Interesting comment from a LEO about the Charger Cruisers

[Chapel]

I was speaking to a local LEO about the new Caprices our city bought and asked how she liked it. After going over the old "Wish it was a Crown Victoria" she admitted that it was MUCH better than their old Chargers.

What she told me was that the body and frame were constantly getting badly damaged during their stints... more so than any other car. She said something to the effect of "The floorpan seems to be made out of plastic"

She said they were in for service more than any previous car they ever used as well. I've noticed nearly all Charger cruisers seem to have damaged rocker panels. She said this has caused issues where a damaged rocker causes the door to not open...

She advised me to NEVER look into a former police cruiser Charger...

Any other LEOs or friends of LEOs heard this?

[TangoRed]

I'm not surprised. I imagine the newest-gen of Chargers corrected that issue. I've seen a lot of them in multiple places. I've heard rumblings about the Impala and Charger as far as durability are concerned. I'm sure the Caprice will have its growing pains too. None of these are body on frame vehicles that are as basic as a Crown Vic.

[ATL_Av8r]

In my bro-in-laws circles the Impala was generally more liked because of the FWD. No transmission hump = legroom and no driveshaft hump = something good that I'm currently drawing a blank on.

[SSLByron]

A buddy of mine works for DHS and he says the biggest complaint he hears from the guys who drive their fleet Chargers is that the V8s get worse mileage than the Crown Vic's 5.4 because the drivers are so smitten with the power that they floor them everywhere.

[Chapel]

A buddy of mine works for DHS and he says the biggest complaint he hears from the guys who drive their fleet Chargers is that the V8s get worse mileage than the Crown Vic's 5.4 because the drivers are so smitten with the power that they floor them everywhere.

CVs have 4.6s.

[SSLByron]

CVs have 4.6s.

Brain fart.

[personman]

I was living in Wyoming back when WHP got two brand new chargers for the area. One of the officers I was talking with was saying how great they were. He said that they had a much higher top speed than the impalas they had been driving, and that was important when you wanted to cover long stretches of I-80 in a hurry.

Within two weeks both cruisers had been wrecked.

[kimilein]

What I find interesting is that as the CVs are being phased out in one of the municipal departments in the suburbs here, they're mustering in Eigth Gen. Impala cruisers back into the fleet. I'm guessing those were sitting in storage somewhere? They also have a few Charger cruisers too.

Portland Police Bureau is going to the Tahoe PPV. I can't remember if I've seen a PPB Charger, something tells me I have but it certainly isn't common, probably just a trial car. I've seen a lot more Chargers being used by the Staties around here.

[acuraudi]

I don't know about the LEO side of it, but looking at how the Chargers are faring in taxi duty, it seems like there will be a lot of fleet customers (LEO and otherwise) hating the Charger and wishing for anything, even the old retired Crown Vics. The Chargers just seem to fall apart...horrible rattles, squeaks, leaks, just terrible body integrity in general. I haven't been in a 100k-mile Charger yet that didn't feel like it was on death's door...even the Caravan taxis seem to hold up better.

[TetsuoShima]

Why was the crown vic cancelled again?

[cryption]

Why was the crown vic cancelled again?

This. Was Ford not still making piles of money on these things? R&D was paid off a decade ago

[GLI Dan]

Why was the crown vic cancelled again?

had been around for ever, and it didn't fit into Ford's redesigned business plan

[MCTB]

Poor quality ChryCo product? Noooo


I liked the Charger merely for the fact that it had very distinctive headlamps that I could spot, day and night, in my rearview mirror.

[miatafreak]

My dad's Detective car is an old Ford Windstar van so I have nothing to contribute to this thread, besides the fact that his precinct has a test unmarked black Caprice and it looks absolutely badass.

[Fe2O3]

Why was the crown vic cancelled again?

x2. I don't get it. They had brand equity to no end with these things. It's apparently a market they don't care to be in.

[todras]

Why was the crown vic cancelled again?

Taurus is about the same size. No point in having both and the fact that it was extremely long in the toof.

[GLI Dan]

There is one caprice back home in lauderdale that I saw every weekend downtown. managed to talk to leo driving it (he was a supervisor) his only response was "its F#$%ing fast as hell".

[Jedidub]

This. Was Ford not still making piles of money on these things? R&D was paid off a decade ago

Actually they didn't make that much money on these cars government is a weak market with most in economic trouble, other types of cruisers available, more fuel efficient vehicles and local P.D.s keeping their cars longer. All cv sales worldwide was less than 20,000 units the last model ran from 1998-2011 in the police world with very few changes.

As far as the chargers they suck most agencies purchase the v6 model, there's not enough room between the front seats, there's hardly room for a prisoner (unless you plan on arresting double amputees) for anyone over 6' your head and the roof become good friends and they don't do to well in crashes. The above is from personal observations.

IMHO Ford should've performed a minor reskin of the Crown Vic given it a better trans (7 spd auto) and a more efficient v8 engine. Hell they make a 5.0 that gets 26mpg highway miles it seems they could detune that motor and maybe shoot for 18-20 mpg city. It's too bad they killed the Crown Vic they're tough cars I've been in a few high speed accidents in them and walked away everytime.

[patrikman]

All the more reason Ford needs a V8/RWD Falcon sedan.

[cryption]

Is Ford going to jump back into the Police Interceptor market of some sorts?

The caprice people seem to like, but the Charger is universally hated. They could market a new interceptor off memories of the old one.

I guess it's like someone said - Ford doesn't want to be in that market

[2.0T_Convert]

x2. I don't get it. They had brand equity to no end with these things. It's apparently a market they don't care to be in.

This. Was Ford not still making piles of money on these things? R&D was paid off a decade ago

Why was the crown vic cancelled again?

What vehicle would you pick for Ford to stop producing instead to keep the lines going for the Crown Vic?

Ford only has so much capacity and it would cost money to retool another plant somewhere for the Vic not to mention now the capacity to build something else is lost.

[adrew]

Is Ford going to jump back into the Police Interceptor market of some sorts?

The caprice people seem to like, but the Charger is universally hated. They could market a new interceptor off memories of the old one.

I guess it's like someone said - Ford doesn't want to be in that market

They are going with the Taurus and Explorer:
http://www.ford.com/fordpoliceinterceptor/

[Benkennedy11]

EDIT: Beaten to the punch, so here's a link instead!

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/201...eptor-car-news

[PsyberVW]

Oddly, I think the Explorer is the best option.

It may not be body on frame, but it has the room, better efficiency and handling. I think the CV - especially for State Police/Highway Patrol - was more of a liability in pursuits.

We've had a few incidents in CA where officers lost control during pursuit - against such powerful road demons as Acura RSX and Honda Civics. It wasn't the lack of HP, but their ability to carry speed through a corner - even uphill

I think a fleet of AWD Explorers makes great sense.

[Chapel]

Taurus is about the same size. No point in having both and the fact that it was extremely long in the toof.

Is Ford going to jump back into the Police Interceptor market of some sorts?

The caprice people seem to like, but the Charger is universally hated. They could market a new interceptor off memories of the old one.

I guess it's like someone said - Ford doesn't want to be in that market

They are going with the Taurus and Explorer:
http://www.ford.com/fordpoliceinterceptor/

I was speaking to a guy in Fleet repair and he says NO ONE want to touch the Taurus. a Twin Turbo V6 AWD sedan is not something fleet repair wants to deal with.

I've also heard the Taurus Interceptor is about $10-15k more than the Caprice (note, the Caprice V6 and V8 are the same price)

[TetsuoShima]

What vehicle would you pick for Ford to stop producing instead to keep the lines going for the Crown Vic?

Ford only has so much capacity and it would cost money to retool another plant somewhere for the Vic not to mention now the capacity to build something else is lost.

I can think of something better to axe than just 1 product. Axe the entire Lincoln brand since Ford is doing a terrible job of keeping it relevant.

[robr2]

I can think of something better to axe than just 1 product. Axe the entire Lincoln brand since Ford is doing a terrible job of keeping it relevant.

Ford sold on average about 25K CV's in the last couple of years. They couldn't justify maintaining a manufacturing line for one model that was sold as a low profit to municipalities.

[tjl]

IMHO Ford should've performed a minor reskin of the Crown Vic given it a better trans (7 spd auto) and a more efficient v8 engine. Hell they make a 5.0 that gets 26mpg highway miles it seems they could detune that motor and maybe shoot for 18-20 mpg city. It's too bad they killed the Crown Vic they're tough cars I've been in a few high speed accidents in them and walked away everytime.

They might need all of the 5.0 Coyote engines they can make for F-150s and Mustangs. Same with the 3.7 engines.

Also, the Crown Vic was not all that great in side crashes.

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/rating.aspx?id=708

[stascom]

I heard a cop say that the V6 Chargers were so unreliable, they barely got out of the repair shop. That was back when Chargers just started taking over.

[BRealistic]

They might need all of the 5.0 Coyote engines they can make for F-150s and Mustangs. Same with the 3.7 engines.

Also, the Crown Vic was not all that great in side crashes.

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/rating.aspx?id=708

IIRC- they raised the side impact barrier at some point due to "the abundance of taller vehicles on the road", which raise the barrier above the CV's frame.
Taking the frame strength out of the crash safety evaluation killed the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor.

And Ford could not make money just running the plant a few months a year to fill police contracts.
They needed to sell quite a few of them annually retail to the public to make a business case for the car, and those buyers moved to assisted living in the late 2000s....

[mike02467]

Around these parts the police are getting the new Ford Police Intercepter AKA Taurus. They are standard with AWD, and optional ecoboost v6 from the SHO, so basically half the cops around here have Taurus SHO's now... They're quick little cruisers.

[2.0T_Convert]

Around these parts the police are getting the new Ford Police Intercepter AKA Taurus. They are standard with AWD, and optional ecoboost v6 from the SHO, so basically half the cops around here have Taurus SHO's now... They're quick little cruisers.

Not here yet. CT is dragging our asses I guess. The Crown Vic still rules everywhere except New Britian which has gone all Chargers it appears. The Vic replacements here are the Tahoe or Explorer. Not sure what the state police will do.

[mike02467]

Not here yet. CT is dragging our asses I guess. The Crown Vic still rules everywhere except New Britian which has gone all Chargers it appears. The Vic replacements here are the Tahoe or Explorer. Not sure what the state police will do.

Well, the majority is still Crown Vics, but I'm starting to see more and more of the Taurus's

[MeineFolks'wagen]

I was in law enforcement for 16 years and I had an Impala and Crown Vic. I'll take the Impala over the boat any day and I never could figure out the obsession with the Vic. The Impala was just a better car. Once I totaled it in a chase, I was issued a Crown Vic. The extra room was nice, but that was it. Didn't handle for isht, sucked gas (two fill ups per shift), and forget about it when it rained or snowed. Most of our department's fatalities were in Crown Vics (look it up on the net, I'm not going to go into it - suffice to say they aren't the safest cars out there).

I left the force before the new Chargers and others were coming out, so I really can't speak about those.

[Mike!]

I've heard similar things about the Chargers. I really don't know the veracity, but I've heard it from enough sources in various locales that the unibody integrity issues are probably true.

My local PD had a Magnum and a handful of Chargers from the last gen to try out over the years, but never gave up on the Vic. Now that the Vic is done, the fleet has slowly migrated to new Chargers. I guess time will tell how much Dodge learned for the second go-round.

Underrated as police cars are the police versions of the Chevrolet Tahoe. They're actually no longer in overall length than any of the sedan options, and 15/21 is still competitive mileage. Higher entry price, I guess.