivers, with an average age of 61. The Mazda Tribute and the Chevrolet C/K pickup truck were tied for second at 26%. The Kia Spectra sedan was next at 27% and the Buick LaCrosse sedan followed at 32%.

It?s not clear how the age of the driver plays into these statistics. The least-ticketed Buick Rainier had the oldest drivers in the group. But the Mazda Tribute, which was just barely ahead of the Rainier in attracting citations, had the second-youngest drivers among the most- and least-ticketed models -? an average age of just 36.

Of the 10 vehicles most likely to be ticketed, women are more likely than men to be driving seven of the models, according to Quality Planning. And women are more likely than men to be driving five of the 10 vehicles least likely to get a ticket. Of those models, two are split evenly between female and male drivers and three are more likely to be driven by men.

But when it comes to traffic laws, an earlier study by Quality Planning found that women are less likely than men to break traffic rules. It also found that men are more likely to violate laws designed to safeguard people and property. Men, for example, are cited for reckless driving 3.41 times more than women.

--Jerry Hirsch

Photo: Drivers of Mercedes-Benz SL roadsters like this one are more likely to get a traffic ticket, according to the study. Credit: Carlos Chavez/Los Angeles Times