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We have leased Saturns for almost 10 years and have been served well. We recently bought a Chevy Uplander van to transport the grandkids. My lease is over in a few months and am thinking of buying a former police car if I find one. I have heard they are built very well for heavy duty service and last for years.
Would a Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor be a good find and buy should one come along? It will be a "go to work" car.
Or should I focus on getting my old 77 Ford Mustang 2 up and running. It has been basically parked the last 5 years and needs brakes, a new carbuerator and a master cylinder for starters.I am leaning towards both.
Whenever I see an old cop car on the road that was obviously bought for $25 from an auction I always say: "who can be that hard up to drive one of those things"?
Keep in mind when these are sold they are stripped of every thing but the black and white colors. Do you think you can drive down the road and not be starred at? People will point and laugh.
The one good thing is when you are in the left lane everyone will move over for you. They see the black and white and think it is an unmarked car so they move and behave.
Since you will already be at an auction then why not just buy something else? Dont embarrass yourself with one of those cars. Yes they are built better then our grocery getters but do you see how cops drive? They beat the living daylights out of those things. It is fun to have a lead foot when tax payers are paying for the gas.
Thanks for the fast reply. If I go through with this, I would get rid of the white doors and most likely the white top and keep it all black. I will check back for other replies. Thanks again Desertsun41
The good side....is they are usually well maintained up to the point of being taken off the active rolls. They are built for heavy duty service. Prices can be reasonable is you find a good auction with a large lot to be sold. Retirement age is around 75k miles with a few tagging in at 100k miles. They do have a slightly higher worn-out value to parts people since they have specific parts that don't come with standard issue vehicles.
The bad side...they have all the charm of a street corner prostitute and just as many drivers. Those drivers don't own them and drive them accordingly. It breaks down, call service and get issued another one, they don't care. Usually it's the major parts that are close to death, expensive. Usually you'll find damage like bolt holes in the dash where the gun rack was and maybe holes in the roof. Body damage is common. Add in the paint job unless you like the missing sticker look. You'll have solid buying competition from the used lots that specialize in these and from taxi companies that buy them cheap and beat them for another 100K miles.
Would a Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor be a good find and buy should one come along? It will be a "go to work" car.
This would be a terrible choice for a commute to work vehicle. Cheap to buy at an auction, perhaps. Cheap to maintain and pay fuel for, no way. All that extra heavy duty suspension and weight of the police cruiser takes fuel to push all over town. Get a nice little 4 cylinder sedan for a commute car.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Victor Slape
Or should I focus on getting my old 77 Ford Mustang 2 up and running. It has been basically parked the last 5 years and needs brakes, a new carbuerator and a master cylinder for starters.I am leaning towards both.
I would not lean towards a Mustang 2, I would run away. One of the worst cars ever to come off an auto assembly line in the US, it's mechanically a Pinto twin with a different body. Why throw money at an old Pinto? Better in the long run to get one decent, reliable, economical car than mess around with multiple junkers.
Instead of the "retired" cop car (I always thought the Navy bought them to use as anchors, lol), why not look for a recent Crown Vic or Merc Grand Marquis. Other than police departments the most common buyer for these in folks in the "60 to dead" demographic.
That means they have not been driven hard, have been well maintained and except for the "interceptor" specific items they are awfully "bulletproof" vehicles. Let's face it the basic unit hasn't changed since about 1973.
When we were still working (over the road sales people) that's usually what we purchased. We needed to carry a lot of catalogs and samples (golf clubs too) in order to be effective with our customers. We could sometimes find them less than 2 years old, with fewer than 10K or 15K miles. Could generally get excellent pricing too because their heirs (kids in their 40s) weren't really interested in keeping them for a daily driver.
One of my guys always joked that the only thing that had been worn out was the left turn signal from being left in the "on" position.
We usually drove them until they hit the 250K mile range or so. I don't really remember any of them having inherent problems.
I will also agree most cop cars and former cop cars have been driven hard and put away wet, that's not to say you should not get one, but just something to keep in mind. Not much different than buying a Z28 from a 16 year old kid - you know darn well he's raced everyone with it and ran the **** out of it.
You could always paint over the white with whatever color the car was painted with.
Of course you could be just like Dan Akroyd when he played Elwood Blues. Look what he drove...a 1974 Monaco "old mount prospect police car....they were practically giving them away."
But let's not forget '"It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant. It's got cop shocks, cop tires, cop suspension....it's a model built before catalytic converters so it will run good on regular gas."
I would probably consider buying an old cop car just for a cheap winter beater.
I would not lean towards a Mustang 2, I would run away. One of the worst cars ever to come off an auto assembly line in the US, it's mechanically a Pinto twin with a different body. Why throw money at an old Pinto? Better in the long run to get one decent, reliable, economical car than mess around with multiple junkers.
My Mustang II had a 302 V8... I don't think Pintos had V8's
I bought one back in the 70's....a '74 Plymouth Fury with the 440 inch motor.
It was a former Virginia State Police Sergeant's car....hence it was an all black, unmarked, with perfect paint and with the the little bitty hub caps....it had "DA MAN" wrote all over it!
And brother, would that thing SCREAM....and bust the tires lose hitting second gear. I used to have fun explaining to friends why it an "A/C cutout" switch and a "certified" speedometer.
I still have it, because it's a great tow vehicle for my boat. People don't get out of my way anymore though, there is no "oops, it's a cop" fear factor left after all these years. LOL
Last edited by Victor 13; 06-21-2008 at 08:10 PM..
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