Ford vs. Toyota safety

More old news. The Focus has been on every list of best buys since 2001. The fire thing was the shark lawyers way of trying to get around workmens compensation laws, but they lost that angle when the CV was exonerated by the NHTSA investigation several years ago. One my youngens is a Corporal in the PA state police and says troopers prefer the CV over any other police car.

mike hunt

I know, because its the only rear wheel drive large sedan(GM exited the market years back). This issue was corrected, so no doubt they prefer it now.

This one is a bit over-hyped - many of these flaming police Crown Vic's were parked on the shoulder of a freeway and got rear-ended by a car doing 55 to 80, or more, usually piloted by a drunk driver that was "hypnotized" and heading toward the blinking lights...

For the average citizen it would be a case of Wrong Place, Wrong Time - but the officers are paid to be there at that time.

There are some things you can't design for. Short of installing full-on racing style Fuel Cells in each car, there's little you can do when they get smacked in the back THAT hard. You would also have to build the cars with racing bucket seats, 5-point harnesses and a fully integrated roll cage, too - if the fuel fire didn't kill them, the collision forces would.

-->--

You'd be surprised. I got hit nearly like this when I was at the back of a slowdown on the freeway. Stopped, and waiting for traffic to resume, I was hit when the next guy behind me didn't notice all the cars with the brakelights on, stopped on the road. I got a glancing blow, not a full rear-ender, but it was close.

I've always suspected he was on his cell, but have no proof other than he spent most of his time at the scene and at the police station answering it and yakking away.

Talk to any highway patrol cop and see for yourself which they prefer for high speed pursuit. The PA State Police do not allow their FWD cars to be used for patrol work, to dangerous. When Ford tested CV for the NHTSA, against the two other police models from GM and Chrysler, under the same controlled 50 mph crash tests the other two were completely destroyed. When the parked CV was hit the striking vehicle went in as far as the back seat. When the Chevy was hit at 50 mph the vehicle went in into the front seat. When the Dodge was hit the vehicle went completely through and over the car! Do some research of the NHTSA site of its investigation into CV fires before you make anymore foolish comments WBMA ;)

mike

Fortunately, for those of us forced to share the highway with these pretend racecar drivers, high speed pursuits are a no-no for more and more officers.

If your home is ever robbed, and some nuts kills one of you kids, when you call the cops don't forget to remind them you don't want them chasing him down the highway if they see him LOL

mike

they use fords because ford has packages, options and rear wheel drive. Toyota is not interested in making squad cars. It's a niche market. Remember when Mopar had the police market tied up back in the sixties? Their 440 cid would and could outrun a ford in a heartbeat.

GM and Chrysler offer squad cars but buyers that need vehicles than handle well, like patrol cars, will continue to buy RWD vehicles.

mike

Yup, the rear wheel drives are still better balanced weight wise and handling is more stable. The FWDs are hard to control on ice once the rear end breaks. It gets real interesting.

This is purely cop talk and almost never true. If they spent some time on their feet patrolling the neighborhood, odds are my hypothetical robbery wouldn't have taken place to begin with.

That may be fine some folks live but obviously for some of us our next door neighbor lives miles away. LOL

mike

On wet roads as well. The PSP banned FWD cars from patrol work years ago, after several troopers were killed in FWD cars. The feds gave them FWD cars to enforce the federal speed limit on the Interstate highways under the '55 Alive' program. The few unmarked FWD cars they do have today are only used by detectives and those troopers on administrative duty. They won't even pull over speeders, who may run, they radio to troopers in the area on patrol.

mike

A patrol officer can cover much more area and respond faster if in a vehicle. Motorized patrols are much more effective than foot patrols, in general. Ask any chief of any major metro PD. Having said that, if there is a specific localized problem area, it could benefit from foot patrol. A smart Chief will utilize both, upon a scrutiny of data to support either one in a given situation.

Proper vehicle choice and a decent driving school would fix this. They need the latter in any event.

Radio is faster than either and there aren't any physical laws preventing a cruiser from picking up a foot officer when needed. Specific local problems are exactly *the* problem in metro areas - no secret there. As you said, a smart chief will use both but you don't see many foot patrols anymore. Backing up a bit, a smart chief will also prevent dangerous, superfluous high-speed car chases since they're very rarely needed not to mention the fact that the drivers nor cars are qualified for such stunts.

Toyota is much safer because when I work on my Ford I get angry at all the stupid design quirks and low quality factory parts, and this causes me to kill many, many innocent victims. OTOH it's easier to wash blood off Ford paint.

True.

It would seem so, but real life says the correlations between motorized patrols and crime rates are very low (earliest evidence was a Kansas City study in the 1970s), much lower than for foot patrols or, when they're impractical, increased community relations.

Are they the same chiefs who think current drug law enforcement is effective?

I'd say very few chiefs think current drug law enforcement is effective. Further, most must know that the laws themselves are completely ineffective. I'm sure they'd tell you they don't make the laws and they'd be correct. OTH, they are in a position to tell the Rambos in their care that high speed pursuits are not allowed.