mmm... retired police cruiser (crown vic)

[alphatarget1]

So the city is selling one of these on an auction and now the price is at $1400. I went to look at it today.

106k miles
Some paint peeled off (white paint)
One tire flat and need to be replaced
cracked intake manifold
ripped front driver seat
right mirror missing
everything else seems to be in good working condition

I can do the manifold by myself for $200 in parts, and the mirror is only $30 bucks. The tire seems to be a more major concern but I can just throw on the spare for now. I'll probably have someone tow it if I do decide to bid on it (and win).

Question is is it worth it? The pictures show that all the tires were inflated but that was most certainly not the case when I was there.... I want to put carpet in the car instead of the vinyl crap and maybe replace the front seats too, which should cost no more than $300-500 total (new carpet, used seats).

 

[mmntech]

Good luck is all I can say. Taxi companies usually snatch them up pretty quick at auction.

 

[MiataNC]

At that price it will be a nice beater/project.

Don't go crazy in a bidding war. You can find better deals on private sales in the range of @$2000-2500

 

[jlee]

Don't spend too much on it...it's probably pretty tired by now. Front seat rip is nothing unusual - is it in the corner by the seatbelt, or somewhere else?

 

[LordMorpheus]

Repaired, it will be a dependable solid car. Given the condition, I don't know if I'd go anywhere near 2k for it, though. If you can get it for around 1400, go for it.

 

[alphatarget1]

Don't spend too much on it...it's probably pretty tired by now. Front seat rip is nothing unusual - is it in the corner by the seatbelt, or somewhere else?

It's on the seat... I was joking with a friend that the cop who drove it probably ate one too many donuts lol

 

[alphatarget1]

Repaired, it will be a dependable solid car. Given the condition, I don't know if I'd go anywhere near 2k for it, though. If you can get it for around 1400, go for it.

My target is $1500. If I can't get it for that price, I won't buy it.

 

[jlee]

It's on the seat... I was joking with a friend that the cop who drove it probably ate one too many donuts lol

Ours tear in the corner by the seatbelt - pretty sure it's from holsters pushing into the fabric.

 

[alphatarget1]

Ours tear in the corner by the seatbelt - pretty sure it's from holsters pushing into the fabric.

Sounds like Ford should've molded the shape of the holster into the seat lol

 

[Painman]

If it were me, I'd be wondering why it has a cracked intake manifold...

I guess I'm the only one expressing major concern about that so far, but I'm trying to think of how exactly you'd go about wasting an intake mani on a V8, and all I can think of is a major engine overheating event.

How does it run...? Do they let you start it up?

 

[alphatarget1]

If it were me, I'd be wondering why it has a cracked intake manifold...

I guess I'm the only one expressing major concern about that so far, but I'm trying to think of how exactly you'd go about wasting an intake mani on a V8, and all I can think of is a major engine overheating event.

How does it run...? Do they let you start it up?

Started up just fine. intake manifolds are supposed to be wear and tear items on crown vics... at least that's what they say on p71interceptor.com

 

[CRXican]

didn't we just have this thread?

 

[Painman]

Alrighty. If it's a common thing, then I guess not to worry.

 

[MedicBob]

Milage is mostly hard miles depending on where it "lived." Also, see if the have how many hours are on the engine. Significant idling time vs. driving time. If I remember right, the vehicles own computer tracks it.

I owned an older one but the LX version. Rock solid car and would not hesitate to get another one.

 

[jlee]

Sounds like Ford should've molded the shape of the holster into the seat lol

Would be nice, but for some reason until recently nobody bothered to design a vehicle specifically for law enforcement...regular models can only be retrofitted so far.

With the 09 models, they reversed the position of the lock/unlock buttons. After years of having it one way, they switched it around..WTF. It seems a whole lot of thought doesn't go into such things.

 

[AMCRambler]

If it were me, I'd be wondering why it has a cracked intake manifold...

I guess I'm the only one expressing major concern about that so far, but I'm trying to think of how exactly you'd go about wasting an intake mani on a V8, and all I can think of is a major engine overheating event.

How does it run...? Do they let you start it up?

Cracked intake would probably cause a massive vacuum leak. I don't think it will start like that.

I'd say skip it and find yourself a Mercury Marauder.

 

[Pulsar]

Started up just fine. intake manifolds are supposed to be wear and tear items on crown vics... at least that's what they say on p71interceptor.com

Absolutely. The 4.6L intake manifold was never the greatest design. Depending on what model year you are talking about, some are better and some are worse. In the case of the crown vic it's all plastic, easy to change, and is a common failure point.

 

[alphatarget1]

A little over a day left. I'm still tempted to pull the trigger and buy the crown vic... but maybe it's not the best thing to do at the moment.

 

[T2urtle]

what is the average mileage the police retires their cruisers at 150k?

is there a main company that does this?

i googled chicago's area and didn't find a cheap gem. The nicer 100k ones were in the 6k area. Ive always wanted a black sedan with a driver's spot light.

 

[boomhower]

what is the average mileage the police retires their cruisers at 150k?

is there a main company that does this?

i googled chicago's area and didn't find a cheap gem. The nicer 100k ones were in the 6k area. Ive always wanted a black sedan with a driver's spot light.

Depends really. Some state HP's used to retire them at 70k and then they were usually resold solely to smaller lower budget agency's. We retire ours when we have enough money to buy new ones, usually between 100k to 130k. My current car is an 07 with 70k. From the looks of things it should be retired within the next two years so it will likely be at around 120k.

Personally I wouldn't touch one. They are run hard and idle for very long periods of time. They are usually maintained well but to me that doesn't make up for the life they led.

 

[fbrdphreak]

I wouldn't even do it for $1500, but I have two working cars that are aging and I'm tired of doing BS maintenance stuff on them.

I'd pick it up for $1K myself. Hell, if insurance is cheap enough, I'd find a $1K Crown Vic for myself to use as a highway car. Our Subaru's just aren't great cruisers, for various reasons.

 

[Pulsar]

Depends really. Some state HP's used to retire them at 70k and then they were usually resold solely to smaller lower budget agency's. We retire ours when we have enough money to buy new ones, usually between 100k to 130k. My current car is an 07 with 70k. From the looks of things it should be retired within the next two years so it will likely be at around 120k.

Personally I wouldn't touch one. They are run hard and idle for very long periods of time. They are usually maintained well but to me that doesn't make up for the life they led.

They idle a lot, but they were made to do that. Idling on those vehicles is hard on the timing chain - it wears the plastic details on the tensioners.

Because of that, the police cars for several years got special high-polish timing chains that had a super-fine finish.

Generally speaking, those engines should be good to 300k miles with regular maintenance.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

The Crown Vics are good for 300K+ miles easily. The plastic intake manifold cracking is normal for that engine. Now you can replace it with the upgraded intake manifold.
The only other point of concern on these cars, depending on the year, is transmission. I think it was the pre 02's that had tranmission failures all around 100K miles.

 

[Zebo]

The only cop cars I'd buy is if they are allowed to take them home. They treat them better that way. A pool vehicle OTOH with 100K is like 500K in RL. Don't do it.

Find a granny selling hers before going into home FTW.