Here in the Los Angeles area, highway patrol seems to favor the Ford unibody SUVs. Can’t tell if it’s Edge or Exploder . . .
The styling is quite similar for both . . . in my opinion . . . that’s why I can’t tell
You guys will get a kick out of this . . . we have a division of LAPD that does nothing except patrol the city owned facilities. Kind of like MPs, actually. They drive Ford Focus wagons
@Caddyman , No P71 ever stickered for $35k. I used to sell them by dozen. Most stickered for around $26k, but the actual transaction price was lower given the economy of scale
The Caprice PPV isn’t especially interesting. It’s based on a Holden, the same basic model GM tried to sell here three times, as a GTO, G8, and Chevy SS. None were a success, though the SS seems pleasant enough. All of the Australian auto plants will be closed by 2017, though GM could make them in the US, if the demand were there, which it doesn’t seem to be. The sales don’t seem to have been very good.
The very conventional Dodge Charger is what I see most, and a few of the Tauruses. And various SUV/crossover models. I suspect those may end up predominately, as they are more versatile. Anyone who finds the PPV interesting should probably buy the more mundane SS, as the extra police features aren’t all that useful for your average driver.
On Chevy’s police sales site I see they also sell a 2016 Impala police model. Which is based on the older Impala that was replaced a while ago now. Chevy does sometimes keep older generations around for fleet sales (often sold as a Classic) , as I guess they did here, unless they just made some extras for future sales.
I think the Holden platform is a decent handling car, though its days are numbered if it isn’t out of production already. The Mopar LX platform is popular with police departments, and personally owning a car that is based on it, I’d say it isn’t terrible, though it could be better. The local PD got rid of most of theirs and now has the Ford Explorers that got good reviews in the last police car tests. I’m not much of a Ford fan. It will be interesting to see how they hold up. The Ford “Panther” platform has all the bugs worked out of it and a lot of departments still have them. If I were ever to buy another Ford, it would likely be one of those.
Holden will continue to operate by selling cars built in North America, Korea and Thailand. They are ceasing production of the remaining cars in Australia by 2017. GM can move Commodore, Caprice and Ute production of they still want to offer them in Australasia.
They’ll have to make utes somewhere or the Aussies will be stricken. May be a bit tough as the Holden and Ford platforms the utes were built on were aging Australian designs. Reasonably priced rwd platforms are not common worldwide. A Mustang or Camaro ute, anyone? Might be interesting. Or they’ll have to convince the Australians to buy more conventional small trucks. I suppose Honda could pass off the Ridgeline as sort-of equivalent.
Honda’s new Ridgeline is more mainstream. They are showing a Baja racing version at SEMA.
Yes, I like what Honda is doing with the Ridgeline. It was such a good vehicle all along, but the odd styling probably put off a lot of potential buyers. We’ll see whether the new one does better.