You don't have to be speeding to get pulled over for "speeding" anymore than you have to have a broken tail light to be pulled over for a "broken tail light". Traffic stops don't need a real reason to occur. The cop just needs you to be a good bet that he finds *something* to charge you with after his initially made up reason.

Case in point? When I moved to my current location and started working, I drove a beater. 95 Nissan Sentra. For the 9 months that I had it while I was out here, I got pulled over 5 times. One of those times I was genuinely speeding like an idiot and got caught. It is what it is, and what it is in on me.

The other four times resulted in "warnings". Twice, they requested searches that I consented to just to avoid generating suspicion by mere virtue of knowing my fucking rights, but they found nothing and my name & DL came back clean.

That car broke down beyond reasonable repair, my then-fiance traded her car in for a Corolla, which we shared. I got pulled over once, the officer wanting to know what I was doing in the thrift store parking lot before I pulled over.

Well, I was leaving the thrift store. He was "concerned" that I sat in my car for an "unreasonably long time", whatever the fuck that means, before I drove away, and I was calling my wife to see what she wanted me to pick up for dinner before I left.

We then traded up to a Camry and I haven't been pulled over since. I don't drive any differently and I drive in the same exact areas at the same times as my previous stops.

So... I mean... the '95 beater probably made them think there was a good chance that I'd be on parole/probation, or perhaps they'd "smell marijuana" or whatever. I dunno, but it's just strange that the better my car got, the less I got pulled over. You'd probably call it a coincidence but I've known enough cops, read enough incidents, and seen enough video to know that these people do play the odds in hopes of catching a live one.