He, he! That looks like the rejected version of the Ghostbusters car.
Posted on 01/16/2010 6:15:13 AM PST by DogByte6RER
Cops shop for new cars after Ford stops making Crown Victoria
By STEVEN ELBOW
The Capital Times
Thursday, January 14, 2010 5:30 am
In the near future, you may not see that iconic Ford emblem you may have been unlucky enough to glimpse beneath the flashing red and blue lights in your rearview mirror. Local police are getting ready to move to new squad cars.
Ford announced last year that it’s ending production of the ubiquitous Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, which for nearly two decades has dominated the squad car market nationwide. The move will shake up the look of police car fleets as law enforcement agencies scramble to fill the gap.
Madison residents can expect to see several Dodge Chargers hit the road in February as police begin to explore their options. With their sleek design, the Chargers will be in stark contrast to the boxy fleet of Crown Vics.
“They’re definitely a sharp-looking car,” says Sgt. Eric Tripke of Madison’s traffic safety team.
While the department plans to keep an eye on the market and experiment with other models as they become available, there are few options in the short term.
“Right now, the only police package vehicle other than the Crown Victoria that’s out there that we thought would meet our needs is the Dodge Charger,” says Capt. Richard Bach, who heads up traffic services for the Madison Police Department.
That is likely to change as competition for the squad car market heats up.
Ford ended production of the consumer version of the Crown Victoria in 2007, and has been seeing increased competition in the police car market, leading to the decision to replace the aged workhorse with a new, yet-to-be-unveiled Police Interceptor in 2011.
The Dodge Charger is already scooping up market share while Chevrolet readies a revamped Caprice for a 2011 release. And newcomer Carbon Motors Corp. plans to produce the first car designed exclusively for police work, in 2012.
Carbon Motors’ futuristic cop car, now only a prototype, is generating a lot of buzz. It has a 300-horsepower clean diesel engine, an onboard voice-command computer with instant license plate recognition capability, shotgun mounts, an ergonomically designed driver’s seat that accommodates bulky utility belts and gun holsters, and even an option for detecting biological and radioactive weapons. It also reduces the ick factor that comes with transporting intoxicated passengers who tend to vomit or urinate inside the vehicle: it comes with a drain. And it is expected to have twice the estimated lifespan of the average police car.
The downside? The price, which is around $50,000. But Bach says the $21,500 Crown Vic actually costs about $46,000 by the time it’s outfitted with many of the accessories that will come standard with the Carbon Motors police car.
At just over $21,000 for a V-8 engine and $20,000 for a V-6, the prices of the Chargers are comparable with the Crown Victorias. The city has purchased its 10 new cars with a federal grant.
Whatever squad car Madison police officials pick for their entire fleet will be the successor to a long line of vehicles, which have included Ford Fairlanes, Plymouth Gran Furys and Dodge Diplomats as well as Chevy Impalas, Caprices and Novas, not all of them well-received by officers.
“I remember the Dodge Diplomats, and quite honestly they were a piece of junk,” Tripke says.
Bach says the department’s experiment a few years back with Ford Tauruses also was a failure, mainly because they were expensive to maintain. With the beating they took from officers hitting curbs, crossing medians and driving at high speeds, the front-wheel drive made for serious drive-train problems. Now, most law enforcement agencies will buy nothing but rear-wheel-drive squad cars.
Many departments, including those in New York City and Seattle, are experimenting with hybrids, both as patrol vehicles and for non-patrol officers such as command staff or detectives.
Monona Police Chief Walter Ostrenga went that route a year ago, buying a hybrid Toyota Camry for a detective’s use.
At more than $23,000, it was more than a Crown Victoria, but it gets 38 mpg in the city and Ostrenga says he hopes the car will last for 10 years. But he also says it isn’t suitable for patrol work because it’s not effective for high-speed pursuits.
“If we were just in the city and didn’t have to go out on the highway or the Beltline we might be able to pull it off,” he says.
With budget constraints in cities nationwide and uncertainty about the squad car market, many agencies have put off squad car purchases. But they can’t put them off for long.
Bach says the average lifespan of squad cars, which are driven hard and often run 24 hours a day, is three to four years. That means Madison’s entire fleet of about 120 pursuit-rated vehicles will change over by about 2013.
Facing similar circumstances, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office has already put five new Dodge Chargers in the hands of its traffic team, and so far deputies have given them a thumbs-up.
“I think it’s a great platform to work out of,” says Deputy Steve Mueller, who’s driven the model for about 18 months.
He says equipping the car was a challenge. A lot of police equipment, including things like passenger cages, shotgun mounts and radar mounts, were made specifically for Crown Vics, since they account for more than 75 percent of the police vehicle market. But once the equipment was in place, the Charger has performed well, displaying better handling and stability, not to mention comfort.
“Under performance situations, the car handles so well that it’s much easier to drive so we can concentrate more on the law enforcement duties we have to do and less on the driving,” he says. “It keeps us safer in that way.”
Despite the extra power of the hemi V-8 engine, Mueller says he’s seen about a 10 percent increase in fuel efficiency over the Crown Vic due to the fact that the hemi engines automatically shut down four cylinders when the car is idling, which is often.
But there are a couple of negatives. The passenger seat is cramped because police equipment situated in the center of the cab encroaches on it. It’s also more difficult to lock the car with the engine running. And there’s a delay when the car is put in reverse as the gears catch up, making it more time-consuming to make a Y-turn, which officers have to perform more often because the car has a wider turning radius than the Crown Vic.
Madison plans to put five Chargers on the road with V-6 engines and five with hemi V-8s. Tripke says that while he’s had the chance to drive one of the new cars, the traffic safety team is not included in the pilot project. The vehicles are being given to regular patrol officers because the department considers that a better indicator of how they will perform during typical use.
The V-8s are expected to have better durability and speed, which Tripke says is making some of his colleagues wish they were in the pilot project.
“There’s a lot of officers just itching to get behind the wheel of those Chargers, especially the hemis,” he says. “They’re going to be a good short-sprint vehicle.”
That would never happen today
I've driven all of them and now drive the Charger. While it's sharp-looking, it's still a Dodge and Dodge has never made a good, dependable police unit.
Just as an aside did you notice that “ To serve and protect “ was stricken from the side of that police car
Where did you get that photo?
Back in the way old days, the Texas DPS drove Dodge Coronet 440s. That was basically a Road Runner or Dukes of Hazzard Charger without the striping. They loved those things and were probably the most intimidating police vehicle I’ve ever seen. They had a Mad Max look to them.
Agreed, but it never rode (i.e., comfort) like the Crown Vic.
Dependable being the word...
Sure, you can buy anything and slap a few stickers on it and a lightbar and call it a “unit” for what its worth...
But when it breaks down, and the costs and downtime associated with getting it back out on the street are tabulated...
Ask yourself why the desk jockeys get in those moods during budget talks with the city or county...hmmmmmm???
Either way, it is a pain in everyones rear end...
He, he! That looks like the rejected version of the Ghostbusters car.
Sources on Chevy Caprice police car claims:
1994-95 Michigan State Police vehicle tests, 1994-5 Los Angeles County Sheriffs Dept. tests. Also, see book Chevrolet Police Cars by Edwin J. Sanow.
The 9C-1 police package contained many heavy duty features not on the civilian models most notably the lack of a speed limiter computer chip. They will run all day at 140 plus mph without flinching. The civilian models had a 108mph speed limiter, but were still quick. I also owened several Caprice wagons of that era and they are great family, recreational and work vehicles. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...I love them. Getting very hard to find nice ones now.
G - A - Y
When I was a rookie cop in 1978, we still had one 1970’s Dodge Polara kept in the fleet as a spare. It still had its original growler siren. I loved to drive that car.
I still get a nostalgic wish that I could go back in time, when most patrol cars were Chrysler products, with Remington 870 shotguns mounted inside, driven by policemen carrying .357 Magnum revolvers.
The lousy front end on that loser kept it more in the shops than on the highways.
See my post number 109.
I remember those Javelin Trooper cars. Today, the city is going to Impalas, and the county and state are getting Chargers. The Troopers also have unmarked GM SUV's that are getting people left and right. The city, for a while used confiscated cars, we had at least one MB, and a number of Cameros, and 'Stangs, also, mundane stuff.
GM is already diverting the pipeline of Opels and Holdens to Buick. There will be a new Buick Regal for 2011, based upon the new Opel Astra, previoiusly destined to be the Saturn Aura.
Perhaps the former Holden Commodore/Pontiac G8 can be resurrected as a Skylark Grand National? Wouldn’t be a bad move, already crash tested and federalized for pollution controls. Revamp the front and rear fascias, and there you go.
"Stick shifts and safety belts and bucket seats have all got to go..."
- Cake
I dislike GM, but I’m hoping I can get a good deal on a G8 GT in the next year.
For my business, I drove Mercedes Diesels for many years. I had 380,000 on my 1987 300SDL Mercedes in 2002 when the timing chain broke. A broken timing chain takes out the engine. A new engine cost $12,000.
I decided I would buy a new 2003 Ford Crown Victoria to use for a few more years before I retired. I drove far fewer miles at this time but I needed the four doors and large trunk the Ford offered. Ford had a version called LX Sports Sedan. Bucket seats, 17 inch wheels, sports suspension, and a higher power V-8, 26 MPG highway mileage, great tires, and every option known to man at the time.
My plan was to drive it for two years and then dump it. My colleagues joked with me for driving a taxi or police car, which was correct. All I saw my first trip to Dulles Airport to pick someone up were Crown Vic taxis. On the highway other cars would slow or move over until they realized I was the Police.
As it turns out, I still have the car. It has been an amazing car for 145,000 miles. I have the same water pump, same alternator, same sparkplugs, and the second set of tires. I have changed the belt, battery, and the brake pads at 125,000 miles. Items that have broken are the fan motor housing, which requires replacing the entire assembly, and the heater control, which I had rebuilt for $179. I cannot begin to tell you the expense of maintaining a Mercedes for 145,000 miles.
The Ford still gets 24 MPG on the highway, which I attribute more to the ethanol than the car's age and around 18 MPG in town.
I have my eye on a Hyundai Genesis but I have been accustomed to driving cars until they just quit. The Ford Crown Vic is far from quitting.
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