Inspired by this resurrected zombie thread, is it true in your area of the country as well, that a large number or retired police cars are sold to wanna-be cops? Seems like these things are driven by a good many security personnel whether it be corporate security, mall security, private neighborhood security, etc.
Now, I’m not talking about the official security vehicles provided by their employers but these people’s personal vehicles. Seems like a very common phenomena where I live. Which isn’t that large of a city (650k).
Anybody here that drive’s a retired police cruiser, that is also in the security business, care to explain?
I’ve thought of getting one if the deal was good enough, they’re decent reliable cars. The “Police Interceptor” package apparently had some marginal upgrades such as free-flow air intakes, better gauges, better front brakes, and stronger alternators.
But I suspect a lot have been abused and I know they idle a lot, which isn’t that great for cars.
Around here they are handed down to school employees, but I see a few in private use by gangster-ish young dudes.
That doesn’t mean they’ve ever been anything but a taxi, or a private vehicle for that matter. The PI model can be purchased by anyone. Over the years, it turned into a very beefed-out vehicle with HD everything, extra cooling for engine and tranny, larger fuel tank, and pre-wiring for the metric buttload of gear that gets installed in cop cars. Taxi needs overlap with a lot of that.
There used to be a semi-secret web site (under the main Ford one) for the police models and you could look at all the options for yet more wiring, pre-installation of all non-controlled gear, kevlar armor in the doors and seatbacks, etc. etc. etc. It was pretty cool to look at all the adaptations the Crown Vic grew in its 15-20 years as the US’s preferred police cruiser.
One of the things that kept it selling was front-passenger survivability in rear-end hits up to* 75 miles per hour*. They had pictures of them totally destroyed up to the front seatbacks, and still having a survivable passenger space in the front.
I don’t think any other model is so highly optimized for the job - police or the very similar taxi - and it might be a while before Chargers and the like get to such a level.
I’ve noticed quite a few retired squads being used by security companies and I understand that.
There are some people though that buy them that think they are getting a vehicle that was babied and maintained meticulously.
Oy Vey! :smack:
The first year or so new squads are babied and the first scratch results in a major investigation by IA. But after that they get the living shit pounded out of them. No oil changes for 13K, no tire rotations, rarely an underbody flush car wash. Lots of stop-n-go driving on city streets. Officers eating and smoking in them because policy specifically says they can’t. I’d be very careful buy one.
I did see once on RT 50 in MD this jackass who was driving what appeared from the rear to be an unmarked, but quite obvious black Crown Vic police interceptor with fat tires, whip antenna etc. at 55 miles exactly in the fast lane with traffic flow normally at 60-65 and traffic was backed up up way behind him and afraid to pass. Finally some people got tired of being stalled and took a chance and passing and saw it was an old man driving grinning ear to ear at his little traffic jamming stunt.
I think you can order the police interceptor package as an option, the taxi package option is not that much different from the interceptor package. It’s basically just beefier suspension, nothing top secret about it.
I had one once except it wasn’t a Crown Vic, it was a Caprice. It had somewhere over 190,000 miles on it when I bought it from a friend and had closer to (or maybe over) 200,000 on it when I sold it back to him about a year later. Pretty good car and, as far as I know, it is still going. It had a little blow-by the rings on start up but was a good car otherwise.
Those caprices were excellent cars. I remember a story in the local news that the police service had allocated X number of dollars to retrofit the caprices they had with the corvette engines, I think later they may have been able to order them with that engine but not sure about that. I believe there may be reports of quite a few police services upgrading their caprices, not only in Canada but in the US as well.
Yes, you could get the Vette motor in a Caprice. That’s basically what the Impala SS (1996 or so) was, LT motor in Caprice body.
As far as the Crown Vic goes, you can also cheap out and just buy the PI badge. It’s a stick-on, my neighbor’s Hydai Excel has a Police Interceptor badge on the deck lid. He likes gags like that.
One of the home health care aides has a PI Vic she bought at auction. It’s still sheriff brown, has rubber plugs where the antenna used to be, and the certified calibration speedo. She likes it, it’s roomy, rides OK, only 140,00 miles on it.
I have a friend who owns a crown vic. It wasn’t even a former police cruiser. Even without the light bar, the silhouette of the car is unmistakable. He says he’ll be driving down the freeway and see everyone’s brake lights ahead of him turn on as people reflexively stomp the brakes to slow down to the speed limit. No one ever gets in his way. I guess everyone assumes he’s a cop driving an “unmarked” car.
Though, one would think the real unmarked police cars would be of a different make/model to not give it a way. Maybe an eclectic collection of foreign cars or something that the bad guys wouldn’t be able to memorize.
However, don’t fire marshals and detectives and so forth drive the same cars that the normal patrolmen drive, except without the light bar?
