cops dig the vic

Probably. It was about the only sedan still made that you could fit a cage into and still have room for an arrestee.....

We were able to stuff 4 arrestees into the back of our Crown Vics and still get the doors closed, with a screen.

A great car best suited for law enforcement. Our local agency have used full sized Mercury's, Chevy's, mid-sized Pontiac's and Plymouth's since the mid 70's. The Ponchos handled like a slot car, but did hot have power. The

440 equipted Plymouth's were like rocket ships, but had terrible brakes and front suspensions. The Chevy's were strong, had good brakes, but did not handle well.

The Crown Vic models from the mid 70's to the current model year have been consistantly a good compromise of power, handling, and braking. Maintenance is the most cost effective of the bunch. Crash protection is great, can tell a bunch of first hand stories where officers were involved in crashes and survived.

We were using Dodge Polaras when I retired. Six bangers. Poor brakes, lousy pickup. Did still have room for the cage (flip up separator type

- great accidental releases on shins :0).

Hey Frank, in Flint they went to Tahoes! Lots of room for perps, but I wouldn't want to chase someone through city streets. The powers that be here decided that loyalty to GM was an overriding concern, hence the Tahoes. At least they should hold up better than the FWD Imaplas the had.

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Those police Tahoes are 2wd, lowered & stiffened, they can hold their own very well at speed & handling.

Rob

I don't know; the officers I've talked to say they're terrible in turns at high speed.

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Unfortunately.

If there were ever a car that was as dangerous at high speed than a Crown Vic, I would like to see it.

The roads would be much safer if police used European or Japanese sedans- but that of course would make too much sense.

American cars are ill-handling enough driving at NORMAL speed.

Police officers deserve better. Their job is dangerous enough.

SNIP

Probably because they don't have the retro-fitted automatically deployed outrigger wheelie bars which will be standard equipment on future models.... :0)

Go down the list of the best and worst... Plenty beat the Vic as being worse.

Perhaps, if some of those makers provided police units the way Ford (and likely others) has done in the past we'd see cops driving Volvos, etc. Recall the 5.0 Mustangs the California CHP got.... $4K each... and Ford sales of 5.0 Mustangs leaped. When buyers saw that they were hot enough for the CHP to use, they wanted one, too.

As for other nations... don't forget that the speeds, aside from the autobahn, are considerable lower, streets and roads are narrower, visibility is often worse, the majority of cars are much lower powered, and other such factors. And the laws are quite different in many aspects.

When you drive some place like Portugal and come to an intersection, and have to slowly nose your way out because you can't see through the stone wall of farm fences or buildings which come right to the edge of the street.... or you learn that at night drivers are not required to use headlights as long as they are in a well lighted area... which turns out to be a shop window's light reaches the street... you'd know there is quite a world of difference which impacts high speed pursuits. And punishments are far more severe than we see here. In the UK it's not unusual to see a license taken away for violations which here would be looked at as petty.

. If there were ever a car that was as dangerous at high speed than a Crown Vic, I would like to see it.

The roads would be much safer if police used European or Japanese sedans- but that of course would make too much sense. American cars are ill-handling enough driving at NORMAL speed. Police officers deserve better. Their job is dangerous enough.

please get a life. if the crown vic is such a bad dangerous car for police officers to use, and european cars are far superior as you say, then why is it that so many european police departments use the crown vic if they can get them?? i mean really. if the jap cars are so friggen good, why do japanese police use crown vics???

Excuse me, Tom, but I was not knocking the Vic for law enforcement use.

As for Japanese use, I spent many years in Japan,as well as other countries, and they, like many other countries, use primarily home grown vehicles. I have seen places here where foreign compact sedans have been used by police departments for things like parking lots and heavy congestion areas.... and wondered how the officers were able to drive them with their belly pressed up against the steering wheel... One of those was actually parked outside a donut shop in Kentucky. LOL

It sounds like you've never driven a 41G HPP Crown Vic or Grand Marquis at speed. I have, and it is a delight.

Rob

No problem, Tom. You can thank Bill gates for developing such a wonderful operating system :0)

True, many do import Vics for the same reas>spike for some reason either me or my computer is getting stupid. the below

Just try to find a Crown Vic at a Ford dealer. Never on the lot.

The consumer version seems to be the Mercury Grand Marquis, which is readily available at STEEP discounts. This platform has morphed into the modern Checker cab, an anachronism which keeps selling into a large niche market ... cop cars, cabs and limos (the Town Car variant).

Look at what all that did for the Checker Cab company :(.

John

All that weight and relatively high center of gravity cannot be overcome by a little shuffling of the deck. I don't doubt that the cop version handles better than the regular one, but I will bet that the new Dodge cop car will run circles around the Tahoe.

John

Really? I've never seen a Crown Vic police car in Japan or Europe. Can you document which police departments there use them?

John