I could dig one up if I had more time, but if you read the fine print on any of the safety reports kicked out by the IIHS or the federal government you should find an adequate discussion of the topic.
We should probably start a new GQ thread if we want to have this discussion.
From the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:
The ratings are not absolute, they are only comparable with cars of certain size and weight. Therefore, it could (hypothetically) be that a Yugo might be rated 5-star and an Expedition might be rated 1-star, and the Expedition is nevertheless more safe than the Yugo because there is no direct comparison.
How about a biodiesel with the necessary filters to run on cooking oil?
Think about it - the cop pulls up to the donut shop and fills his belly AND the tank!
(with apologies to the LEOs out there for the crass stereotype).
Not crass, dear, a delicious stereotype.
Good lord. What the heck are the Iowa police driving if a 140mph station wagon rated at 1600lbs payload counts as a ‘compact’ car that is too slow and lacks storage?
If all of you are done with the bad Jeremy Clarkson impressions, let me say two words: Tesla Roadster. Well, the OP did say pursuit vehicle, not prowl car or paddy wagon.
The first Teslas just shipped… 2 years behind schedule. I suspect police officers might be a little annoyed to be walking to each bust in the interim.
Speaking of which, anyone seen Tuckerfan?
I read in one of my ubiquitous car magazines right in front of me that the Tesla has a top speed of 125 MPH, not particularly impressive. The magazine also asserts that sustained speed will damage the electronics and the batteries due to heat loads. Further, the faster you go the faster you drain the batteries, and with a max range of 220 miles that’s a big hurt. Last, they go for around $100,000 with an estimated battery replacement cost of $20,000.
All in all, the Tesla is probably the last car that you would want police to use unless you live in Orange County and you don’t mind paying more taxes to fix the damn things after half of them slag down in the first year.
@Really Not All That Bright: Who cares if they shipped late? They’re shipping now.
@Airman Doors, USAF: The Modern Racer website says the CVPI tops out at 129 mph. Not a big difference. The CVPI does 0-60 in 8.7 seconds, while Tesla claims 3.9 seconds. And the CVPI’s time over the quarter mile is 16 seconds, while according to Drag Times, the Tesla does just over 13 seconds.
As to maximum range, I found some data from an Australian study (admittedly maybe not readily comparable to the U.S.) that says the average pursuit occurs at 76 mph, lasts for 4 minutes, and goes for 2.5 miles. Another site says that “news portrayals of pursuits can give the (inaccurate) appearance of pursuits typically lasting up to 10 minutes or more.” So high speed pursuits seem to be short in both duration and distance. However, the Tesla’s recharge time would be a problem, if it’s true that LA has one high speed pursuit every 4.5 hours – Tesla claims the full charge time is 3.5 hours. Lastly, sure a Tesla is pricey, but so is a chopper.
As to your motoring magazine and their battery meltdowns, whether I want to believe *RoadCar & Dreck * is a question for GD, not GQ.
However, having said all that, a Prius would probably work fine – every one of them that I see on the freeways here in SoCal is going at least 90. I guess they figure if they’re saving gas, they can go faster. And I believe the CHP is still using white Camaros as unmarked pursuit cars.
Sources:
http://www.modernracer.com/features/fordcrownvictoriacop.html
http://www.nlectc.org/txtfiles/pmtfascii.html
http://www.civiliansdown.com/Statistics%20Page.htm
http://www.theiacp.org/research/CuttingEdge/ManagingPolicePursuitsExecBrief.pdf (500 KB PDF)
You don’t have to go particularly high tech. There are plenty of fairly inexpensive high performance cars that could out do a crown victoria both in terms of speed AND efficency (250hp, 15mpg, and very heavy, though no exact figure on wikipedia).
The Subaru Impreza I have at home would be an obvious example (its a little smaller but could easily fit a couple of perps in the back, which is presumably the only requirement size-wise). As having the magical ablilty to go round a corner, which US cars seem to lack 
If there is some size requirement, something like Honda Accord or Toyota Camry would be the obvious choice.
Of course they are all foreign made, which is presumably why they are not accpetable politically. Of course the Detroit out makers could make a car that actually competes with imports on this front, but that is obviously crazy talk
The Crown Vic I rented average over 23 mpg. Granted, that wasn’t in high speed pursuits, but mixed city/freeway aggressive driving.
Honda Accords and Toyota Camries are nowhere close to the size of a Crown Vic. They’re also both unibody cars.
C’mon, I only sit in my car two to three hours per day and demand that it be comfortable. You’re talking 8 hour shifts for cops, in all kinds of road conditions. Crown Vics aren’t hot, sexy, efficient, super fast, or otherwise exciting, but what they have over almost everything else is comfort (no better road vehicle IMHO), mass, capable performance, demonstrated safety (old fuel tanks problems notwithstanding), and excellent reliability and durability.
As an engineer, if I committed my company to a several million dollar purchase, it best not be due to some supplier’s written specifications, but to real world, demonstrable use. In the case of the police, why screw with success? There’s a very good possibility that you’ll lose the operating cost differences by going with a rash decision.
When the 2008 Crown Vic was tested by the Michigan State Police, it weighed in at 4145 lbs.
Cite: SOM - 404 - Page Not Found
Incidentally, that PDF has gobs of police performance stats.
You can remove and replace doors and body panels with standard hand tools in a matter of minutes. It’s relatively easy to repair minor frame damage with the proper equipment.
Try forcing a drunk speeder off the road and having the car good as new the next morning in a unibody car.
Is this really that frequent an occurrence that you need to buy your car fleet based on such scenarios? I just find it baffling that basically every single police force in the world OTHER than those in the US get by just fine with ‘unibody’ vehicles.
Canada’s full of Crown Vics, as is Mexico. As said elsewhere in the thread, though, in “the rest of the world” all of the cars are smaller, so you don’t have to worry about a tiny little Mondeo trying to push an Expedition off the road. How likely a scenario is that? Sure, not an every day occurrence, but neither is my house burning down and I still have a homeowners policy.
In the UK they use a different set of tactics to force drivers from the road, and they can use them for vehicles ranging from small cars to large lorries. They very rarely make contact with cars in motion, preferring to use boxing (cars surround the pursued vehicle and then start to slow down, forcing the pursued vehicle to slow and stop) and/or tyre deflation (stinger). The use of air support has also reduced the need to engage in high risk pursuits, they can follow at a safe distance, whilst colleagues get ahead of the target to set up stinger.
In “the rest of the world” the average car is smaller. There are, of course, still 18-wheel tractor/trailers and other large commercial vehicles, MPVs (minivans), large SUVs, “full size” land barges like the Crown Vic itself- just not so many of them.
Seriously, you guys can talk about how we “need” those Crown Vics all you want, but really it’s just another case of BS American exceptionalism.
“Things are different here, there’s no way we could change”
That’s really stupid. As mentioned above there are always other ways to go about stopping cars that don’t involve contact. I’m not saying that we should force anyone to switch, and we all know that driving Crown Vics certainly makes sense at a certain gas price for all of the reasons mentioned above, but really at a higher gas price, the people that are in charge of paying for the gas are going to start looking at other options and they are going to make intelligent choices on the best way to spend their money. That may involve retraining their officers to use different tactics in more fuel efficient vehicles.
Also, I think it’s worth noting here, that the NYPD seems to be doing quite fine with the unibody Chevy Impala. I see them just as often as I do Crown Vics. I’d say they might be more numerous, actually. I can’t see any reason why they wouldn’t switch to a more fuel efficient car that didn’t sacrifice size or performance.
The point is there simply isn’t much point to carrying around all of that steel. Plenty of police forces use Impalas and none seem to be crippled by it. What makes Impalas so special that they are chosen over Crown Vics? They don’t seem to posess any of the required traits mentioned above.
FWIW, I’m not arguing any type of “American exceptionalism”; only explaining why Crown Vics are used. I’ve never indicated that other cars aren’t suitable; only why Crown Vics are perfectly suitable.
Gas is still dirt cheap unless you can’t afford dirt. We’ve been spoiled by low prices, and we have to make very small changes to keep driving what we’re driving. Police budgets – you know, gas money – are set by suitable government agencies. They’ll either get larger budgets, or make other small cuts just like the rest of us. While to you and I it may seem expensive to fill a Crown Vic with $80 worth of gasoline for every, single shift, the operational cost difference in filling an Impala with $65 is marginal for most department budgets. Yeah, we know New Jersey is wanting to institute energy waste fees in addition to speeding fines, but that’s the same police money grab that’s been happening for years. It’s expedient to blame it on gasoline prices.
Just as in any huge organization, there’s a whole infrastructure involved in moving from one platform to another. It takes planning, money, and good reasons. And lots of departments do change, and have changed for years and years. But it sounds like lots of people are surprised that every police agency at every level of government aren’t changing over night!
The Chevy Caprice is the OTHER vehicle that seems like it’s always a cop car… also body-on-frame… also rear-wheel drive. The Caprice was discontinued in 1996. Guess what the new Impalas are based on?