# What are the police going to drive when Crown Vics and Impalas are discontinued? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 14, 2002, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756 "2002-12-14T18:13:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/1 "2002-12-14T18:13:29Z")
Souped up SUV’s, “muscle” vans … what? ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/2 "2002-12-14T18:16:21Z")
I actually saw an undercover cop driving a camaro. ---
**Author:** ![Tony\_Montana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@Tony\_Montana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tony_Montana)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/3 "2002-12-14T18:59:32Z")
Our police have two giant four door SUV’S(I think they’re explorer’s) in their fleet. One is a police drug seizure,it actually had a vanity plate for a while that said “seized”. During 4th of July or other events/holidays,when the town is a little wild. They’ll pack themselves in 'em and cruise downtown slowly. Its quite a site actually, 6 or 7 cops driving slowly in a SUV all peering intently at the bar crowd now in the street at closing time. When a fight breaks out thats when the fun begins! they’ll roll up real fast and pour out stormtrooper style… ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/4 "2002-12-14T19:41:54Z")
**Tony** that sounds like fun. Our cops here already are getting the smaller cars. The latest few have been [Impalas](http://www.chevrolet.com/impala/). Reckon they had to shrink the light bars? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/5 "2002-12-14T19:43:22Z")
**OOOPS** I didn’t see Impala in the thread title :smack: mumble mumble … now where did I put my medicine ??? ---
**Author:** ![Kimmom2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Kimmom2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmom2)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/6 "2002-12-14T19:53:05Z")
I have seen a couple of different departments using the Ford Taurus. I guess they can’t pick up too many bad guys at once! ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/7 "2002-12-14T22:53:41Z")
But aren’t Impalas new (well, revived at least)? Are they being discontinued already? I figure they’ll just move on to another car - another Ford or Chevrolet, most likely. Back home, a lot of the cops drive Chevy Intrepids. Even easier to spot at a distance than the Impala… I know that the Guelph P.D. has a New Beetle, though it’s basically used as a promotionaly/aimed-at-kids-anit-drug kind of vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/8 "2002-12-15T02:53:41Z")
Dodge now has a squad package using Intrepeds. They are quite nice. The main thing is, discontinuing a car model won’t affect police departments because all 3 American auto makers usually have a model they make for squad packages. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/9 "2002-12-15T03:17:49Z")
In the old days, all Cop cars were frame-on cars. Since the mid-70’s this has mean Ford Crown Victorias and Chevy Caprice Classics. The Dodge Diplomat (?) was the main entry from Chrysler and was a relatively minor player I think. Before the downsizing of the Chrysler line they were the major player, IIRC. Crown Vics are the only car still made that meets that description, the Chevy Caprice having been killed off in the late 90’s. But the manufacturers are building police packages for the Taurus, Intrepid, and Impala, which are all unibody cars. There are also police packages for some SUVs like the Tahoe and Expedition, I think. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/10 "2002-12-15T04:00:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Telemark \* > \*\* > the Chevy Caprice having been killed off in the late 90’s. But There are also police packages for some SUVs like the Tahoe and Expedition, I think. \*\* The department I work part-time for had a Caprice (if memory serves me it was a '92) We hated that car. You couldn’t see out of the back window. Looking into the rear view mirror was like the “letter box” effect on movies (horrizontally wide, but vertically narrow) I was told Chevy was going to correct that. The GMC Jimmy also has a squad package. We have one. Milwaukee PD had some too, but now I’m seeing more chevy Blazer squads. ---
**Author:** ![TVGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/82dd89/32.png) [@TVGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/11 "2002-12-15T17:26:30Z")
How about Cooper Mini’s?? 😃 [slight hijack] Went to a motorcycle show yesterday and saw a customized Harley Police V-Rod … black & white, badge & seal, red and blue lights, even the “…to protect and serve” verbiage - very nice. At least I’d have a little more respect for a cop that pulled me over with … MY bike! [/slight hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/12 "2002-12-15T18:32:30Z")
HPD has several Suburbans that have obviously modified suspensions (they ride much lower than civilian models), so I suspect they have a police package. The non-departmental police cars here run the gamut. Neighborhood associations in Houston hire HPD officers as security, so the cars say “POLICE” and have radios, red, white and blue light bars and real cops inside who can and will pull you over and arrest you, if need be. But they’re liable to be in anything from an S-10 to a Neon to an Explorer. ---
**Author:** ![Roadwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@Roadwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadwalker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/13 "2002-12-15T19:21:01Z")
Honolulu Police drive their own cars once they are not rookies any more. they use to have standards that the car had to be a certain weight class. Most of them all drove Monte Carlos and Cutlesses. Now they drive whatever they want. ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-police-going-to-drive-when-crown-vics-and-impalas-are-discontinued/142756/14 "2002-12-15T20:11:13Z")
There is a Florida town where the cops are using Toyota Prius’s, I’ve heard.