Cars like this are some of my favorites.
No, it isn’t because it’s a Ford or a Panther chassis Crown Victoria. It’s because it’s a grizzled veteran, proudly wearing the plugged holes in its roof and trunk lid, and still doing what it’s intended to do by carrying people places.
With the Arizona plates, it’s definitely been doing some carrying. If this car could talk, can you imagine all the colorful stories it could tell?
I wonder how long it will be before all these old Panthers are phased out of police duty. They’ve been around so long that this is what I instinctively think of as a police car.
Some departments lease their cars, one per officer, finding that they last longer and cost less to maintain when assigned to one operator and run forty hours a week instead of three tines that much. Those leases run longer than the usual lifespan of most police cars…five or six years.
Also, some departments buy used patrol cars that are timed or mileaged out by larger agencies. I expect the CVPI will still be around in active police duty for a few years.
In California, the illustrated car would be illegal in civilian use…the white doors against a contrasting body color, even without insignia, are permitted only on LE vehicles. The onus is on the selling agency unless the car is sold as salvage-only.
In the 1960s and 1970s the “typical” police car was a Chrysler product…a B or C-body, then an M-body. Now, anything goes…well, maybe not the Toyota Prii that one agency bought…and had to “baby” until the city budget allowed for their replacement by conventional cars, Dodge Chargers in their case.
I live in the east bay area in California, and I see ex cop car Crown Vics painted in black and white all over town. Many of them have a big “X” painted on the front doors. A local wrecking yard always has them for sale.
You see a lot of ex-service Crown Vics here in OH now that most towns have gone with the new Explorers. It was probably a good choice too, now it’s hard to spot a cop car until it’s right next to you.
We have one in our area being used to deliver pizza. It looks kind of funny zooming around with the sign on the roof.
Maybe having a cop car discourages people from messing with the delivery guy?
Not many left here in NW FL for police duty, but still loads of the retired PI’s on the road for civilian use.
The front suspension on these is perfect for lowering and adding modern steering to 67-72 F-100’s.
In recent years whenever I would search my local CL for CVs 95% of the results would be for ex cop cars. Civilian CVs became real rarities, especially after about 2000. Grand Marqis and Town Car were the civilian flavors of these.
But for that too-rare combination of cheap and durable, these would be hard to beat.
Never the fastest, sexiest or hottest of cop cars, the Crown Vic nevertheless did everything it had to do and soldiered on for decades based on reliability and low costs per mile. Easy to maintain and cheap to repair, it was the favorite of fleet managers everywhere, if not the cops who drove them. Quite a few are still patrolling the highways of Maryland, with many more cruising the streets in their second life as taxis, which is a far harder life than patrol duty. Had an occasion to take a taxi to the airport recently in an old, well preserved CVPI. The thick vinyl seats were in good shape, the A/C worked fine and the familiar exhaust note of the 4.6 V8 as pleasant as ever. Ride was smooth and rattles non-existent. Asked the driver how many miles. He said it just turned 500,000.
There are shops that specialize in rebuilding those CV’s for Police Departments, and some agencies prefer them to the models that replaced them. Which partially explains why we see so many of them still in service years after production ended.
Quite a few years back, I remember reading about a couple shops who rebuilt the ’90’s Caprices for PD’s.
Meanwhile, there are still quite a few CVPI’s in police service here in the dry Southwest. When they finally get put out to pasture, most get replaced with Chargers or Explorers.
I recall seeing that the CHP was considering whether it was feasible to extend the CV’s life in police service to 300,000 miles.
If this car could talk…….., you probably wouldn’t want to hear half of the stories it could tell. They make the back seats hoseable for a reason. Yuck.
“? what _are_ those little yellow things ? ” .
=8-) .
-Nate
I found something similar in Portland, OR last February, a former Impala Police Car also from Arizona.
It is neat to see a former police car out and about so good catch the and I wonder why it is so far from home? Wonder if they installed a comfier back seat and removed the partition?
Here in the Portland Metro Area Crown Vics are becoming thin on the ground though I still some around. Idaho Springs, CO had a 1994 Caprice still in service in 2009 so I suspect the Crown Vic will still be around longer.
Hope the photo uploads this time.
Have one these Vics (repainted all white) in my fleet as my daily driver. 165k and everything works no issues. Bought it 5 years ago as a retired Buckeye, AZ patrol car with 128k. Just have had to do routine maintenance and buy tires. I have six cars with the others being much more luxurious than thu Vic but can’t bring myself to part with it. Darn thing is indestructible and comfortable too!
So whaddya say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what?
+1, but that 4.6 is no “440”. ;o)
Ubiquitous as they were, sure enough they’ll fade away.
Soon one of the few places you’ll see one will be at the annual Ford/Mercury Restorers show and swap held at the fairgrounds, Belleville MI.
These are common in Phoenix, often employed by second and third-tier taxi operators.
I remember reading the city of Toronto here in Ontario bought a bunch of these when they were going out of production and stockpiled them for future use.
I recently bought one of these to use as my daily driver. 2008, ex RCMP car. Bought it from the guy who bought it from the police. He repainted it. The car is in great shape; no squeaks and rattles, no oil leaks. Here it is next to my Challenger.
The Crown Vic is still a pretty common sight here in Toronto. The Toronto Police Service bought a bunch when they were going out of production in 2011, stored them, and then put them into service as the older cruisers were retired. They’re gradually being replaced with Explorers and Tauruses (Taurii?). I could live with an old Crown Vic – lots of room, V8 power, reliable and easy to get parts for. Make mine an Interceptor.