Used Police Cars- A good choice?

[LoneRanger]

I'd pass. I have some experience with this. Now, if it's life was spent as an assigned take-home then it will have been treated "better" at least with regard to cold start and go, i.e. the line cars / fleet units often skip a shift or two and then whoever gets handed that unit's keys fires it up cold and stomps it from rpm #1 in 20 deg temps. One example of line car abuse. The take-homes not so much. But there is no way to know the car's history on whatever dept, they all get surplussed to a liquidator or auctioned by the state/county/city etc.

Our dept squeezes the very last drop of blood from the cars before surplussing and then they might even go to another city dept like dept of public works as a fleet beater before the city finally surplusses them.

However, some departments adhere to a 2 or 3 year turn over in order to get some residual value out of the car and not just donate a squeeze-dried husk out to the world. Those would be the ones to get, but realize they've probably lived a tough life as already described.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: Joe_Power
On a similar note, I bought a car at a police auction. Had it for a couple months. There was a rattle in the headliner. Took it down, and there was a makeshift compartment, with a couple ounces of coke, and a .32 pistol. Yep. You guessed it. Ex drug dealers car


Now THAT is good marketing. Here I'm told you have to haggle to get floor mats.

 

[Ed_Flecko]

Originally Posted By: BRZED
The blood, vomit and poop stains wash right off the seats. Car's probably not been babied while chasing down perps. I'd pass.


The OP could look for a K9 unit - they're easily identifiable because (at least here in California) they have heavily tinted rear windows.

The back seats should be in great shape because they were immediately replaced with a one-piece insert for the dog - https://www.rayallen.com/category/K-9-Transport

Our SUVs here in Sacramento have some other cool stuff (no pun intended) like a complete, heavy-duty second AC system for the dog (i.e., the back area).

Ed

 

[OneEyeJack]

Sounds like a lot of doom and gloom from experts with no experience actually buying and maintaining such vehicles. Taxi and security companies routinely buy these Crown Vic's and have very good luck with them. You need to look very carefully at each one. Look for the blue "fail-safe" coolant hoses and inspect carefully for frame and crash damage. The one maintenance issue that is always there is the differential. The oil never almost never gets changed so make sure you change it right away. Everything else is usually in pretty good shape. At auction only accept a vehicle that is just coming out of service and not one that's been registered to a private owner after seeing police service.

There is a new problem with the Crown Vic market. They don't make them any more and the choices for replacement vehicles is difficult at best. Many large police departments are getting involved in programs to extend the life of their current CV's so some of the best vehicles are not making it to the auctions. There is also a developing cottage industry in re-manufacturing these vehicles. I recently drove one of these CV's and it smelled and ran like a brand new car and was every bit a new car except for the old out of date styling. One such operation has stopped accepting new orders until they can catch up.

One owner of a security company that runs over 100 CV's said his drivers break and knock the wheels of other vehicles but the CV's just keep running. He said the toughness of these vehicles more than makes up for the lousy gas mileage and his mechanics know how to keep them running forever. He tells me the parts are cheap and they can fix anything right there in their own shop, no trips to a dealer and no complicated electronics or other hidden surprises. They have about 15 CV's that have passed a million miles and you can't tell them from the new ones, that is CV's with less than 500K miles. He also said that in every accident his cars have been in the CV never comes out in second place. He said the crumple zone is the other vehicle or telephone pole or what ever else might get hit.

An ex police CV is not for everyone but if you need a tank that's simple and reasonably cheep to keep running it's worth a look.

 

[Ojustracing]

Like others have said. They have had the [censored] beat out of them. Some more so than others. Can there be deals to find yup. But they are few and far in-between. Can you fix the car yourself? Having to pay somebody to fix every issue adds up fast.

If you do you really want one you have to to do your research prior and a bunch of luck involved. My first two prior cop cars(crown vic, tahoe) provided me over 75,000 miles of trouble free service. My 3rd and current ride is a 13 Tahoe PPV. Had 61k miles, never marked, no light bar and only 1 antenna hole. It was something the Government used it for. It currently has the balance of the Factory power-train warranty.

Your results my vary Wildly.

Ojust

 

[Fitz98]

Great feedback from everyone, thank you.
It did have a long idle system installed, so you are right about having a lot of hours, vs looking at the 108K miles only. Originally, I thought it might have been DEA, but then see it had a crash bar in front and was painted from black and white to all black. It seems like it may be just too much of a [censored] shoot on whether I could get a good one or not, plus the cost is not that cheap. 6K for an 03 Expedition. No 3rd row seats, so maybe a K-9 as well. There was a wood platform installed in the recessed well where the seats would fold into. I think I will stay away.

 

[CourierDriver]

amen????

 

[Silverado12]

A friend of mine bought an ex-cop car that lasted to 150,000 miles before the engine blew up. He replaced the transmission at about 125K. The car was a Crown Vic that was an actual patrol car. It obviously wasn't babied ever.

 

[andyd]

Around the corner from where I worked in Southie was a shop that turned 2 or 3 totalled Panthers into a taxi. Wabbout an ex livery Townie?

 

[Jarlaxle]

My friend's wife needed a car fast (hers wrecked, a week after paying about $1200 in income tax), and ended up with a 1994 P71. It was a former MA state police car, then a taxi, and had 282,000 miles. It looked it...worn interior (and mismatched: cloth front seats, vinyl rear seat), paint was an already-fading cheap respray, one door had obviously been replaced (white paint under the blue)...but it drove pretty well, the A/C worked, and once we put a trans in it (from a wreck), it was a reliable car. She figured she'd drive it a year, then could get something better & probably sell it for what she had in it.

About six years later (including a run to Vegas and back), it was totalled. It had 416,000 miles. The insurance check was more than she'd paid for it.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Hospitals also have a dedicated cleaning staff that knows how to clean and disinfect. I suspect that most police departments do not have such staff.


I don't think it's exactly rocket science. If you can figure out how to change the oil, you can probably figure out how to clean and disinfect a car. I think I've seen bleach wipes recently. Most bodily fluids have a short shelf life for infection anyway, it's just the ick factor that you have to deal with.

 

[raytseng]

Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Hospitals also have a dedicated cleaning staff that knows how to clean and disinfect. I suspect that most police departments do not have such staff.


I don't think it's exactly rocket science. If you can figure out how to change the oil, you can probably figure out how to clean and disinfect a car. I think I've seen bleach wipes recently. Most bodily fluids have a short shelf life for infection anyway, it's just the ick factor that you have to deal with.


yea seriously.
even for a normal car. Don't think about how many farts have been expelled into each seat otherwise you'll just go nuts.

 

[Kruse]

My niece is a state trooper in this state and, unless it has recently been replaced, still drives a Crown Vic. Since it's driven on mostly highway miles, I'd take it in a heart beat. About the only "abuse" the car gets is an occasional high speed run.

 

[SeaJay]

Most posters are correct in their assessment that the buyer of a used LEO vehicle will not get a creampuff. But they aren't being sold for creampuff prices. These vehicles are usually retired on a schedule in terms of age or mileage (usually age).

I'd be more worried about a private sale and whether the motiviation of the seller is that his/her mechanic just informed them of an expensive repair that is imminently needed.

 

[Doog]

Look for the P71s coming out of Virginia off of the Federal auctions. Many are take home DOJ/FBI vehicles and are in much better shape.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: SeaJay
Most posters are correct in their assessment that the buyer of a used LEO vehicle will not get a creampuff. But they aren't being sold for creampuff prices. These vehicles are usually retired on a schedule in terms of age or mileage (usually age).

I'd be more worried about a private sale and whether the motiviation of the seller is that his/her mechanic just informed them of an expensive repair that is imminently needed.


If it were just crown vics I'd worry about taxi companies getting the best ones, and their buyers getting four, keeping two, and flipping the worst other two.

You might find a good deal on an odd duck, like the dogcatcher's astro van.

Maine auction results-- $3500 seems the going rate for a 2010 CVPI.

 

[Jetronic]

as Elwood said: "It's got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yil9wlfa0yo

 

[andyd]

HEH heh. the speedo had 284k on it, I dunno what it would take to swap instruments. On the 528e , it is 2 little screws, but you get where I'm going. Once you see mismatched parts, all bets are off. Cop cars really need engine hour meters.

 

[HM12460]

I had one, a Ford, many years ago. It turned out to be a pretty good winter beater.

 

[BrianF]

Up here in Canada stay away from the rural vehicles if possible. The vehicles from up north or see a lot of rez time are truly damaged. Crown Vics are not a 4wd truck but appear to have done the same work.

The highway cars are in decent shape.