Re: O/T What's going on?

Posted by HalWA on March 06, 2009 at 23:22:35 from (208.81.157.90):

In Reply to: O/T What's going on? posted by Goose on March 06, 2009 at 07:04:42:

I have seen Washington State Patrol Troopers using marked Ford Explorers or Expeditions, as well as some new Chargers, but mostly they continue to use Crown Victorias. I think they have tried some Chevy Caprices, but have not been pleased with the handling of the front wheel drive cars, and the durability may not be up to the task.

Lots of cities have been using the Chevys successfully. I think the jury is still out on the Chargers. Police agencies are usually very conservative about what they buy for cars, since the cars are such a huge budget item. The best police cars are the ones that can get the job done and hold together over the long term without having to keep fixing things all the time. The Crown Vics are big enough to haul all the equipment around, are heavy enough so they stand a chance in a pushing contest, have very predictable decent handling, get reasonable gas mileage, and most important of all, they don't break much.

The Crown Victorias have had a great run as police cars, without a whole lot of changes for more than 15 years. There are faster cop cars, but the Crown Vics hold together better than almost anything else. It will be too bad when they are no longer available. I don't think that Crown Vics are still sold to the general public, but similar Mercurys are still for sale new. Since those cars have changed so little, and since you see so many of them still in service, I would guess that the Crown Vic and Merc Marquis have made Ford a lot of money. Maybe the tooling is near the end of it's useful life.

When Ford brought out the Crown Vic with the 4.6L SOHC engine, they did not put out a police package the first year or so, just civilian models. Our local Sheriff's Department had used Fords for years, but since the new Crown Vic was not available as a police package, Spokane County bought Chevy Caprices for a couple of years. The Caprices were faster than the Crown Vics they replaced, by far, but they had LOTS of transmission problems with them. When the police package came out on the Crown Vic, Spokane County bought them. They have worked out well, and I don't think Spokane County has bought much else since about 1992. It will be interesting to see if Ford comes up with a replacement police vehicle if, in fact they quit producing Crown Vics.

I would wonder how well a pickup or SUV would work out as a sometimes pursuit vehicle, as compared to a large sedan, but maybe the manufacturers have figured out how to make the trucks handle well enough. Obviously in some conditions a 4x4 pickup could go some places that a sedan could not. But unless the manufacturers give the fleet buyers SCREAMING DEALS on the trucks, I don't see how they could compete with the fleet spec sedans prices.

Police vehicles have an interesting history. They went from the cheapest standard cars that the agencies could find, to the super heavy duty specialized vehicles produced today. It will be interesting to see what is used in the future.

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