4 ms·

That's slightly better, but they have used Crown Victoria's in the past. Kind of hard to continue using them when they've long been discontinued. But still, wh

That's slightly better, but they have used Crown Victoria's in the past. Kind of hard to continue using them when they've long been discontinued. But still, why the Impala? Why an 18mpg, FWD, 300hp transversely mounted engine design? Why kneecap yourself with a shit car? When do they use the full potential of the Impala, or the Crown Vic, or the EcoBoost Explorer? Even in the 90s and 2000s. Why not solicit contracts for custom vehicles? We could have had a 4d, 4WD Mitsubishi 3000GT Sedan Interceptor Edition. Instead there are enough Panther platforms cubed up in junkyards for every man woman and child in America. It goes to show that the requirements for police vehicles are crafted by the police themselves. "We need a high performance, 2WD luxury car with... ahhh... three, NO four... yeah FOUR hundred horsepower!"

raldi 6y ago
They've been using Impalas since at least 1996, but I guess they have a mixed fleet that also includes some Crown Vics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_vehicles_in_New_York_City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_vehicles_in_New_York_Ci...
TylerE 6y ago
They have power because they need to chase things. Basic fleet models would have gotten the base 200hp engine. In an application with multi shift operation (like shared taxis) there is a lot to be said for an understressed v8. Availability is likely worth more than a bit of marginal fuel cost - which likely didn’t see that many miles... lots of idling, which btw small turbo engines generally don’t like
- zelon88 6y ago
  I've done some thinking on this since my original post. The conclusion I came too is that the reason that police vehicles are de facto high end production cars is because of buying power. The fed runs USPS so they buy 100% of the postal fleet. That's a lot of buying power. So much, infect, that companies will trip over each other trying to sell the fed their vehicles. The fed has all the chips, and can dictate practically every aspect of the final design including price and production rates. As the fed, the entire market is just YOU. But local police departments are fragmented. They all face different budgetary challenges and their financial resources are divided. The market is crowded and suppliers are geographically splintered. The market for police vehicles is ripe for the car companies to divide and conquer. Why would they even make small cars with small engines when the margin on larger cars is better? Maybe I'm wrong and there's more behind the scenes than meets the eye, but I think if police departments pooled their buying power into one cohesive purchasing entity that they would get more favorable deals from suppliers.

raldi 6y ago

They've been using Impalas since at least 1996, but I guess they have a mixed fleet that also includes some Crown Vics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_vehicles_in_New_York_City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_vehicles_in_New_York_Ci...

TylerE 6y ago

They have power because they need to chase things. Basic fleet models would have gotten the base 200hp engine. In an application with multi shift operation (like shared taxis) there is a lot to be said for an understressed v8. Availability is likely worth more than a bit of marginal fuel cost - which likely didn’t see that many miles... lots of idling, which btw small turbo engines generally don’t like

zelon88 6y ago
I've done some thinking on this since my original post. The conclusion I came too is that the reason that police vehicles are de facto high end production cars is because of buying power. The fed runs USPS so they buy 100% of the postal fleet. That's a lot of buying power. So much, infect, that companies will trip over each other trying to sell the fed their vehicles. The fed has all the chips, and can dictate practically every aspect of the final design including price and production rates. As the fed, the entire market is just YOU. But local police departments are fragmented. They all face different budgetary challenges and their financial resources are divided. The market is crowded and suppliers are geographically splintered. The market for police vehicles is ripe for the car companies to divide and conquer. Why would they even make small cars with small engines when the margin on larger cars is better? Maybe I'm wrong and there's more behind the scenes than meets the eye, but I think if police departments pooled their buying power into one cohesive purchasing entity that they would get more favorable deals from suppliers.