About 10 years ago, Ford tried to sell the City of San Francisco on the Expedition, but apparently they had too many accidents during testing.

SUVs might be used in some places, but I think guionM's right and Dodge is going to clean up here. (Unless Ford does something great with the Taurus chassis.)

 

NY State Troopers used the Charger but didn't like the blind spots, to they are using the Tahoe, which has more cargo space and gets the same MPG and is as fast as a Crown Vic. At least that is what I was told. They have a lot of new Tahoes and zero Chragers anymore. It will be interesting to see what the vehicle of choice in 2010 is for this agency which is probably the 2nd largest in the USA.

 

Actually, it was GM selling the Tahoe.

San Francisco bought a few.

It's not so much accidents, its that in cogested city that's only 7 miles square in size, the things were unwieldy.

San Fran went back to Crown Vics.

But then another small fact...

San Francisco uses exclusively Harley Davidsons in their motorcycle fleet (and as a congested city, we have alot of them), so there's something cool about them here.

 

Do I need say more?

California Highway Patrol refused to purchase 4th gen Camaros, but was left with an pretty big issue when Ford didn't make a Special Service SN95 Mustang. At the start of the decade, Fox Mustangs were reaching the end of their service lives and the numbers of them were dwindling. Many areas refused to turn in their Mustangs and kept them past the 100K mile point where they were to be turned in for a new car (Crown Victoria).

In late 2001, the CHP pulled the trigger and went for a batch of B4C Camaros, and took delivery in the summer of 2002, just under 100 in one large purchase (the largest and and perhaps the last police agency to purchase B4C Camaros in 2002). Many of the Camaros sat for some time as they were set up for the CHP up in Sacremento.

The one I have was one of the 1st ones retired... and as far as I know, the only one with a bullet hole from a car chase, and a news paper article with a picture about it.

But seriously, I can easily see police agencies buying up a batch of CVs and then storing them and comissioning them as they retire cars. Especially departments that already have something like a Crown Victoria shop and supplies warehouse set up, like New York and Los Angeles.

 

for years after the B-body was canceled there were a few companies refurbishing the cars to like-new condition. I have no doubt that this will become a popular option for the Clown Vic.

 

Delaware State Police here use only Crown Vics as do most of the County/Town police. A few small town agencies use unmarked back Chargers.

Hardly EVER see any Impala police cars here.

 

Of course; did you (and Guy) miss the point of "well enough"?

 

Surely Ford spent dollars on engineering and certification costs to meet regulatory safety increases throughout the years. They spent dollars attempting to provide a cheap fix for the gasoline tank location. They spent millions of dollars in and settling out of court numerous law suits for police officers deaths associated with rear end collisions/gas tank issues. One law suit settlement alone was $250 million. That's what about 25% of the cost to develop an entire new vehicle architecture?

The cost to keep this same platform alive for the next decade and necessary changes to meet safety regulations could have certainly played into the decision to pull the plug on the vehicle. It may have come to the point of diminishing returns or further financial liability attempting to update this three decade old platform.

 

No one missed the point. It's just that "Well enough" is actually a completely useless term, usually used by people who know little about the subject, or, even far worse, simply don't care.

One can imagine someone saying that the 304 horse 3.6 V6 in the Camaro is "Well Enough" as a top powerplant. But those who actually know anything about Camaro's history and what Camaro is all about about isn't likely to swallow that (let alone, having choice words to say to the person who proposes that thought).

Same goes with that "Well enough" line about police vehicles.

Like us (even moreso, because they are dealing with budgets and are out to get the best vehicle for their budget and needs as possible), if a package is better overall than another, than that's what gets bought.

Perhaps if the Tahoe offered some startling advantage over the Crown Vic. Perhaps if it cost thousands less, or offered superior fuel economy then maybe some precincts would weigh that against it's unwieldy size and far worse stability in sudden manuvers required in the city and high speed manuvers required on the highway.

Truth is it doesn't. In fact, it's worse in those areas as well.

CHP bought truckloads of Mustangs over Camaros in the 80s and early 90s.

Police buy armies of Crown Vics over Tahoes.

Police now buy Chargers by huge margins over Tahoes.

When I did purchasing and contracts in the Coast Guard, I chose the items and contracts that gave the best bank for the buck because I also had budgets to meet (as well as being part of my job). Anyone with a job that operates within budgets and have to work with (or in) what they buy for a isn't going to settle for "Well enough" when there's better out there for the same price or cheaper.

Sorry, "Well enough" simply doesn't cut it in the real world.

 

Did you forget that we're talking about the thing that's better for cheaper being removed from the list of options?

Other than the CV, what's better than a Tahoe? Charger maybe, probably not anything else. A Tahoe can certainly handle more cargo than a Charger (and probably than a CV, but I've learned not to underestimate the hauling capabilities of full-frame cars), so in at least some situations, I imagine it's the better choice.

 

I wouldn't write that car off just yet on not being able to be sold to the public. The car isn't even out yet, and parts costs could change over time. I'm sure somewhere someone will find a need for one.

 

I think Ford wants to cancel Panther for a few reasons...

Grand Marquis is Ford's Buick Century blue hair mobile and will not fit in with Mercury's smaller car image. They would rather sell this people whatever letter name the Lincoln full size sedan is.

Town Car is pretty much limo sales...

Both cars have an image of the "old" Ford that they want to get rid of

Lastly...I am willing to bet it all has something to do with CAFE.

 

The CM car will cost around the same as the CV after it has been retro-fitted for police use. Weight and fuel economy will be lighter and better than the CV as well. I would think that after some modifications, the CM E7 could probably be sold to the public, but I believe they are designed for a longer service life.

 

I wonder what is going to replace them. MKS Limos?

I doubt it. Volume is pretty small, plus if they really wanted to they could put a more efficient engine in those cars like the Mustangs 3v 4.6L or a new 3.5L or 3.7L V6. Either choice would be more powerful and efficient then what is there now.

 

This part of the article is wrong, the Caprice 9C1 was police king until 1996. GM would be wise to re-enter the police market next year via Holden, but you know GM.

The 2WD Pursuit Pkg. Tahoe handles very well for a truck. The Annual MSP Police Car test is a 2-mile road course with 13 turns. The 2009 Crown Vic average time is 1:40 and the Tahoe PPV average time is 1:42. So the Tahoe PPV can impressively hang with the Crown Vic. In accerlation test the Tahoe is even faster than the Crown Vic and surpisingly the gap widens as the speeds increase.

Ford did spend some money, in 2003 the Crown Vic got a complete make over under the body. Nothing visibly changed but under the Crown Vic the chassis got a complete reworking. The cars were vastly improved in the handling and steering dept. The Crown Vic no longer felt loose and the steering no longer felt numb. It almost brought the car up to the level of the old Caprice 9C1s but the Crown Vic is unstable at high speeds and it has never had the performance levels that the LT1 powered Carpices had and that was 13 years ago.