Research called. Wanting to start finish a history of the 3/4 ton pickup, I needed some pictures of a few new ones. The goal is to finish before my retirement.
Coming around to the front of this building, I found these two Crown Victorias had already reached retirement age. These rugged specimens have reached a transitional stage in life and are now on the express lane to being full CCs. With the Panther platform having been terminated a few years ago, this particular scene will quickly become much less frequent.
When I took these pictures, the sun was setting and the cars were facing west, as if these two old soldiers were about to cruise off into the sunset. It all seems rather fitting, does it not?
I want one!
I got one 😀
*Sigh*
I remember the good old dayze when these would have been 1982 Chevies…..
R.I.P. Panther , you were good and will be missed .
-Nate
I wonder what year they are. It seems like PD’s used to commonly replace their cars every couple of years, but that over the last decade or two have been extending their time in service. That’s just my impression, which could be skewed by the fact that most new cop cars for about 15 years were Crown Vic’s, which had very little outward change over that time.
The lack of a tinted shade band on the windshield, a window mounted radio antenna and the full wheel covers most likely puts these at the end of the model run. All in all, they look pretty good for the end of their cop car career.
Your right about the lengthening service time of cruisers. Cost conscious fleet managers discovered that these could go far beyond the three year / 100,000 mile benchmark formerly applied. Even with lengthened law enforcment service, these often see several more hundred thousand miles in second careers as taxis. Rode a Boston Crown Vic taxi last year with 435,000 miles and going strong.
They have another 100,000 miles to go as taxi’s yet.
I will miss the ease of spotting these, particularly those with a black grille. The Chargers are harder to identify at a distance. I’m sure that a lot of municipal maintenance garages are going to miss the rock-like simplicity of these things.
As an aside, I was on I-465 a couple of days ago and noticed a trooper in an unmarked white F-series pickup. He had his red and blue lights flashing on the dash and was writing some poor guy a ticket. Talk about a hard lawman’s car to identify. 🙁
And yes, time does indeed march on. . . .
I remember back in the late ’60’s seeing a Marion County Sheriff car several times on the north side that was a ’68 442 coupe.
It is things like this, using an unmarked pickup as a police vehicle, that really tork me off. Police vehicles need to be marked as such so that they are easily identified. Using unmarked vehicles has nothing to do with making roads safer, or any other legitimate law enforcement purpose. Instead it is nothing but a revenue collection scheme, using sworn police officers to randomly stop unsuspecting motorists in order to bring in more money. If states/municipalities need more income (and I assume they do), then the powers that be need to sack up and increase taxes, and stop using the police as revenue enhancement agents. End of rant.
That really grinds my gears……
They don’t play fair anymore. Good point raised, if you need to flag down an officer how can you if you don’t know if one is around? Too bad they are gone. I think repair costs and durability are going to be an issue with what they have to work with now.
Faintly, off in the distance, a bugler could be heard, softly playing Taps.
The sooner I don’t see these, the better. The late Panther never really appealed to me like the box panther did, and whether in the back of a cab or cop car or limo, never provided the soft, isolated ride I expected from a full-frame RWD. Bring on the Charger, I say.
*ducks*
We can all likely name cars we would like to see disappear due to lack of appeal. Hondas fit into that category for me! 🙂
This car is like a lot of others in that the appeal is not universal. And you are right, these did not have the smooth ride of the earlier box versions. Yet in my experience these were very durable.
The Charger is good, but I have only briefly driven one. The biggest immediate downfall is the lack of outward visibility, an epidemic in many new cars.
I’ll take the precise (relatively speaking) handling of the ’03-’11 cars over the floaty boxes and ’92-’02 Panthers. I’ve owned * Panthers so far and my favorites have been my twp ’05s.
I’d like to never see a CUV of any make again, I’d gladly give up the Panther as a concession for that utopia 🙂
The Charger’s time has already came and went. Most depts that were fooled into buying them found them unacceptable and quickly eliminated them from their fleets. I can’t remember the last time I saw one in police Livery in my area. The Caprice PPV is showing up in WSP livery but the bulk of new police vehicles around here are the Tahoe and Utility Interceptor. I’ve only seen a couple Sedan Interceptors.
OK, so would someone please explain that “STOP” sign on the hoods of these cars? Obviously, I’ve not spent much time in Michigan, and this is something utterly new and foreign to me. And I’m struggling to find the utility in this sign. I must be missing something.
Long ago I read it was a throwback to the 1930s. The officer would pull alongside the speeder and flip the switch, illuminating the sign. It was kept out of habit, but either way I also fail to see the utility in it.
I’m not sure if they even light up anymore. Clearly just used for the sake of tradition. They have switched to LED strobes, but still mount them in a single red gumball on top. Makes it easy to tell a trooper from a county sheriff quite a ways down the highway.
This shows the ’30s version of the stop sign.
CC effect, for some odd reason I had cause to look this up last week,
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_State_Police#Unique_lighting
Para 2
Just a few words about the Dodge Charger and other newer cars w/ “gunslit” windows. if the car I rent doesn’t have a powered seat, I can’t see out at all. I am 6’5″ tall!
I drove several of 98-06 Crown Vics as a LEO. I wont miss them. I’ll take a Charger or Caprice please.
Here is a photo from the St Louis County Police. Around 1977. Love those Monocos!!!
I assume those dealer stickers were applied after they were taken out of service since I have never seen a police car with a dealer sticker on it.
It’s common in Vermont.
Someday we may be spotting “COPside classics”, finding the Crown Vics still in police service. I was a big fan of the Caprice 9C1’s and people were still spotting those at least 10 years after production ceased.
They’ll definitely be around for a while given how many LE agencies ordered extra CVPIs prior to the end of production. Austin, TX was one of the more publicized examples with 174 units purchased just to put in storage until needed as replacements.
For some reason, ex-cop cars from the US are quite popular in Europe (among the American-car-loving crowd of course). A while ago there was an article in a German classic-car magazine about a guy who owns several last generation Caprices (a former taxicab, a former fire dept. car and two or three ex-police cars, I don’t know if he even has a ‘civilian’ Caprice at all).
For some Vicky’s, the only way to tell MY is the VIN’s 10th digit. 2001-09 is 1-9,
2010 MY code reset back to A, ’11 is B.
The municipality where I worked ran their Crown Vics to 150K and even up to 180K miles. Of course, this meant the cars were several years old when they were retired. I saw a couple of Oakland (CA) Crown Vic patrol cars late last year that had to be at least 10 years old – and they looked it. Back in the early 1970s, patrol cars were retired after 2 years and 60K miles, but I think we’ll see Crown Vics for several more years.. at least on the left coast. I’m not a Panther fan, but you’ve got to admire the durability.
One local municipality upon testing a couple of Chargers decided to re-manufacture their Crown Vics instead. They repaint them put in a new Recarro driver’s seat, rebuild the engine, trans, rear axle, suspension and while they are at it switch to Addco sway bars and higher rate slightly lower springs, Flowmaster exhaust and a computer “tune”. It does cost them about as much as a new Charger ran them but they will outlast a new Charger, get better real world MPG and repairs will be cheaper if they need to be done.
Prior to owning my Lexus, I had a 2001 civilian model Crown VIc. It was burgundy with a tan velour interior and even a rare optional moonroof. It served me well from 2005 to 2009 when I traded it in on the Lex.
I didn’t do much to it. Just regular oil changes with Mobil 1, a modified factory airbox, and dual exhaust.
Toronto Police Services also bought a raft of new Crown Victorias at the end of their run. They’ve been stored and then put into service as the older cruisers are retired. I still don’t see anything out there that can touch a Panther for police service.
The Washington State Patrol fell for the Chrysler salesman’s spiel when they first came out but after their initial purchase they bought as many Crown Vics as they could and put them in storage. The final one was put into service in Aug 2012.
Seeing the change of the guard here in CA. More and more CHP units are now the Ford Police Interceptor (based on the Explorer).
That would be a Utility Interceptor as opposed to the Taurus Sedan Interceptor. The Utility Interceptor is now the best selling police car.