I don’t know if a normal private citizen can get the police packages, but a former neighbor of mine (and retired Ford mechanic/assembly worker) owned a Crown Vic he claimed had all or most of the modifications. He implied that he got it because he worked for Ford at the time, but I had the feeling he simply replaced the componants that he could with the police car versions after the fact.
As for the sports cars, I have seen marked Mustangs in California being used by the CHP, and Cameros in Nevada (state police?). A freind of mine has long claimed that BMW donated five high performance cars to the South Carolina State Police as highway interceptors when they built an assembly plant there, but I’ve never seen an office cite of that.
Don’t know…but, as an aside, the Stuttgart police department in Germany has two Porsches in its fleet. One is used for purely ceremonial purposes, but the other one is on active duty. There used to be more police Porsches on the Autobahn in the olden days, but the speed advantage these days is fairly negligable and Porsches make a terrible police vehicle.
Incubus:
The official policy of the car makers is that they would not sell one to anyone who wasn’t acting on behalf of a law enforcement or security organization.
The actual dealer, however, may or may not care too much about the car maker’s official policy.
At least some people have done the following:
Order a $15 “Security” badge from a mail-order firm, that may be all the local Ford dealer needs to see to make him convinced that you qualify, at least to his knowledge.
This all depends on the dealer, of course.
However, you could buy a slightly used police car. www.usedpolicecars.com may be of some help.
I don’t reccomend doing it, personally. If you’re already sold on a Crown Vic, Impala, etc then it’s a fine idea, for reliability’s sake, I suppose. However, if you’re seeking overall reliability, a Honda, Toyota or Subaru will beat any domestic full-sized or mid-sized sedan.
By the way, I LOVE the Crown Vic. I love its handling, its gutsy, high-torque V8… everything about it.
But I wouldn’t order the police package. The ride is a little too harsh, and the handling is more than sporty enough in the normal package.
If anything, for your desires, I’d order the commercial version, the one that taxi fleets get. They get the heavy-duty stuff, minus the super-stiff suspension and the high rear-end gear ratio. The high rear-end ratio will just mess up your gas mileage. The standard Crown Vic engine has plenty of juice.
One more note for Incubus:
IANAL, but I’ve heard that:
In New York state, having “Police Interceptor” written on the back of a civilian vehicle is a violation of state law. FAIK, it’s the only state that is like that.
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Kunilou said:
The steering has been modified so that the turning radius is more like a sports car than a land yacht. That car has a narrower turning radius than my Taurus, or the Kunilou kids’ even smaller Chevrolet Corsica. Certainly a change from my father’s old Vic.
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The Crown Vic can seem like it turns around quickly, however I challenge you for a cite that the police CV turns around in less than the 40.something ft turning radius that the regular CVs turn around in.
I’m guessing what you experienced was mostly psychological.
To expand on Jonathan’s thought a bit, let me tell you something I learned during a few years as the owner/operator oof a police interceptor. While it was a fine, rugged and fast car (1975 Plymouth Gran Fury purchased in 1976 - very Blues Brothers, although theirs was a '74 Dodge), all those heavy duty parts cost a lot more to replace when they broke than the standard parts. I referred to the Interceptor package as the NASCAAR option.
I eventually wound up driving it with nonfunctional power steering and power brakes (yes, my own personal rolling Nautilus machine).
Gas mileage was a bit of a horror story as well. That 440 Interceptor engine was hungry.
As far as reliability, that goes without saying for less than full-size cars (the Impala being midsize; the Crown Vic full-size). Full-size American iron is on par with the Japanese brands, and in the case of the Town Car/Crown Vic/Grand Marquis probably slightly better. All three of these are virtually the same car, and have been virtually the same car for 20 years! Yeah, it’s an old platform and all of the bugs are out of it. The Town Car always ends up in the top three for somebody’s list of most reliable, and the other two a little further down (Town car rolls out a different plant – Wixom, MI – than the other two – St. Thomas, ON).
Now, if you’re looking for juice, there are currently very good deals available for the Marauder. Walk into a Mercury dealer and look for a bad ass-looking Grand Marquis dressed in black, with leather, big rear tires, and a 302HP.
Danged Balthisar, I DID NOT know that.
This line:
“The Town Car always ends up in the top three for somebody’s list of most reliable” has me convinced.
Too bad the future “Mrs. Jonathan Woodall” gets motion sickness in a Grand Marquis. Due to that little quirk, I’m now in an Olds 98.
As to the Marauder… my GOD I want one, but payments on one would be more than my rent is…
Shortly after California started using beefed-up Mustangs as interceptors in the 70’s (they needed small, fast cars that could leap out into traffic and catch sports cars), some magazine like Motor Trend or Car & Driver had an article on how you could buy a stock Mustang and put all the same mods onto it that the cops did, and end up with a fairly hot sports car for a surprisingly low cost–about 2/3 of what a comparable stock sports car would have cost you.
I have to say, seeing one of those parked beside the freeway kept a bunch of my friends in line–they’d pass one, and say, “Hell, there’s no way I could outrun that…”
Unless you get away in the first few moments of a chase, what you’re trying to outrun is the entire police radio communications system! They will be dispatching other cars to head you off, getting ahead of you and placing spike strips across the road to disable your car, calling in helicopters (way faster than any car!) to follow the chase from overhead, etc.
I have police friends who’ve told me that in many years on the force, they have never been outrun in a serious chase.
When I was in high school, a friend of mine bought a used police car from the State auction, had it repainted, and drove it for years. The State had already removed the radio, bubble light, etc., but it still had the pillar-mounted spotlights (really cool), and the acceleration was impressive.
The downside was the gas mileage. It had a huge gas tank, and Don said filling it up “really spoiled the look of a $10 bill”.