http://autos.aol.c...caprice-police-car

GM's bringing the Caprice back to North America...but only for the police. With lots of upgrades.

Looks like police auctions in the next few years will get interesting, especially when these hit them.

Shael

once they get the North American bugs out of them, they will be sold as Caprices/Impala SS. I'm 100% positive about it...

Damn that's a neat looking car.

Posted by bandi Damn that's a neat looking car.

The Lumina SS sold in the Middle East has a little more attitude than the Commodore/Statesman/Caprice.

I KNEW IT!

GM will need a secret weapon for when Ford releases their CVPI replacement which apparently will be based upon the new Taurus.

the police pendulum will be swaying to gm i guess, the CVPI as much as i love it is an old car. here in quebec that car will cost 150$ more to plate!

Posted by nostra-YOUPPI! the police pendulum will be swaying to gm i guess, the CVPI as much as i love it is an old car. here in quebec that car will cost 150$ more to plate!

Consider that the Crown Victoria goes back to the Panther platform, circa 1979.
yeah, it's an old car.
In contrast, the Fox body (ala Fox 4) hung around from 1978 to 2004.

I really don't think the new taurus will replace the cvpi.
They keep saying it's the end of the cvpi, but it keeps living.

The caprice pictured looks like a slightly updated malibu/impala.
Which for the police is just a big fail. Same as the dodge cop cars, another fail.
Are they not front wheel drive as well?

Posted by gambino I really don't think the new taurus will replace the cvpi. They keep saying it's the end of the cvpi, but it keeps living. The caprice pictured looks like a slightly updated malibu/impala. Which for the police is just a big fail. Same as the dodge cop cars, another fail. Are they not front wheel drive as well? http://www.automot...-Ford-NYPD-car.jpg

Yes, they are FWD and from what I understand, agencies want FWD for the fuel savings.

Ford officially will mark the end of the CVPI in 2011 as indicated in press releases. The replacement will BASED upon the new Taurus, not going to be a Taurus Police Interceptor marque if that's what your thinking.

And its not fail, all the manufactures get input from agencies in what they want in a police car.

Posted by gambino I really don't think the new taurus will replace the cvpi. They keep saying it's the end of the cvpi, but it keeps living. The caprice pictured looks like a slightly updated malibu/impala. Which for the police is just a big fail. Same as the dodge cop cars, another fail. Are they not front wheel drive as well? http://www.automot...-Ford-NYPD-car.jpg

i beg to differ with your statement... the Impala FWD cars are extremely popular here in New York state. Their one complaint, however, is the lack of room in the front seat for a second officer. The computer and required equipment takes up a great deal of room and the Impala is too compact. The Charger is not very popular because it's not as rugged as a Crown Victoria and the Crown Vickie just isn't the police Caprice of yesteryear. For those of you too young to remember the police-package Caprice, it was an animal. It was a quick, 160mph+ car that would handle like a sports car... in fact, these cars were snapped up quickly at police auctions around the country and even now are highly sought after. The Impala SS was basically a sported up version of that package and there are several videos on youtube taken from various news agencies of these cars OUTRUNNING NEW HELICOPTERS! lol

The Crown Victoria, by comparison, just didn't have the pedigree to compete with that car, but it did have the fact that it was still in production, whereas GM in their typical shortsighted business dealings axed the Caprice/Impala handing the entire police car/taxi market to Ford. The Vickies' biggest failing is it's engine. The 4.6 just doesn't have the displacement or the performance (in stock PI trim) to be a serious contender. The last Ford police offering was the last of the Square Vickies (1991) with the potent 351 V8. It's handling sucked, but in a straight line, it was a drag race against that same years' Caprice. My father worked for a Ford dealer with a state police service contract for a couple years and they had a constant supply of Vickies to work on from both the state police and sheriffs' department and their common failings were rear-end/differential failings, transmission failure, head gaskets, water pumps and flywheels cracking... the cars just don't hold up and they were finding, the longer you had the cars above 120mph, the faster the rear end failed.

Now getting back to your comment, Gambino-san, General Motors spent a ton of cash on the Zeta platform abroad and it paid off in the fact that the cars are very well balanced, excellent performance and don't look half bad either. The G8 was Zeta as is the new Camaro. The Commodore/Statesman are very good cars, just read the reviews of them in Australian motoring presses. Unfortunately, in the aero age we live in, there are only so many body configurations that one can have... so, yeah, for the sake of corporate identity, the car probably does look like an updated Malibu or Impala. Is that a bad thing? No. The new Malibu is very very good car and is selling briskly and the Impala has always been a good, fullsize seller (drive one with the all-aluminum 5.3L V8... it's a blast).

I didn't mention the Charger because there are so few of them here. The Essex County sheriffs' department has one, Ticonderoga PD and the NYSP Troop B have one... they just aren't that popular.

Posted by Samurai i beg to differ with your statement... the Impala FWD cars are extremely popular here in New York state. Their one complaint, however, is the lack of room in the front seat for a second officer. The computer and required equipment takes up a great deal of room and the Impala is too compact. The Charger is not very popular because it's not as rugged as a Crown Victoria and the Crown Vickie just isn't the police Caprice of yesteryear. For those of you too young to remember the police-package Caprice, it was an animal. It was a quick, 160mph+ car that would handle like a sports car... in fact, these cars were snapped up quickly at police auctions around the country and even now are highly sought after. The Impala SS was basically a sported up version of that package and there are several videos on youtube taken from various news agencies of these cars OUTRUNNING NEW HELICOPTERS! lol The Crown Victoria, by comparison, just didn't have the pedigree to compete with that car, but it did have the fact that it was still in production, whereas GM in their typical shortsighted business dealings axed the Caprice/Impala handing the entire police car/taxi market to Ford. The Vickies' biggest failing is it's engine. The 4.6 just doesn't have the displacement or the performance (in stock PI trim) to be a serious contender. The last Ford police offering was the last of the Square Vickies (1991) with the potent 351 V8. It's handling sucked, but in a straight line, it was a drag race against that same years' Caprice. My father worked for a Ford dealer with a state police service contract for a couple years and they had a constant supply of Vickies to work on from both the state police and sheriffs' department and their common failings were rear-end/differential failings, transmission failure, head gaskets, water pumps and flywheels cracking... the cars just don't hold up and they were finding, the longer you had the cars above 120mph, the faster the rear end failed. Now getting back to your comment, Gambino-san, General Motors spent a ton of cash on the Zeta platform abroad and it paid off in the fact that the cars are very well balanced, excellent performance and don't look half bad either. The G8 was Zeta as is the new Camaro. The Commodore/Statesman are very good cars, just read the reviews of them in Australian motoring presses. Unfortunately, in the aero age we live in, there are only so many body configurations that one can have... so, yeah, for the sake of corporate identity, the car probably does look like an updated Malibu or Impala. Is that a bad thing? No. The new Malibu is very very good car and is selling briskly and the Impala has always been a good, fullsize seller (drive one with the all-aluminum 5.3L V8... it's a blast). I didn't mention the Charger because there are so few of them here. The Essex County sheriffs' department has one, Ticonderoga PD and the NYSP Troop B have one... they just aren't that popular.

The Chargers are quite popular here in Oregon actually. Every agency left and right is getting them with the Hemi and has had no complaints about them despite the early brake issue.

As some of you know, my uncle worked Ford and later Visteon. He time to time worked with the committee that worked with law enforcement on improving the CVPI.

While some of the requests law enforcement made were somewhat not possible in engineering reasons (bulletproof doors), there were some reasons that Ford would even entertain because Ford itself did not want to go in that direction. One of them is FWD which agencies far back as 2000 wanted a FWD car for fuel economy reasons. But Ford said flatout "No, we do not want to go in that direction with the CVPI" But the agencies wanted to go in that direction and guess who responded? GM. They offered the new 6th generation Impala with 9C1 and in a FWD configuration.

but in an area such as here with long stretches of interstate highway and rural highway, an FWD is not always such a great package. The FWD will always be at a disadvantage in the handling department... that tendency to understeer at the limits.
Still, the Police Impala is not a bad choice for durability or reliability, but I think Bandi will have more to say about that as he is in the Service of the General now.

We service all the local police cars around here, Impalas have been good but every cop I've talked to prefers the CVPI just for the sake of having RWD and a V8. For some reason our police Impalas only have the 3900.

Posted by bandi We service all the local police cars around here, Impalas have been good but every cop I've talked to prefers the CVPI just for the sake of having RWD and a V8. For some reason our police Impalas only have the 3900.

Interesting. Here its the opposite as OSP prefers FWD and is one of the reasons they picked the Charger.

Charger is RWD though...

Posted by bandi Charger is RWD though...

Hmmm...I stand corrected. I do know that OSP when it sent a RFP out for a new police car it said it prefered FWD; dunno why they changed their mind.

Posted by Agent Skelly Hmmm...I stand corrected. I do know that OSP when it sent a RFP out for a new police car it said it prefered FWD; dunno why they changed their mind.

also, there are several Impala police packages that have the 5.3L V8 over in Vermont.

Yeah, the Tech2 listed the 5.3 as the primary engine for the PI. We got ripped off. ALTHOUGH I suppose from my point of view, slow police cars are a good thing.

Holy displacement batman!

If the police department wants to cut costs and put more money in their pockets why don't they start rolling around in 1.6L cars like they do in Europe?

Makes me sick.

I heard originally when gm came up with their offering of the impala, it was cheaper, meant to be better on gas. They then needed more repairs, they could not take a beating like the vics body on frame design. The impala was in the shop more often, not holding up as well as the older cvpi's still on the road.

Also I don't see the correlation between fwd and better fuel economy.

To my understanding ford has issued pr regarding the end of the CV, and then they keep extending it. Ford offers ballistic door panel inserts as an option when ordering the cvpi.

Dodge's offering was welcomed, and then a crap load of them had to be returned with failures.

I heard ford came out with the coyote motor, the cvpi can still live, with some updates to the motor, or going with the new motor, it can still be in the ballgame. I think for police work the body on frame design is where it's at. Or follow up with some cobra tech in the cv.

I like the old impala ss 96 etc. Cops liked them too, but they did not hold up well still, when compared to the panther.