I was watching News week the other day and the had the new Charger in cop car form it was really nice and had lots of power... do you guys think that this will affect ford... i really hope they dont sell cause ever time i see a damn crown vic i hit the breaks with something else thrown in the mix i really get confused an a nice big ticket

 

I'm starting to see lots of Chargers in the form of police cruisers. Let's face it. It has more power (Hemi), better looks (newer) and better engineering (tech. advances) on its side. The Crown Vic is aging rapidly. It's been on the same platform since the early 90s as far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong) and has the dated 4.6 motor. Unless Ford has a redesign in the works for the Crown Vic, I'm willing to bet that the Dodge Charger will be the police car of choice. Maybe even despite a Crown Vic redesign. Time will tell.

 

Impala didn't take police sales away from Crown Vicky, I don't think Charger will either.

 

Yes, but the Impala also wasn't offered with a V8.

 

Police cars are usually bought by bids. If the car meets the specs, the low bid wins.

 

Dodge has been providing Charger test cars to local police departments for trial use in my area. My uncle is an officer and he says it blows the doors off of the Crown Vic in just about every aspect. He's a Lieutenant, so he got first shot to try it out.

 

Problem is the Charger wont hold up to the abuse a cop car gets. My guess is after one trial use off the charger. Youll never see them order another one. Dodges quality leaves a lot to be desired. That will quickly be found out in ploice use.

 

true, true.

 

You might be surprised. V8 RWD Chrysler products have always had a strong powertrain. Powertrain problems were mostly FWD products. There are sometimes warranty adjustments as part of the bid. In Virginia, cars are bought from the lowest bidder that meets state specifications and they buy a bunch at a time so they can take delivery and make the changes necessary for police work. They would sometimes sit for almost a year after purchase before they were put in service. Since the warranty starts at the time of purchase, that was a problem. The manufacturer made an adjustment that changed the warranty from the date of purchase to the date the vehicle was put in service.

 

I think those Chargers will hold up just fine. You have to remember, it's probably got a substantial amount of German engineering and technology put into it. Unless you've actually had one of these cars, you really can't bash them.

 

I also believe the Charger will rapidly overtake the Crown Vic as the police car of choice. Many departments are moving to trucks, and the Expedition and Chevy Tahoe are doing amazingly well at selling to police departments tired of cars.

The Crown Vics are dated, old school, not too incredibly fast, and have a pretty bad reputation with all the exploding gas tanks.
The Charger is new, new tech, VERY fast, and hasn't faced any major mechanical problems as of yet.

The police want new, top of the line, and fast. And the Crown Vic will never compete with the Charger in that aspect.

 

I think the Crown Vic platform is from the late 70's early 80's it's one of the few cars that are still BOF. Ford Dodge and Chevy have always took turn supplying the police cars I guess it just may be Dodges turn again.

 

I heard many people complain on 300's transmission which means that if 300 has transmission problems - Charger will to.

 

All the vic needs is a slight face lift and the mustang GT motor, the vic gets the job done and it has for yrs only thing it lacks is power when compared to the charger and dated looks. Face lift and 300hp is all it would need, and that wouldent be all that hard for ford to do.

 

A local police department here is getting new Chargers to replace the Crown Vics. They look pretty good to me, much more intimidating. They didn't even bother getting the Hemi, said that the few times it would be beneficial is more than offset by the large fuel savings.