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Would a Police Crown Vic be a good temp car?

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Jake: Well thank you, pal. The day I get out of prison, my own brother comes to pick me up in a police car.
[Elwood and Jake stop in front of an opening drawbridge]
Elwood You don't like it?
Jake: [pause] No, I don't like it.
[Elwood jumps the car over the bridge]
Jake: [impressed] Car's got a lot of pickup.
Elwood: It's got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters, so it'll run good on regular gas. What do you say? Is it the new Bluesmobile or what?
 
santuitman said:
Jake: Well thank you, pal. The day I get out of prison, my own brother comes to pick me up in a police car.
[Elwood and Jake stop in front of an opening drawbridge]
Elwood You don't like it?
Jake: [pause] No, I don't like it.
[Elwood jumps the car over the bridge]
Jake: [impressed] Car's got a lot of pickup.
Elwood: It's got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters, so it'll run good on regular gas. What do you say? Is it the new Bluesmobile or what?
Click to expand...

Fix the cigarette lighter (I think thats the next line)
 
nedfunnell said:
I'd be curious about the gas mileage as well. My beater is coming up for replacement too.
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Brother gets low 20s out of his on the highway IIRC.

He doesn't go in the interstate too much, usually just around town from his house to work and a few errands and such.
 
SparkyJJO said:
Brother gets low 20s out of his on the highway IIRC.

He doesn't go in the interstate too much, usually just around town from his house to work and a few errands and such.
Click to expand...

On many of the long road trips I did with mine I would get 22-24mpg depending on how I drove it.
 
When i was working, Crown Vics (early 2000s and 2007s models) were used in the employee vehicle pool. I notices the older Vics had better acceleration than the new Vics, but the newer Vics had more comfortable interior and had a better ride overall. So a vic isn't a bad temp car.
 
Never driven one but have ridden in several. Nice ride. My only complaint was lack of hand room in the lower portion of the rear seat back and the bars on the window obstructed my view.
 
The thing about those cars is you don't know what they did to the car. Sure they did all the mantience but they might have been in a high speed chase, maybe they jumped a few curbs, might have been crashed into and fixed.

You just don't know.

They do tend to have certain parts of the car beefed up for police work too. They have the ability to idle all day without overheating. The suspension may be beefed up and the engine is also usually a faster V8.
 
They are beat on but they can take. We drive the snot out of ours and they keep ticking without major issues. I work in a municipality so it's pretty much all stop light driving most of the time. It's constant heavy gas heavy brake plus I work a lot of radar which is killer on the car. My currect CV has a touch over a 100k without any needed big issues. The only issue we routinely have is tranny issues. Third gear likes to go out at 100k. We're going to Chargers and the upkeep on them is massive compared to the CV's. We usually keep CV's until 130k or so and they are then retired to spare care duty. I have yet to see one need a motor or complete tranny rebuild, even after well over 5 years of heavy duty patrol work.
 
I've ridden in many NYC cabs that are rocking 400-450k miles. Talk about rough driving... you just can't kill Crown Vics...
 
boomhower said:
They are beat on but they can take. We drive the snot out of ours and they keep ticking without major issues. I work in a municipality so it's pretty much all stop light driving most of the time. It's constant heavy gas heavy brake plus I work a lot of radar which is killer on the car. My currect CV has a touch over a 100k without any needed big issues. The only issue we routinely have is tranny issues. Third gear likes to go out at 100k. We're going to Chargers and the upkeep on them is massive compared to the CV's. We usually keep CV's until 130k or so and they are then retired to spare care duty. I have yet to see one need a motor or complete tranny rebuild, even after well over 5 years of heavy duty patrol work.
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Did they ever fix the Charger transmission issues, or are they still blowing up? NH State Police used to kill a lot of them, IIRC.
 
I've actually wanted one for a loooong time and I drive a BMW 135i currently. I want a police issue crown vic to drive around for fun. The city gas mileage blows, but you can't beat the reliability, space, and ride. That looks like a hell of a deal. Chicago is close to me, so you better hurry before I get up there 🙂 🙂
 
jlee said:
Did they ever fix the Charger transmission issues, or are they still blowing up? NH State Police used to kill a lot of them, IIRC.
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We haven't been having any tranny issues with them at all. Our main issues are front suspension. I believe it's the control arms or something along those lines, one car is on it's third set at ~80k and several more had had stock replaced at well under 70k. The county cars have been having bad issues with the radiator fans blowing up and destroying the radiator in the process. They were so bad that they replaced them all as preventive maintenance as it was cheaper than replacing the radiator when they failed.
 
I'm a huge panther chassis fan. If the car is in good shape (i.e. it's not obvious looking at the suspension and the frame that something terrible happened to it) then I'd go for it in a heartbeat.

I'm partial to the Town Cars, though. Same reliability and toughness but rides on a cloud, has more toys, and has comfier seats. A little bit more space in the back, too.
 
LordMorpheus said:
I'm a huge panther chassis fan. If the car is in good shape (i.e. it's not obvious looking at the suspension and the frame that something terrible happened to it) then I'd go for it in a heartbeat.

I'm partial to the Town Cars, though. Same reliability and toughness but rides on a cloud, has more toys, and has comfier seats. A little bit more space in the back, too.
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Might as well go for a Mark 8. Huge coupe and the same air ride.
 
halik said:
Might as well go for a Mark 8. Huge coupe and the same air ride.
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Already have the Town Car.

Wouldn't say no to a Mark 8. The air ride is somewhat more complicated on the Mark 8 (the town car uses normal coils up front), it's got the DOHC V8, and it has an independent rear suspension. Pretty slick sports coupe.
 
Driving dynamics is a collocation from Benz world, no less.. Police Crown Vic is far more reliable than anything Daimler has cranked out since 1999.

Anyway, search for | P71 | Panther | CVPI | and you shall find a few nice boards with a lot of helpful folks. P71 has the same motor as the civilian CVic - that's a common misconception about the engine being in any way different. The suspension is different, the clearance is a couple of inches taller - you'll learn to recognise them from afar pretty soon, the transmission is nominally the same, but it is a heavy duty variant and much more durable than a civilian one, longer shaft btw - swap in pairs is easier, extra coolers for the motor oil and the ATF, heavier alternator. The cars with seemingly low miles have higher hour count, a lot of municipalities do hour counting on them, AFAIR one hour of idle counted as 32 miles, may have changed... The uptake/accelleration varies and is a function of rear differential gear ratio (there is like 5 of those, some with the TrackLok - limited slip) and a few other things. You will get the codes from the driver's door sticker and learn to read them pretty quickly. The car linked above seems to be overpriced, but if they deliver some added value in any way - why not. Those are 400k mile cars in brutal taxi cab business after the brutal police service. The downtown patrol cars may change their brake pads every 6k miles or even sooner than that. The CVPI usually have 'Police Interceptor' badge in the back. Some look like regular Crown Vics, yet they are cop cars - 'street appearance package', those say 'Crown Victoria' without LX in the end. They sit higher than the true crown vics. All street artists can tell the difference immediately.
Depending on the rear gear ratio you may get a great accelleration with the poor highway fuel economy. The best fuel economy I had was around 27 mpg on the highway and 18 mpg in downtown. Every model year has its fanatics that will tell you this is the best one to get 🙂
There are tons of cash'n'carry mechanics that cater to cabbies with good skill and for low prices in big cities. This is an easy car to wrench on, if you are into DIY.

Good luck
 
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"P71" designating it as a police interceptor is in the VIN. Easiest way to tell when buying!

To add to what Anderss said... IIRC the P71 has more aggressive shift points, a transmission cooler(?), the LX exhaust (dual), and some more aggressive engine tuning. I want to say the tuning is good for around 15-25 more HP and TQ at the expensive of fuel economy.
 
boomhower said:
They are beat on but they can take. We drive the snot out of ours and they keep ticking without major issues. I work in a municipality so it's pretty much all stop light driving most of the time. It's constant heavy gas heavy brake plus I work a lot of radar which is killer on the car. My currect CV has a touch over a 100k without any needed big issues. The only issue we routinely have is tranny issues. Third gear likes to go out at 100k. We're going to Chargers and the upkeep on them is massive compared to the CV's. We usually keep CV's until 130k or so and they are then retired to spare care duty. I have yet to see one need a motor or complete tranny rebuild, even after well over 5 years of heavy duty patrol work.
Click to expand...

well, any car needing a motor or tranny rebuild before 200k would be unheard of in this day and age so, that they haven't needed it by 130k is is not indicative of a "good" car.
 
Anderss said:
Driving dynamics is a collocation from Benz world, no less.. Police Crown Vic is far more reliable than anything Daimler has cranked out since 1999.

Anyway, search for | P71 | Panther | CVPI | and you shall find a few nice boards with a lot of helpful folks. P71 has the same motor as the civilian CVic - that's a common misconception about the engine being in any way different. The suspension is different, the clearance is a couple of inches taller - you'll learn to recognise them from afar pretty soon, the transmission is nominally the same, but it is a heavy duty variant and much more durable than a civilian one, longer shaft btw - swap in pairs is easier, extra coolers for the motor oil and the ATF, heavier alternator. The cars with seemingly low miles have higher hour count, a lot of municipalities do hour counting on them, AFAIR one hour of idle counted as 32 miles, may have changed... The uptake/accelleration varies and is a function of rear differential gear ratio (there is like 5 of those, some with the TrackLok - limited slip) and a few other things. You will get the codes from the driver's door sticker and learn to read them pretty quickly. The car linked above seems to be overpriced, but if they deliver some added value in any way - why not. Those are 400k mile cars in brutal taxi cab business after the brutal police service. The downtown patrol cars may change their brake pads every 6k miles or even sooner than that. The CVPI usually have 'Police Interceptor' badge in the back. Some look like regular Crown Vics, yet they are cop cars - 'street appearance package', those say 'Crown Victoria' without LX in the end. They sit higher than the true crown vics. All street artists can tell the difference immediately.
Depending on the rear gear ratio you may get a great accelleration with the poor highway fuel economy. The best fuel economy I had was around 27 mpg on the highway and 18 mpg in downtown. Every model year has its fanatics that will tell you this is the best one to get 🙂
There are tons of cash'n'carry mechanics that cater to cabbies with good skill and for low prices in big cities. This is an easy car to wrench on, if you are into DIY.

Good luck
Click to expand...

I'm guessing that one would look for the highest rear end ratio for maximum gas mileage. That'd be pretty easy to swap if I found a good car with low ratio, right? Finding one might be the pain.
 
Mileage really isn't an indicator of how much they've been used though. Think of how long police cars sit idle. They're probably running 8 hours a day non-stop.

I agree it could be a decent buy, but at the same time... Neons are dirt cheap to fix as well.
 
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