A few years ago, I read in some magazine that officers of the State Patrol typically don’t use their 4th and 5th gears when cruising, or even in high speed chases. The story said that they usually cruise in 2nd gear and maybe use 3rd in really high speed chases (they’re usually redlining all the time). This is why patrol cars wear out after only 10,000 miles.
The magazine article was specifically about the California Highway Patrol, but implied this was common practice in other states too.
Can any of the SDMB members engaged in law enforcement confirm this practice? Is it really common everywhere or is this just a So. Cal. practice?
All of the squad cars I’ve seen were automatics, thus no 4th or 5th gear to begin with. Even Wisconsin State Patrols Mustang Cobras are autos, and the Troops drive them in drive or overdrive. I would think that there are some squads with standard transmissions, but they are rare.
I can’t believe any cop would be allowed to only get 10k out of a car.
I see how that might be a standard practice for driving pursuit, but not for ordinary getting around and such. It takes a whole half-second to shift down a gear, even in an auto.
It’s just a little trick to enhance performance a bit. Makes the car act a little livelier, and you don’t have to deal with the transmission lagging on the downshift when you stomp on the throttle.
And the police cars in my area reportedly have a 160k mile service life. That’s mostly city driving.
Yeah, infact, most AT transmission cars that are >$15,000 almost always have 4 gears. In the desert areas of SoCal (like on the way to Vegas), the CHP use Camaro Z28s (non SS), which are 4 speed automatics.
After thinking over what I remember from the article, I now realize that it could have been (and probably was) a 4-speed automatic. But they were driving in D2 or L2 or whatever setting keeps it from going into 3rd gear.
The reason given in the article was that they need instant power to chase down a guy that passes them going 95 or 100. I could be wrong on the 10K miles, but it was a fairly low number.
I was thinking they had standard transmissions because I’ve always owned sticks as did my father when I was growing up. So I tend to think of the standard transmission as the usual kind of car.