will they go for better braking and higher top speed or better fuel economy? I didn’t see anything on the Mopar cop car yet, though.
Fuel economy numbers weren’t given, and it seems that the performance differences mentioned are not that large. If the police need to go faster than 138 MPH to catch someone, they might choose pursuit by air instead and head them off at the pass. But the important question is when can we buy them?
few years from now at auction
Here are the performance figures from all the cop cars they tested, Dodge included
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/12/2010/09/cop_car_speed_2.jpg
Surely we will get the Holden Caprice in a year or two. Ford already offers the eccoboost engine in a few vehicles, but at a huge premium. As FoDaddy said a couple of days ago, you gotta pay to play.
Impressive. One thing for sure though, it won’t win any beauty contests. I don’t think I’ve seen a car that’s as dog-ugly in some time.
the chevy or the ford?
The real test comes when the city councils have to write out checks to purchase, maintain and repair these cars. It seems that is more important over time then 0 to 60 times. The better one will be the least to buy, most reliable and easiest to repair. The basic rwd Chevy has the edge there I believe, by default.
I would take that Ford claim of 25% better fuel economy as compared to the Crown Vic with a grain of salt, or lots of grains.
I suspect the number of wrecked police cars will increase dramatically…
Today, Crown Vic P-71’s are highly sought after at police car auctions…We will have to wait and see what the aftermarket interest is in a run-out turbo V-6…
Fwd v6 sedans are used successfully by many larger municipalities for work other than marked police cruisers. Fwd has been tried before unsuccessfully for that purpose. I don’t believe the motor is the issue. It’s the highly durable rwd solid axle and the body on frame used on the Crown Victorias. That is, if the six proves as reliable as the time honored v8. Ladder frame, rwd vehicles have few rivals for heavy, economical, day to day used. Awd unibody with it’s accompanying complexity may handle better and supply better winter traction and crash protection than either fwd or rwd(not necessarily), but as most have pointed out so many times before, if won’t be cheap. Especially after the first encounter with a curb at higher speeds. Awd models will be popular with the chasers, for a while. That is until the repair bills start mounting.
Keep your check books handy as the tax payer will be the ultimate looser. Anyone considered tire expense ? And, the continuous claim they must all be replaced on awd cars if one goes bad ? Cornering ability pales in significance and becomes a luxury the tax payer can’t afford. The Chevy will win by default over the “Taurus” Interceptor. Try chasing a speeding Mustang with a fwd Taurus. What a joke !
According to Jim Campbell, fleet manager with GM, the rwd v6/v8 police Caprice is the “right tool at the right time”. In reality, it now doesn’t have to compete against the long preferred Crown Victoria; now instead, the fwd/awd replaceable and expensive to repair and maintain Taurus.
About 30% of the State Troopers around here use Impalas for traffic duty. They aren’t as popular with the LEOs as the Crown Vics were. One state trooper that I know is eagerly looking foward to the twin turbo AWD Ford. Based on what he’s told me, for highway patrol use the V8 Charger is gaining alot of fans lately, while it’s not quite as practical as the Crown Vic, it is noticably faster.
Based on the pictures, these might be the last new vehicles that can be purchased without low profile tires.
My dad told me about his neighbor while driving his Jackson automobile was pulled over for speeding by a policeman on a bicycle. Perhaps we should be testing the performance of Canondale vs Schwinn vs. . . . bicycles for police use. Of course, this incident took place around 1915.
Our towns big expense is the back seat inserts we have to buy. Our towns cars don’t have standard back seats…They are hard plastic…along with vinyl carpeting…plus there’s the plastic protection between the passenger and the front. These devices have fit all Crown Vics for almost 10 years. We our town buys a new car…we just pull the seat and other stuff from one car and transfer it to the new car. Now with a totally new car we have to buy a complete kit for a cost of about $2500 per vehicle.