After 10 years or more the WSP is switching from the Ford Crown Victoria to Chevy Caprice and Malibu. I've seen a few of the new Chevy's and it is taking some getting used to. You could pick out a Smokey in the Crown Vic a mile away.

From what I've heard the troopers like the power of the Chevy's but not the room or comfort. I wonder who made the decision and if the troopers had any input, you know, like test driving one to see how one feels after driving for 10 hrs? Don't need a bunch of cramped and crabby cops!

Most of the police around here are driving the hemi. Everyone from county to the state police. they are hard to spot with the slim led lights.

I really liked the Crown Vics because of the room. My 6' 4" frame liked them too. The Dept. now has some Chevys, and they do not look very roomy at all, especially since they crammed a shotgun mount into them and installed vehicle computer equipment, besides the radios.

Now the old Chevy Caprices we used to have were roomy as well.

The Chevy SS is due to hit LE fairly soon. It is based on the old Pontiac G8 and should get down the road PDQ.

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paws for friendship

I thought Ford is no longer making the Crown Vic so replacements
are needed.

The last Crown Vic's were made in 2011. The last one rolled off the line on 9/15/2011. That meant the last of the body-on-frame police sedans.

Shore did like them 70's vintage Buick LeSabres.. Now that was a highway patrol car deluxe.
Went by a bored and drowsy HP runnin' radar on a Sunday night with my lights off at 155 mph!! That woke him up!!

He radioed me to head for the I-80/I-25 interchange and intercept that speeder.

He had a Plymouth. I was at the interchange before he go that Road Runner wound up. I was sittin' there lookin' for his speeder like a good feller when he came peddlin' up there with steam comin' out of the radiator. Told him that feller must have beat me to the interchange. Din't tell him it was me for a few months. Oh, the names he called me... Shameful, plumb shameful!!!

Ford makes two replacements that we're starting to see a lot of around here. First is a sedan based on the Taurus, the second is based on the Ford Explorer SUV. Both are pursuit rated. The MA State Police has a bunch of the SUV versions and a smaller number of the sedans.

The Caprice is built on a Holden (GM Australia) platform with rear wheel drive. There is no civilian version in the US.

Ford is no longer making Crown Vic's, Lincoln Towncars or Grand Marquis.

WSP has no choice if they want new vehicles.

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It'll be here this fall as the new Chevy SS,
http://www.chevrolet.com/culture/art...n_|_chevy%20ss

The front and rear clips are a little different from the police version that's been on sale for a year or so (one of the local departments near me has one), but that's about it.

Didn't GM make the GTO there? Now that one would fly under the radar. It definitely didn't look as good as it ran.

the black pushbar contrasted with the white bumper and hood gives them away

Those new Chevy's put out quite bit of horsepower. The vendor who set up my new patrol truck said they put out about 300 something HP...... out of a V6!

They look smaller inside than a Crown Vic though

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Cheers, Charles
SWCA #2442

I've transitioned from Caprice to CV and now to Chargers. The Chargers are okay other than you can't see out the back between 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock.

I liked the Crown Vics okay, but my all time favorite patrol car was a 1994 Caprice with the LT1 corvette engine. Nothing could outrun it, and I actually blew the lens out of two different light bars during high speed runs.

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- Change it back -

We built the COPO Police packages in the local GM plant. Built them by day rode in them by night. They were some good cars. Always thought if you took the old caprice late 80's and put the engine trans and brakes from the 93-6 you would had the finest patrol car in the world.

Apparently Chevy changed it's corporate mind. I think the same platform was here before as the Pontiac G8. Back when there was a Pontiac.

They actually had a fairly long testing process, involving a lot of criteria that mattered to them. They are FAST - 150+ on top; real good brakes and handling, with well done computer control of the brakes to assist in cornering. I talked to one of the guys who was involved in testing at their track and ran one on the road for a while as part of the process. All of the new models involve some compromises, and I have heard bad things about all of them (room, visibility, reliability; it just varies).
As I recall, the last Crown Vic issued went to a Davenport based trooper.

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NHI, 10-8.

My WSP son-in-law picked up his new Chevy Caprice Cruiser today down in Olympia. He said that he preferred the Ford Explorer that he was driving previously to his new ride. Seems he can't get too excited about having a corvette engine under the hood that will push the car to 150+ mph, but said that it is really fast out of the hole for starting from a dead stop.

I drove a couple of the Dodges and there just wasn't enough room in them for someone my size. I was fortunate enough that they retired my Crown Vic when they retired me. The last Chevy I drove was a 90 something model Caprice. It was fast. My all time favorite cruiser was a 74 Dodge Coronet with a 440 magnum. It would catch most anything that got in front of it.

The PD had a full size Plymouth with the 440. It was green. So many Torino's down they had to put the Green Weeney into service with lights. If you had the back bbls open and the siren on the others could not hear your radio messages. The front wheels shook from 70 to 75 then smoothed out after that. Then you had to stop it.........

The only rear wheel drive made now is the Dodge, and it can get there in a hurry. Rear wheel drive is preferrable for handling at high speeds. I have wondered why some big auto maker doesn't make a vehicle for police use. Seems to me that a lot of money could be made from such a vehicle and public safety could order the fleet decked out with necessary equipment instead of getting the vehicle and then adding equipment. (??)

Yup, same basic platform. The civi SS has the same wheelbase, whereas the Caprice police cruiser has an extra 3.7" between the wheels for a little more rear legroom.

The new Caprice is RWD and the Ford Interceptor that's based of of the Taurus has AWD.

There was a company trying to build a true police car. The latest scuttle butt on that project is that the car will not get built.
Carbon Motors Corporation - CT7 The website does not have a page with details on the car.

First, there is not so many police chases anymore due to law suits. So super handling at high speeds is a moot point

Actually almost no money can be made from a company that only makes police cars. This is also why there is no company making taxi specific cars. They used to.

Police dpt are a very small portion of the car buying public. Not all dpt need rear wheel drive 8cyl cars. Large cities with lots of traffic and congestion dont need em, they just waste gas going from light to light or sitting on the corner waiting for rush hour traffic to be over. So a front wheel drive 6cyl is just as good. In winter time in big northern cities there is more chance for accidents and law suits from rear wheel drive cars.

Some northern states would benefit from 4x4 SUVs instead of just Crown Vics (and this is whats going on now. We are seeing more PD suv) while southern states might not need them at all. While some states buy cars without logic it seems. NYS police use a lot of Tahoe's but a majority of them are only 2wd! :what:

Very few police agencies (when compared to the amount of police dpt's in the country) buy new cars. Major dpt keep their cars an avg of 3yrs/100k miles. Afterwards they sell em off. Large % of smaller dpt buy em because they are cheaper and already set up for police use. They dont have a budget for new cars. Other dpt's keep their cars longer.

Its also cheaper to add your own equipment because it comes off your other cars. In other words your equipment has been paid for already. Otherwise you would need to pay for the same cage,siren, lights, laptop tray and other minir things every 3 years X the amount of cars you need. Your department might have 3000 cars but you might be rotating only 500 at a time.

So in other words you need a car company that specifically makes large rear wheel drive 8cyl cars, mid size front wheel drive 6cyl cars, and SUVs. But only sell to a few departments every 3 years or so, and never a full fleet!

Not very profitable.

This is why Ford canceled their Crown Vic's. There was not enough public sales and even though like 90% of police departments and taxi co use them it still wasnt profitable to keep that model going

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I think Ford shot themselves in the foot when they discontinued the Crown Vic P71 Interceptor. Not only for Police sales but rental and taxi fleets as well. I think Chevy made the same mistake when they killed the Caprice in the 90's.

I saw my first Taurus based Police Interceptor this AM. DA Investigator in a neighboring county was driving it. Lots of electronics and bells and whistles. Cockpit like a fighter jet. 18 inch wheels/tires.

Meh..... Give me my wide open cabin and steam guages. I don't want to have to study to find out which button opens the trunk and which one turns up the radio. Too many distractions - inside the car, for me.

I'm 6-1 and had the seat all the way down on the floor. Poor visibility out the back and sides. Acceleration was pretty quick, but not as fast as my 355 rear end 08 P71. Overall the car felt alot......thicker......fatter than a CV P71.

Fuel economy was better according to the computer on the new Interceptor. My 08 P71 will pass anything except a gas station. I'm glad I still have a Crown Vic. Theres a slim chance I'll be getting a zero mile 2011 Interceptor. Last one in the inventory locally. I hope it works out! I'll miss the Crown Victoria. Regards 18DAI

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7 +1 Rounds of hope & change

Doesnt work like that in the cab business. Most cities are very strict on what can be a cab. Mileage matters. In Philly the cab has to come off the road at 250k miles regardless of how new it is. An avg cab guy does about 70k a year. No cabbie is gonna spend $20k to drive a year longer when he can spend $5000 on a 2007 with 100k miles and drive it for 2 years.

Also there are no such thing as unlimited number of cabs. To operate in a city like Philadelphia one needs a taxi medallion. The medallions are issued by the city and they make only a certain amount and thats it. There are times when no medallions are issued for a few years. An avg price for a medallion is $500k (five hundred thousand dollars) because you have to buy it from someone. In NYC the price for a medallion is almost a million. Think of it as a liquor license.

Different cities have different rules but its not worth making a car just for the cab/police business.

Right now the cabs are moving away from the Crown Vics anyway because of gas prices. Most people dont go too far in a cab and dont go in large groups. So now you are seeing a lot of Camry's, Altimas, Escapes, Prius, minivans for larger groups. A lot of hybrid sadans.

As for rentals. The most popular rental cars are Impala, Chrysler 300, Camry. Basically mid size cars. Chrysler 300 and Concorde have been dominating the rental business for at least a decade. While there is room and a need for all types of rentals in this case its a good thing for Ford that they arent heavily into that market. Within the last 15 or so years the most popular rental cars tended to be the worst selling cars. Chrysler has been leading that pack for a while.

If it was profitable Checker cab car would still be in business

Our city is going to the new Taurus for police patrol use. We have 6 or 8 so far in service, so far, so good. Now our Capts and Detectives want new Tauruses. Ain't happening, and they're POed, they've been so spoiled by our last CM and chief, that they could get anything they wanted. Now that's over, time to be responsible to taxpayers, and they're getting Fusions. They're just mad because they can barely get 4 of them in one to go to lunch.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

...I'd buy the SMART Car for my fleet. Easy on gas and all drivers would have to slow down just so the police could catch up! Why not! It makes about as much sense as the Florida legislator who wants everyone to have two hours of anger management classes in order to buy your ammo.

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Term limits!

You guys are talking about Hemis, Vette engines, EcoBoost and my department buys Fusion hybrids. Sigh. At least we get 3rd gen Smiths.

Charlie, when I was a kid, you could always hear those Dodges coming down the road hard. Chrysler used a big 800cfm Carter Thermoquad carburetor on them, and the secondaries on those are MUCH bigger than the primary barrels, similar to a Rochester Quadrajet. I used to LOVE to hear the CHUWUDDDINNN sound when those back barrels opened up and they hit the lights and siren!!

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MARK

All I know is when visiting my daughter & family in Wash. I drive the speed limit. I-5 between the Oregon border & Tacoma is a speed trap. Lots of plain unmarked WSP cars there. I don't speed anyway but see a lot of cars pulled over near Battleground.

I have not had the chance to sit in any of the new models yet, but I am cramped in a CV now. I am not looking forward to rolling around in something smaller for 12 hours a day.

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Plastic has no soul

Most of the agencies in my area are switching to the Dodges. This includes the NCSHP. Even our local Homegrown university is using them as a means of trying to make their cars look like the local PD, which I think stinks.

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I Cor. 10:13 "1611KJV"

This has been a very informative thread on a subject that has, for a long time, been interesting to me. Thanks joerm for starting it.