What drives UK car owners to road rage?

Road rage is a classic symptom of driving in the UK – who wouldn’t get mad at all the roundabouts we have here? In fact, over half of the drivers in the UK (51%) say that they suffer from road rage when driving. With 5% of drivers saying that they always suffer from road rage every single time they drive, there must be a fair bit to get angry about!

If you’ve got your dream car on finance, the last thing you want is a boy racer making you lose your cool and risking a scratch or a bump. We took a closer look at road rage in the UK to find out exactly what causes such strong road rage – and which types of drivers infuriate the rest of us.

What annoys drivers the most when driving?

British road rage can be so bad that 1 in 4 UK drivers swear at other drivers whilst driving, and 7% of drivers are willing to get out of their car to confront other drivers that annoy them! So, what is driving us Brits to such desperate acts of frustration? We surveyed the nation and found that the biggest pet peeves for UK drivers are cars getting too close behind you (52%), late indicators, or not indicating at all (51%) and boy racers (48%).

Interestingly, UK drivers find it more annoying when someone doesn’t thank you for giving way to them (31%) than having another driver swearing at them (21.1%). Stepping away from the human interaction aspect, by far the biggest annoyance on roads in the UK is potholes (61%) with speed bumps in second place (31%) and long-duration traffic lights bringing up the rear (25%).

How do men and women react to road rage?

We broke our stats down to look more closely at the gender split between our survey takers:

Men

· Men are more likely to react in every way to road rage when compared to women, with 26% of men reacting by swearing.

· 26% of men react by flashing their lights at others.

· Men are only slightly more annoyed than women by slow drivers (37% of men versus 36.2% of women)

· Hogging the middle lane on the motorway (30% of men vs 27% of women)

· Queue skippers (35% of men vs 31% of women).

Women

· Overall, women are more annoyed by 16/19 of the listed pet peeves than men

· Women are more annoyed than men by cars getting too close behind you (58% of women, 46% of men)

· Boy racers (52% of women, 44% of men)

· Someone not saying thank you when you've given way to them (36% of women & 26.1% of men).

Which type of car driver annoys Brits the most?

We all have our own opinions on the different types of drivers out there on the roads, but we seem to have shared opinions about the drivers who own specific cars being worse than most!

1 in 5 (19%) of drivers in the UK say that BMW drivers are the most annoying drivers on the roads, with Range Rover drivers in 2nd place (16%) and Mini drivers in 3rd (12%). 18–24-year-olds are most annoyed by Vauxhall car drivers (20%), while every other age range finds BMW car drivers the most annoying.

We broke this down by area, to find which car owners were the most annoying in different cities around the country – if you own one of these cars, you may want to make sure to drive well to improve your car’s reputation!

· Birmingham: BMW drivers are the most annoying (21%)

· Leeds: Range Rover car drivers are the most annoying (25%)

· London: BMW drivers are the most annoying (16%)

· Manchester: Mini drivers are the most annoying (27%)

· Liverpool: Range Rovers are the most annoying (22%)

· Sheffield: BMW drivers are the most annoying (27%)

· Cardiff: BMW drivers are the most annoying (19%)

· Edinburgh: BMW drivers are the most annoying (26%)

· Glasgow: BMW drivers are the most annoying (24%)

We’d love to know what you think about our stats – do you agree with your city’s most annoying drivers and nuisances? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook. For more insight into the world of car finance, visit Zuto to find out what options are available to you.