"New" Ford Police Interceptor Model - aka Taurus in drag

Ed, as I mentioned some time ago, when a new Ford Taurus based police vehicle was mentioned in this NG, I said it was to be built off the a AWD Flex, with an direct injection turbo V6.

When I had the opportunity last year to see a Flex version, I did not know there would also be a Taurus version as well, however. The 2012 "Interceptor 2" comes out layer on it will be a utility model, the Flex version.

The T-Car is indeed ending as well, in the forth Quarter, along will the G.M.

GM is coming out with a Police only RWD Impala V8, built off a Holden chassis, with a Corvette engine

Driving Tata's i guess. Times tough for mobsters too....

bob

I would be interested to know your spin on this mike long term. The police community seems committed to RWD platforms for durability and life. It will take a lot of thought change to go to FWD or AWD that might be viewed as a maintenance hog. Maybe more will go to SUV types of cruisers. I think a lot of departments still have a bad taste from the early 90's Taurus cop cars. A few bought pursuit camaros or mustangs, but you hardly see those around anymore. They were not practical city cop cars.

The Holden is an interesting idea. The down under going over the top. At any rate, it will be the basis for a whole new generation of low riders when those cop cars get retired.

Maybe some enterprising individuals will buy an old closed automotive plant for a song, and build a box shaped police vehicle on a real chassis using drive-train from ford or GM. Hell, imagine a updated checker clone with a hydro formed frame and high output V8. essentially, a light truck with a car body. add Fuel cell APU for power requirements when not moving. And a Fuel Cell gas tank for those 60MPH interstate rear ended collisions. Maybe even modular to the point of ease of crash repair by swapping major modules of the car.

bob

You are correct, there is no doubt the RWD units require much less maintenance than FWD units by virtue of their design. Many Department that switched to FWD Chevys and Dodges "Certified police vehicles," when gas was high went back to the Interceptor when it was time to replace their units because high maintenance costs and down time out weighed the cost of fuel difference.

However the FWD Taurus was never sold by Ford as a "Certified police vehicle." The FWD Taurus' (and Impalas) that were given to the Sate Police under the "55 Alive" program were certified only for "Security," work, like Mall cops. Ford no longer offers a Mustang "Certified police vehicle."

As an aside, several Pennsylvania State troopers were severely injured and killed, back in the day, driving "55 Alive" FWD cars that got our of control on wet or ice roads. As a result, today the few unmarked FWD Dodge and Chevy certified police vehicles, that they do have are not allowed to be use as pursuit vehicles, only administrative and investigative duty. The Interceptor, marked and unmarked, is the only vehicle used for pursuit.

One of my youngens', a Sergeant working as an accident reconstruction officer now retired, was assigned Chevy's and there was a sticker on the dash stating it should not, under any circumstances, be used for pursuit.

As too the current RWD Interceptor, we will see them around for a LONG time IMO. Departments, all over the county for the last two years, have been buying extra unit in anticipation of its demise. The uptick in sales of over 75,000 units taking total sales over 200,000 annually, was one reason Ford continued to build it for three years longer than planed.

I know of one small town Department, that we serviced when I still owned my Fleet Service company, that normally had six or eight units. Currently it has seventeen. Taxi companies buy most of those Interceptors sold used, to be converted into cabs. It is not uncommon to see former Interceptors run up to a million miles or more as cabs. ;)

In Omaha in the early 90's, they had them as local street cop cars. Don't know how they bought them, but they were in full battle dress. as i recall, they had special 3.8's, beefed up trannies,high speedo's, and other HD parts on them from looking at some of my Taurus books. Official or not, they were in normal police work.

They did not last long in cruiser duty. There cousins went on for years in other city departments though.

A police Taurus was a GL trim with the 3.8 litre Essex V6 engine that was

slightly different than the regular Essex engine.[4] Output of the police

Essex version was 15 bhp (11 kW) greater than the standard due to the addition

of a dual exhaust muffler system, similar to that standard on the SHO;

a Y-pipe was added after the resonator which allowed for the split to both sides

of the rear of the vehicle.[5] Other changes included a larger fuel tank,

stainless steel brake lines, standard 4-wheel disc brakes with ABS, a modified

front grille fascia that had a slit to allow for increased airflow to the radiator,

and a certified calibration 140 mph (230 km/h) speedometer.[1] The Taurus police

package didn't prove to be very popular, and it was often strongly outsold by Ford's own Crown Victoria.

bob

Perhaps, but if you re-read what I posted you would see what I said was, the Taurus was never sold by Ford as a "Certified police vehicle."

Obviously some used the Security units for Police work however, but that is likely one reason it did not hold up, it was not designed for the tough duty as a police vehicle.

Fleets on the other hand loved the Taurus because it proved to be the lowest cost, to buy, insure, operate, repair and replace, fleet vehicle available. We sold and serviced thousands of them to fleets and the last three years of Taurus production, much like the Interceptor today, was sold to fleets only. Many smart buyer still bought them, but they had to pay $800 more because individual buyers did not qualify for the fleet discount.

No argument that the Taurus was and is a practical car for many applications. I have owned 6 of them.

My question to you is what is a "certified police vehicle"? who certifies it? what are the requirements?

Many of the links i provided showed many upgrades to the Taurus that were used for "police package" use not generally available on passenger cars.

Different engines, stainless brake lines, bigger gas tank, upgraded trannie, "certified 140MPH speedo" the list goes on. So it does look like a honest effort was made to ruggadize the vehicle for HD use. I think it comes down to you cannot turn a dog into a cat.

Why would they call it a "Taurus police package" if they were not trying to market it to police? Seems confusing to me. I think were in agreement that the Taurus was not a good pursuit vehicle. and many of the police spec cars were probably in fleet use in other municipal non police departments where they lived long useful lives.

bob

There are specific options for Fleet units and a laundry list of options for Police units.

Our department had a couple of police package Ford Taurus FWD cars in the early 90's They were fully marked and used for traffic enforcement. Maintainence was more than the Crown Vics. and it seemed like a lot of interior and dash panel parts had to be replaced. They did not seem to be heavy duty enough for the amount of use.

The driving issue, at the time, was all of the police driving training involved RWD vehicles. FWD and RWD are two different animals on a precision driving course. Police work was tough on the front suspension components and brakes of the FWD Taurus. We did not keep them long, perhaps 2 years. Interior size, or lack of it, was another reason we did not keep the cars too long.

It's already in the works.

Have you also tried Dodge Chargers? If so, how do they compare? I have not actually been in a police issue Charger, but I have looked in them and the front and rear seem very tight.

Ed

snipped-for-privacy@k39g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...

Sorry for the late reply, no, our department has not tested or used the new Doge police package police cars. We had Dodge/Plymouth Monacos/Furys in the late 70's. They were junk, but that was generations ago.

Frank

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But they live forever on old TV shows... ;)

bob

Looks pretty small, pretty front wheel drive, pretty european, pretty unlikable.

Cops love crown vics, thats it thats all... don't take away a guarenteed sale like a crown vic to a cop... it is not going to work

ford won't likely flop over it... but how many 16 year old hot rodders do you know that go ford crazy when they get their first used cop vic from a local auction for $1500...

ford cop cars hooked me on ford at a young age

I'm just not sure how many agencies are going to be open to this change...

v6, awd... man, don't know

Both the new 2012 SHO based "Interceptor" and Flex based "Interceptor 2," are all wheel drive. The performance, handling and fuel economy are better than current RWD Interceptor as well.