new police/state vehicles: no push bar?

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle[/quote


Dude, just stop. Chryslers were very popular police cars for twenty years!

You were wrong, you were called on it. Stop doubling down.



No rational person can deny that for decades Mopars were used extensively. Our Sherriff used them clear into the mid 70's...

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle


Dude, just stop. Chryslers were very popular police cars for twenty years!

You were wrong, you were called on it. Stop doubling down.



No rational person can deny that for decades Mopars were used extensively. Our Sherriff used them clear into the mid 70's...

During the 70s until the early 80s the California Highway Patrol was primarily using Dodges. I remember my childhood watching CHiPs and seeing all the Dodge Monacos - as well as the Kawasaki KZ1000s.

I think by the 80s the Ford Crown Vic and Chevy Caprice Classic kind of became the stereotypical cop car, but there is a long history of Dodge/Plymouth cop cars. Didn't they dominate the police vehicle market in the 60s after all Chrysler-made cars went unibody?

Nobody remembers the Bluesmobile, which was a 1974 Dodge Monaco?

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.

 

[Nyogtha]

Police Package Dodge Fury was a staple vehicle for Texas law enforcement agencies for years.

 

[4WD]

For sure Mopar was a very popular PI in the Lone Star state.
Being the youngest my sister was 10 years older and married a guy who had a Chrysler dealership (all models under the Pentastar) so they drove a number of muscle cars, Imperials, pony cars etc - and a Plymouth Sport Fury convertible with a 383 Mag ... big boat - but 4 of us would ride in comfort with the top down ...

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle


Dude, just stop. Chryslers were very popular police cars for twenty years!

You were wrong, you were called on it. Stop doubling down. [/quote



No rational person can deny that for decades Mopars were used extensively. Our Sherriff used them clear into the mid 70's...


Diplomats were used to the late 80's in this area.

 

[L_Sludger]

So Mopar was indeed the can of worms that I thought it would be. My radar screen just lit up like a Christmas tree! Dispense chaff!
For my generation, growing up in the late eighties, early nineties, and then onward to mid 2000s, I never saw any Mopar, or unibody police vehicles. I always saw the Ford Panther and Chevrolet Caprice. This changed with the new Charger of course.
So there was something like a 20 year gap for the unibody police car's presence inside of your 50 year claim.
Now I'm no longer doubling down. I'm all in!

 

[4WD]

Crown Vic's no doubt ruled the roost around here for a looooooong time. Still see a few - but Chargers or GM/Ford SUV's are getting common ...

 

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: Nyogtha
Police Package Dodge Fury was a staple vehicle for Texas law enforcement agencies for years.


Fury was a Plymouth.

 

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
So Mopar was indeed the can of worms that I thought it would be. My radar screen just lit up like a Christmas tree! Dispense chaff!
For my generation, growing up in the late eighties, early nineties, and then onward to mid 2000s, I never saw any Mopar, or unibody police vehicles. I always saw the Ford Panther and Chevrolet Caprice. This changed with the new Charger of course.
So there was something like a 20 year gap for the unibody police car's presence inside of your 50 year claim.
Now I'm no longer doubling down. I'm all in!



Some departments tried the Dodge Intrepid with mixed results (to put it mildly.)

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted By: 4WD
Crown Vic's no doubt ruled the roost around here for a looooooong time. Still see a few - but Chargers or GM/Ford SUV's are getting common ...

I think they started becoming more popular as police vehicles (as the LTD Crown Vic) in the mid 80s, along with the boxy Caprice Classic. Even then Chrysler was dominant in the police marketplace until they discontinued several models. There wasn't necessarily any requirement that a police car had to be rear-wheel drive body-on-frame, but the 80s were when the Crown Vic and Caprice set that style as what you'd expect in a cop car. In the 80s it was when the California Highway Patrol started going to a wide variety of vehicles, including Chevys, Fords, and Dodges. I remember that was back when they asked Ford to develop a lightweight police version of the Mustang.

And in the 90s police were still ordering Caprice Classics even though the shape was getting into the bizarre. However, I think they were popular even though they were ugly because GM was willing to put a Corvette engine in them for the police package.

 

[Nyogtha]

Originally Posted By: Tdbo
Originally Posted By: Nyogtha
Police Package Dodge Fury was a staple vehicle for Texas law enforcement agencies for years.


Fury was a Plymouth.


You of course sre correct. At one time I owned a Dodge Charger SE Brougham with 400 cubic inch engine, 4 bbl original Holley (4160?), auto trans, and a huge (9.25"?) replacement rear end with 2.55 gears taken off a wrecked police Fury, which is what confused me. It also had 15" rims with "bullet" style hubcaps from the Fury. It wasn't a quarter mile runner per se but would get up & cruise like nothing else. I got 13 MPG when I didn't plant my foot in it, ran fine on regular unleaded.

Allpar has a page on Mopar law enforcement vehicle history

http://www.allpar.com/squads/history.html

 

[L_Sludger]

Thanks for the link Nyogtha. Allpar is a really wonderful website and that page on Mopar cop car history is just what I wanted to read.

 

[andyd]

Chrcos 80s line ups had only the Valiant/Dart, Volare/ Aspen platform from the 70s It was their only RWD. I think they were smaller . Chrysler was on the brink and was selling mostly K cars and Mitsubishis.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Chrysler's M-body ran 1978-89...the Diplomat and Gran Fury both came in police versions. Off the top of my head, NY and MA used Diplomats until they were dropped after 1989. The B-body Polara/Monaco and Fury ran to 1978, the B-based R-body St. Regis and Gran Fury to 1981.

 

[Nyogtha]

Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
Thanks for the link Nyogtha. Allpar is a really wonderful website and that page on Mopar cop car history is just what I wanted to read.


John Candy's tailpipe flame throwing Mopar in "Nothing But Trouble" is a personal favorite of mine besides the Bluesmobile when it comes to movies.

 

[Tahoe4Life]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Chicago PD just announced they are buying 500 of those new Explorer-based vehicles at $47,000 each. Chicago is not exactly sitting on a huge cash surplus.


Surprised they bought them with all those carbon monoxide issues.

 

[ls1mike]

Washington State Patrol has about 700 of these. The unmarked ones I have seen do not have push bars.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: FORD4LIFE
Originally Posted By: dparm
Chicago PD just announced they are buying 500 of those new Explorer-based vehicles at $47,000 each. Chicago is not exactly sitting on a huge cash surplus.


Surprised they bought them with all those carbon monoxide issues.


They have found a lot of the CO issues are from the upfitters blasting wires through body plugs. Kinda like a lot of the Crown Vic gas tanks exploding were from upfitters using sheet metal screws to mount things in the trunks so they would puncture the gas tank upon impact.