Which Car Owners Have the Highest IQ? Survey Reveals…

Are you quick to associate a personality type or even level of intelligence another car driver based on the car that they are driving? Maybe you’ve even called them “stupid” when they failed to follow basic road rules and etiquette.

Scrap Car Comparison, a UK-based online scrap vehicle comparison site, wanted to see whether the IQ level of drivers correlated with the type of car—ie. brand, colour, fuel type and number plate—that they drove and conducted a survey among over 2,000 drivers.

Participants were required to undergo a set of standarised tests to assess their “intelligence” and the average scores of drivers in different categories were calculated. Before you read on, this is clearly a fun survey that does not pass scientific muster, so do not take offence if your car of choice implies that you are less than smart. With that, here are the results!

CAR BRAND OF CHOICE

There were 22 car brands named among those who were surveyed, and it was found that the most intelligent drivers, with an average IQ of 99, drove Skoda! The same company had ran an earlier survey to ascertain psychopathic tendencies based on car brand selection also found that drivers of Skoda cars had the least likelihood of such tendencies and were more likely to be calm on the road.

Rounding up the top 5 on the list of car brands based on intelligence are Suzuki (98.09), Peugeot (97.79), MINI (97.41) and Mazda (95.91). The bottom five on the list, though, are Volvo (92.4), Volkswagen (92.25), BMW (91.68), Fiat (90.14) and lastly, Land Rover (88.58, sorry!).

FUEL TYPE

There also appears to be distinct difference between the IQ levels of those who drive petrol-powered cars, who scored an average IQ of 94.35, and electric car drivers, whose average IQs are almost 4 points lower at 90.19.

CAR COLOUR

Year after year, white is the most popular car colour and the findings suggested that those who choose a white car are also most intelligent, with an average IQ of 95.71; this is followed by grey (94.97) and red (94.88) while at the other end of the scale are those who drive black (92.83), silver (92.67) and green (88.43) cars.

PERSONALISED NUMBER PLATE 

The personalised number plate industry in the UK is estimated to be £1.3 billion in 2022 alone! The average cost of one is £877 with some forking out thousands of pounds for rarer combinations. Perhaps this is explained by the average IQ of car owners with personalised plate number being 2.2 points lower than those who do not, ie. 91.92 vs 94.15. 

So, if ever there is an all-electric Land Rover in green—and there might be as they are launching their first EV in 2024—do not get one and then slap a customised plate on it!