Connecticut is ranked in the bottom half of best state for drivers, according to a Bankrate.com report.
The personal finance website found Iowa is the best state for drivers while California was ranked the worst, while Connecticut ranked 32nd.
Connecticut scored well for low incidents of car fatalities (No. 8) and gas costs (No. 14), but other factors, like expensive car repairs (No. 44) and high insurance costs (No. 43) helped to lower its overall standing.
The study evaluated 50 U.S. states based on conditions that affect drivers, including commute time, annual insurance premiums, gas expenditures, cost of car repairs, car thefts and auto fatalities.
Iowa benefited from low insurance premiums, short commute times and less expensive auto repair costs. The other top five states include Ohio, Maine, Wisconsin and Vermont.
California suffered from high auto repair costs and car thefts as well as lengthy commute times. New Mexico, Nevada, Louisiana and Wyoming round out the bottom five states.
Sources for the data used in the study include: CarMD.com, for labor and parts data; the Bureau of Transportation and the Oil Price Information Service, for gas spending; the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, for insurance costs; the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for theft; the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, for crash data and the U.S. Census, for commute times.
