Texas is a popular destination for those fleeing California and elsewhere, with hundreds of thousands moving here every year. But as some of them may notice driving in, your car appears to begin suffering Mad Max-levels of damage as soon as you cross state lines.
The truck in front of you is spilling loose pebbles that ricochet off your windshield, an unfixed Guinness World Record-eligible pot hole sends the chassis flying like it just crossed over a land mine, and drivers regularly slam on the breaks doing 70 MPH so they can take selfies with Bluebonnets at the side of the road.
Perhaps that’s all an exaggeration. But there’s a new study that appears to lend some credence to the myths: Texas apparently causes more damage to your vehicle than any other state, at least according to the folks at Grease Monkey.
The study considered numerous factors like road conditions, traffic safety, weather and natural disasters to determine that Texas leads the nation with a damage score of 658 (out of 1,000). Mississippi and New York came in at second and third place, respectively, with Idaho ranking as the safest place for your car.
Granted, not everything that apparently causes damage is within Texas’ control. Barring some Mr. Burns device that blocks the sun, we can’t help that “prolonged exposure to UV rays and heat from the sun can gradually degrade the paint and interior materials.” No kidding. It’s why many Texas drivers use those NASA-looking metallic sunshades to shield a bit of it, with others even leaving their windows cracked open to lower the heat and internal pressure against the glass. Which is all well and good, until some rapscallion uses the opportunity to steal the car.
We ranked pretty high up there with hail and sun damage, and the prevalence of flooding and natural disasters did not help. And crashes? As anyone who’s been stuck in regular crash-related traffic can attest, Texas sees plenty of them, just missing out on the top five. It must be all those bad drivers from California causing them, of course.
Where are the most crashes so we know what states to skip? Apparently it’s Mississippi and Delaware. They far outpaced other states with road shenanigans, apparently just hitting each other like bumper cars over there. Wouldn’t have guessed that, Delaware.
Plenty to think about the next time you’re leaving the driveway. It’s just one study, however. So Texans should take it all with a grain of salt. But before you do, remember that’s another thing that can damage your car: salt. “Vehicles driven in coastal states are often exposed to salty, moisture-laden air blown inland from the ocean,” the study notes.
Fine, but now you’re stretching a bit, Grease Monkey. And it’s a little hard to take a study seriously from a company using a name that some fictional mechanics consider a slur.