Sure.....the turbos last a few hundred thousand miles on otr's vs half a million or more.......but hey...any police car that makes it 300K miles is probably pretty good...


Comfortable interior....compared to almost any modern car with supportive seating....


Sure....cv's with the best drivers can be driven....but put those same drivers into a car with good handling and you'll see nothing but the tail lights...

 

You lost me here. I was driving a plain crown vic and all the trooper saw was the tail lights. The crown vic does handle very well. I drove this car that night with only one contact, a bullet proof vest, and a 44 oz drink in my right hand. I never had any professional training on how to drive.

 

Ok...that makes me think you haven't driven a car built after the early 90's....because cv's handle about as well as my boat.....remember tire squeal means the tires AREN'T gripping...

A quote from a review online about cv's "With Cretaceous-era DNA, a 17-year-old V8 and a tiller that serves-up about as much road feel as a hovercraft,"

 

Name a car that will not squeal its tire going in to a hard bank.

What do you suggest the LEO's drive for handling and transporting a prisoner? The situations the LEO's face at times are beyond the scope of any car out there. Mostly the failure of the car is not the issue . It is the agility and reaction of the driver. Knowing the limits of what you are driving are critical to getting the most out of what you have. Space and comfort is also important. Most LEO's spend more time sitting in wait and working accidents than they do high speed pursuit. (My observance) Having a GT 500 for a patrol unit with a full roll cage and safety harness would be very cool but not practical for most officers. The equipment they carry would not work nor be comfortable for them. I have nothing against replacing the crown vic but to say they do not handle in my experiences with them is inaccurate.

 

Huh, what are they putting into the police cars these days?

My Fury has the 8 1/4" "Sure-Grip" rear end; reinforced leaf springs; front and rear sway bars; and some odd bar/bumper thing bolted to the rear diff that keeps the axle from wrapping (a traction bar, I guess)... Fun car to drive - no sway in the turns - rear end grips nicely but takes some getting used to on slick roads...

I used to transport Chevy Caprice's - hated those cars with those ungodly large trunks and the rear end always felt like it was shimmying... Never could figure out why they made those in to police cars...

I've been the back seat of a CV cruiser a time or two but never got the chance to drive one so I can't say how they compare to other cars I've driven...

The new police Chargers can get up and flat move down the road but I recently found out from an officer that they're now hearing some kind of weird "rattle" noise coming from the rear end whenever the tranny shifts under load... I've been told those things have a triple-stage gearing setup in the rear end but I have no idea how that works - that's why they can't hit the throttle too hard until after they straighten the car out (or, so I've been told - personally, I'd love to drive one and find out for myself...)

As for handling abuse - fleet/police cars are engineered and built with abuse in mind - they are uniquely different from civilian cars in a lot of ways - certain areas that need reinforcement get it...

 

To point 1....

Mustangs
Camaros
Pontiac G8's
and my current favorite....Taurus SHO's


Well a taurus SHO seems to be the best option for my list above....

Fast, large front and back seats.....

excellent handling.....

good fuel economy.....

Modern safety structure....

Seems smart that fords making the switch....

 

Are you saying they'd handle well enough to pursue say a mustang GT?

Because while they don't do it often....they need to be able to....

And what better car to do it in than a SHO

 

OK....Tack back a little.......(haha)

I'll give you a comparison........

The Hummer is a fine military all-purpose vehicle. When they got to Iraq and roadside bombs became the rage, they ended up having to modify (up-armor) the Hummers....and the results were imperfect, and after all that weight and modifications were made, interesting things were happening to the drivetrains.....

***In other words, there's only so many modifications one can make to an existing platform and still do the mission......

So. What did they do? They developed, from the ground up, the MRAP, which does a wonderful job of patrolling and resisting roadside bombs.....In other words, purpose-built.......

No one is knocking the CV, per se (I'm scratching my head at the resistance here.....)....Ford is building a purpose-built police vehicle, and I figured you guys would be all 'ooh-rah, ooh-rah' over the concept....Instead, for some unfathomable reason...you're clinging on to an 18-year old platform while the other major auto makers are moving on into the 21st century, and other start-ups (like Carbon Motors) are leading the pack.

What is it with the Crown Vic. Was that the first car y'all got laid in or something?

It's all good. I love you guys......It's not like police departments are deserting Ford.....Ford is trying it's hand at the new generation of cop cars, and I, for one, am looking forward to driving one......

 

Diesels are a completely different animal when it comes to turbocharging. Gasoline engines run, on average, much higher Exhaust Gas Temperatures, due to even mixtures necessary for spark ignition. Diesels run an excess of air, except under load. So, idling puts no thermal stress on a diesel engine turbocharger, while the gasser one is hot all the time. Race car engines get rebult after only a few hours, turbo included. I'd dont buy that argument.

AWD is complex and not proven in high mileage fleet cars, only luxury and sports cars that tend to get expensive dealer service, and lots of it. While manual trans Subies have a simple AWD system, the automatics are a different and complicated one and not as reliable. No police or taxi fleet package has offered a stick shift in 50 years.

Speaking of race cars, if FWD handles so much better, why are all race cars RWD? The Charger is based on a Mercedes E-class chassis, so it does great in the handling department. Ford had a lengthened Mustang platform prototype 4-door. Im disappointed that it wasnt used.

Jim

 

Sure....they're different engines....and they require different materials and manufacturing......but that doesn't mean they can't be just as effective and reliable......I keep bringing up subaru since they've been making them a good long while and have great reliability.......you can't compare race cars to normal cars ever....if that were the case.....naturally aspirated motors would run 500 miles since thats what they get out of them in nascar.......normal street engines don't see 9000 rpms for three hours straight......


No fleet has had sticks in 50 years because no one wants them.....and luxury cars are designed for performance first...serviceability later......I'm confident for built these for good serviceability and performance...

 

This reminds me of "Robocop" you guys remember the cop cars

 

I can not speak of the other cars you have listed, but I can for the mustang. With the traction control on I have squealed the tires on my 2005 mustang. Oh wait that means I must have driven something newer than the 90's.

You are comparing sports cars to a large sedan.

I am sure you do realize that Barney Fife is not in pursuit by himself. He uses that old radio to call ahead to Andy and shut down the road on the other end of Maybury.

Cmpd... I have said in here already that I have no problem with doing away with the crown vic. I personally never had a problem with the performance or handling of the crown vic is all. Opie here keeps spouting quotes from magazines or books and no real life experience. Why don't we just see if a mustang or camaro could hold its own with a Porsche 959 or Lamborghini Diablo. All unreal fantasy.

Cmpd... I do agree with a platform specific unit for law enforcement that is agile and most of all safe for you LEO's to use, not just look cool.

 

OK, you guys can have your holy grail of high tech............LMAO when half the fleet is down for maint., units become disabled during pursuit to mech. failure, and some meth-head in a 3/4 ton pick-up leaves pursuing officers at complete loss as to why the PIT maneuver has suddenly become ineffective in their lightweight cruisers.........Anybody out there who can call in a retired CV in to end this pursuit?

 

"The PIT is especially hazardous when the vehicles' bumpers are of significantly different heights or against target vehicles with a high center of gravity such as vans or SUVs."


I'm sure you can add most 3/4 ton pickups to the 'hazard' rule......And even in a CV, it's likely that all the right-corner of the police car would touch would be large, spinning 33" or 35" tires......

 

It's going to be interesting for sure. The CV is a great car but needs to be replaced. I will say though that the CVs we have handle extremely well and we've had them all in our fleet. The Impalas around here are having a tough time keeping the front ends in place. And we had a Charger that had a front end collision at about 20 MPH....totaled it. I'm anxious to get one of the new PIs on the track and see how it does.