- Joined
- Jul 2, 2007
- Messages
- 5,294
Like ZZMan, I drive them daily, albeit not in a patrol capacity anymore (xferred to admin unit after promo last year, hey its dayshift). I don't see the attraction some people have to them, myself. When I worked investigations I had an '03 light blue unmarked for a take-home unit for approx 3 yrs. Although we were allowed to drive them around the county on our off-duty hours, I often left it parked at home and drove my personal car because I like driving and the art of the machine and the Vic never impressed me a lot. Big yacht-like feel that the old full size Chevy Caprices didn't have so much, at least not to me. I usually take one of the line cars (fleet squads) to lunch by grabbing a key from the patrol sgt's office. Honestly, our '08's that have only 24 - 30K miles so far are all rattle traps, hitting a railroad crossing launches the interior into a symphony of plastic on plastic creak or chattering, and this in cars without a prisoner partition installed. The seats are the cheapest feeling thing you can imagine, although the cloth they use front seats is rugged and durable. One of them, I went to grab the mic to respond to the dispatcher once, and the mic holder was really tight-- it was mounted to the dash between steering wheel and pullout ashtray assembly-- well the entire dash trim piece pulls loose from the driver side end before I can get the mic holder bracket to let go of the mic.
I don't know, they're good for what they are used for-- police/taxi where you want a body-on-chassis platform that is inexpensive to repair and maintain, but the quality is only average at best. I'm not slamming them nor the Vic lineup-- I'm sure the quality is better on the consumer versions. Our dept. tried in 2001 and 2002 some of the FWD Impala's Chevy built up as a police pkg. Transaxles didn't hold up for squat. The rest of the car and the engine were okay, but the FWD GM transaxle was not ready for prime time or I guess not ready for severe service.
My $0.02 from the inside.
I don't know, they're good for what they are used for-- police/taxi where you want a body-on-chassis platform that is inexpensive to repair and maintain, but the quality is only average at best. I'm not slamming them nor the Vic lineup-- I'm sure the quality is better on the consumer versions. Our dept. tried in 2001 and 2002 some of the FWD Impala's Chevy built up as a police pkg. Transaxles didn't hold up for squat. The rest of the car and the engine were okay, but the FWD GM transaxle was not ready for prime time or I guess not ready for severe service.
My $0.02 from the inside.