Dodge Charger Police Cars

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The irony is that Chargers are what the police used to chase back in the '60's. Now the police will have the Chargers. Funny!

Reply to
jcr

and they will be using magnums too soon

Reply to
robs440

I posted those pics on my site.... that's pretty cool IMO

------------------------------------ Mike Mangione

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Reply to
xblazinlv

Not as funny as the fact that we'll see the same old complaints popping up about them as the intrepids. I can only guess about the magnums, but i can imagine visability will be one problem with it.

Poor daimer-chrysler, trying to slap a police package onto any vehicle they can. Just doesn't work like that.

Reply to
flobert

When I started in law enforcement, I drove a 1979 Plymouth St Regis. That baby would not smoke the tires but if you were already rolling, it was the fast car in the force. It had a 360 with a 3 speed torqueflight transmission. That car would set the grass on fire if you idle in the grass while running radar. The catalytic converter got super hot. They bought it used and it had over 100,000 miles. Drove it to I hit 200,000 miles.

Then issued me a 1978 Ford LTD with the long front end with push bars equipped with A 460 engine with a police interceptor transmission. Bought used with 60000 miles. Drove it until I totaled it while ramming a bank robber suspect in order to stop the vehicle. Managed to stop the vehicle. Suspect gets out of vehicle with a hostage and we surround the suspect. He threatens to kill her and 10 seconds later one shot rings out and the suspect is dropped to the ground from a sniper. Hostage survives and sues 4 police agencies involved in the pursuit and rescue for mental anguish and unnecessary force used against the suspect. That car would take off fast but the Plymouth would out run it.

Then issued me a 1980 Ford Crown Vic with a 350 Windsor that would not get out of its own way. That was a hand me down form a Captain since he was getting a new Crown Vic. I kept that car for 6 months when the engine went out (oil pump) while responding to a hostage situation (domestic dispute). Managed to arrest suspect after a 20 minute by myself gun pointing negotiation. He decides to throw down the weapon and charge me on foot. Managed to holster and whip his but while the 5 male adults and two females present failed to help me subdue him. He was high on cocaine at the time and three good knees in the kidney and two kicks in the groin dropped him. He told the jailer the next day he did not know what I did to him but he was hurting.

The sheriff got mad a me and stuck me in the office, since that was two cars within a month that he claimed I destroyed. The mechanic told him, that I drove the car with no oil init and that was what burned the engine up. I proved a week later that was not the case and the mechanic was lying to cover his tracks since the captain had told him the oil pressure on that car was extremely low and he needed to look at it. He never did. I had the car gassed up and oil check by one of the trustees prior to shift and he told the sheriff that car had to much oil in it.

Sheriff then sent me back to the streets with a brand new 1981 Dodge Diplomat with a 318. That car drove like a tank and would not get out of its own way. No cornering and not take off speed. Drove the Diplomat until I was offered a chance to go into burglary patrol. I was then issued a Dodge K car with no top lights that was purchased from a rental company. Got in a pursuit with that car and it actual kept up. The pin was broken on the speedometer so it circled back around. 30 miles later we ran the stolen van into the ditch and arrest the suspect. Kept that car until I decided to go into traffic division again.

I was then issued a 1986 Ford Crown Victoria. I stayed in traffic division for 6 months when I was offered the SGT job on a shift. I accept and got to keep my car. One year later, I was asked to take the LT job in dispatch with no promotion and I weighed that decision hard. No more chases, fights, gunfights and drunks to deal with. It was a no brainier. I took the job and stayed there until I quit after 15 years of service to take a job in a chemical plant making 3 times the money and better benefits.

The bottom line is the Fords handled better but the Dodges had more power and top speed. I do believe the Charger will do go in police work since I have driven several of the RT models while doing vehicle transfer for a dealership. Did exceed my normal transfer speed once just to see what the baby would do. After 125 MPH, I got nervous and backed down. New Orleans Police stopped me about 5 miles down the road. The cop asked how fast was I going and I would not tell her. She did not have a radar but when she was getting on an exit, I was passing and she could not catch up with me until I slowed down to the speed limit. She even gave me a break and did not give me a ticket. She was more impressed with the car. My wife later on sold her a Charger RT.

Sarge

Reply to
Professor Licker

Reply to
Dave

there was a time cops preferred penestar products.........there's still a few 74 440 fury's sitting in the CSP stable around the state when the damn small bock fire laden fords cant catch their own shadow. most guys don't like the anti locks either but they are adjusting.

trust me dodge prepared the cars. brakes, electrical, trans, cooling. its been done.

Reply to
robs440

They're "trying" pretty well. The Magnum/Charger packages rated tops in the national police evaluation testing.

Reply to
Tony D.

Can't complain about them being front wheel drive.

Reply to
jcr

Hmm, lets see, current report doesn't list a charger, magnum is with the other special service vehicles, and there it didn't fare well, against the explorer, expedition silverado, and tahoe SSV's.

Reply to
flobert

and what's the date on that report?

Reply to
robs440

Current autotest report is the 2005 report. conducted september 04 - Of cours,e if yuou'd like to point me to the 06 report, i'd gladly change my opinion.

Of course, much of the problems, such as the fact the magnum scored very low on the ergonomics front, its pursuit charachteristics would have to be improved quite a bit to make it stand ahead of the interceptor 9maybe the 5.7l engine will help there, if it doesn't ake it too heavy) even so, as an SSV, it fared only passably well with other SSVs, which themselves are not up to th e same jobs as the PPV.

As I said, unless there were radical changes for the 06 model-year testing, I fail to see how the magnum/charger packages could 'rate tops'.

Reply to
flobert

Michigan State Police tests

"Overall, based on the Michigan police's recently published final scores for the 2006 model year, the Dodge Charger ran away with all the performance categories. It fell short, however, in communications and ergonomics."

"Wilson refused to choose a specific "best car," saying that individual police departments have their own needs and would have to balance the performance number revealed by the testing against their own requirements and vehicle costs."

They also tested the 6cyl Magnum as a "support vehicle" with similar results.

Reply to
Tony D.

Yeah, I phoned my local GSP office, and had the report faxed over. I wouldn't say, looking at the raw data, that it 'ran away'. They say they won the performance categories, well kinda, spread over 4 vehicles. the magnum and charger, 3.5 and 5.7l of each. the 5.7 charger was the fastest, yes, but wasn't that much faster with the top speed than the impala. Secondly, at the end of the report, its a section that gives weightings to different sections, to give an overall score, and THEN thats put agaisnt the bid price. When you're looking at bid prices that, for the base magnum/charger, are over 50% greater than the CVPI, for instance, you expect to have an equivilent avillity score, which isn't the case. Next, if you'd read the report, you'd see that its for a clean car, no equipment mounted, so the performance figures are not likely to match reality - the very figures that dodge is boasting of.

Also, a little point you should be aware of. police drivers will only go as fast as they're confident of. The limited visibility in the magnum at least casues me concern. I'd not be very confident in a pursuit with such limits.

In the real world, performance isn't everything. Ford could take the Volvo V70R, and stock, it'd give a performance value equal to that of the magnum or charger, and would score better in the ergonomics/comms section as well (the V70 is one of the favoured PPVs in europe - I actually havea video of one that chased me on a UK motorway, and its provida gave the PPVs peak speed as 144mph, that was a fully equipped active duty vehicle, and only the T5, not the more powerfull R)

What you read was a press release. Such things emphasis the good, and give the bad a cursery mention, if at all. I know my state patrol (who are the most likely to do the high-speed pursuits praised so highly in the press release) are considering one, maybe two chargers, to add to their SPVs, but in the main, it'll be CVPIs.

Reply to
flobert

I will have to agree with Flobert on this one. I personally saw the Charger all kitted up and as a big man, there isn't as much room in the front with the computer, emergency console, etc. I don't think that you can really beat the Police Interceptor when it comes down to available space. I even drove the Impala for about a year and that was even worse. Everytime I got in the car, I was hitting my head and banging into the laptop. And there wasn't enough legroom either. As much as I am a Dodge and Chevy fan(Ford not being one of my preferences), I will vote for the CVPI.

Reply to
steve

I do a lot of research in this area - friends and wifes reletives are all in law enforcement, and there's often a sense of 'I can do better'. Even more so when you compare to european forces. Of course, their needs are different, higher speeds are more common, everyone drives manual trnamission, and cars are always on continuous duty, often double-manned, and generally aren't equiped with data terminals. different horses for different courses. Of course, the only way to really be cost-effective would be to find a decent engine/tranmission source and build from scratch a purpose designed vehicle. The tests could also do with adding more tests to reflect realism, things like impact resistance, armour protection, or even its ability to perform something like the PIt (a light car is obviously at a disadvantage there), and of course, realistic economy figures, rather than the static derived EPA crap.

Reply to
flobert

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