Like a surfer looking back and seeing a huge gray snout with multiple rows of big sharp teeth gaining on him, so felt the average American motorist for about two decades when looking in the rear-view mirror and seeing the above sight. A cold sweat, a clenching of the buttocks, and perhaps a quick glance for a way out was the natural result in both cases. Unlike in the surfer’s case though, speeding up to try and escape would be ill-advised.
Yet here we are, and today, the tables are turned. You don’t mind if we take a quick look inside the car, do you?
The Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor (P71) has long been a very popular vehicle in law enforcement circles, and a lot of what made it popular there also made it popular on the used car market both for taxi companies as well as private individuals that wanted what they perceived as generally a decent value for money at the government auction. Of course the Crown Victoria model was also sold directly to the public with some differences in civilian form along with its kissing cousin, the Mercury Grand Marquis.
These days, MGMs are very common in the junkyard, but Crown Victorias somewhat less so, curiously probably about half of the ones I do see are Police Interceptor (P71) models such as this one that has been retired from active duty and now also retired from whatever its second life was. Some though are still serving in active duty today, my town still has several as do many others.
This one is a little more interesting than most since it still features some of the law-enforcement “goodies”. It has though been repainted in all white (or at least the formerly black exterior bits have been made to match) and looks to have served in a private role since being auctioned off. The Crown Vic was restyled from its previous aero-style to this look back in 1997 which served and protected it through 2011, when it was finally discontinued after being available fleet-only for the last four model years.
The best defense is always a good offense and what better than a big metal pushbar on the front of a sedan in today’s traffic with behemoth SUVs and pickup trucks everywhere. This one even looks to have seen action! A genuine police officer might use this device to help clear an accident scene by pushing a stricken vehicle to the side, but think of how useful this might be when you’re 22nd in line at the Starbucks drive-thru and need that Venti Quad-Macchiato RIGHT. NOW.
Or how useful 4 gazillion candlepower might be when you’re faced with yet another baby-Bro with an LED lightbar on his Nissan Xterra stopped at the light directly across from you that has it blazing and melting your eyeballs at 1pm in the afternoon on a sunny day. Just fire up this baby and use the handle inside to aim it. Problem likely solved – if it is in fact an Xterra. Don’t try it with an all black RAM 3500 though, those dudes sometimes have real firepower handy that’ll quickly make the LED lightbar a non-issue, comparatively speaking.
This one used to have at least five antennas on the trunk lid, now four are plugged off and there is only one left, which still will stop people from passing on the highway. The white repaint here is interesting and gives the game away by having the upper sections of the tail lights painted in order to apparently give the rear end sort of a light-bar look or something. It’s actually surprisingly effective at changing the rear look of the car somewhat, the Crown Vic did have some of the largest all red tail lights in existence.
There’s the magic phrase on the lower left of the trunk lid that makes normal people think these must have sported at least 400hp and that they’d outhandle anything that even tried to ignore the command to “Pull It Over! Pull It Over Right Now!”
Sadly (or not?) that wasn’t really the case. Over the years (1998-2011 for this bodystyle) only the 4.6liter V8 was offered in slightly differing outputs depending on year, I believe the 2001 examples such as this one were blessed with 235hp @ 4,750rpm and 276 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm, actually surprisingly high rpm points for those peaks. The transmission was a 4speed automatic in all years, in this case a 4R70W. While they surely make noise when the driver decides he needs to speed to a scene, the initial acceleration does seem more noise than motion, however they do eventually all get there.
So what about the cop motor, cop shocks, cop brakes etc? Well, this IS the “performance improved” motor that gained 20hp over the previous few years (but lost some torque), it also has a larger radiator and external cooling for the transmission, power steering, and engine oil. It shifts a little more aggressively and the torque converter is a sturdier unit. This year’s model was limited to 124mph (as opposed to 110mph for civilian models). Our esteemed editor-in-chief got popped at 130mph some years back, presumably not by a 2001 P71 as he would have been walking away from it at that speed.
These also come with heavier duty shock absorbers and a stainless dual exhaust system. The brakes though are apparently the same size as the normal ones.
If you do decide to run and you fail, well, you’re going down, brutha! But first you’ll get prostrated over this fender here, laid chest first onto the probably by now searing-hot hood and searched for weapons, contraband, and anything else you might be carrying. Crime doesn’t pay!
Curb weight was almost 4,000 pounds for the standard Crown Vic, add a bunch of equipment, some light artillery in the trunk, two officers and maybe half a box of donuts along with some stale coffee and it’s probably pushing closer to 5,000 pounds. Besides the (alleged) perpetrator himself, weight surely is the enemy as well.
The trunk that held much of that equipment is here, behind what seems to be the official tire of the Rocky Mountains, an oversize BF Goodrich All-Terrain KO2. No there was not a lifted P71 for our area, but if there was it probably would wear these tires. The trunk though is fairly large although it sports a fairly high liftover height and the shelf at the back is a long reach – which is where the spare tire normally sits.
Unless Ford took a page out of Mercedes’ book and painted their trunk lid interiors black, I have every confidence that this used to be a black and white liveried car. The red light is a nifty feature, it’s actually a magnetic-backed light with a switch on the back to turn it on or off. I have no idea if that is official police equipment or just something this car had, but it seems like a handy item to have. I now wonder why I didn’t take it for myself. This one also sports the federally mandated glow in the dark “LemmeOuttaHere” pull-cord in case a perp accidentally falls into the trunk and the lid closes on him. Or her.
Wheels are the quickest way for any car person to spot an undercover police car (well that, along with the multiple antennas, low trim level, usually monochromatic paint, minimal chrome, and two dudes smoking while drinking copious amounts of coffee inside), and of course the marked units use the same items, black steel wheels with a small chromed center cap, (usually the ONLY chrome on the car), and beefy-ish tires. These here aren’t police issue tires, but I do have to say that “DieHard” would be a fantastic name for cop tires, in this case they are the brand name of tires sold at Sears.
The P71 package is denoted right there in the VIN, characters 5-7, and like all of these this fine American car was assembled outside of this country. Or our 51st state, depending on who you ask (not me).
By 2001, Ford had decontented the Crown Vic quite a bit and for police duty, that decontenting went to eleven. But some other things were added. The custom steering wheel cover is not one of those items. Here though we can see the handle for the pillar mounted light and also the remnants of the matching unit on the passenger side.
The dashboard is really basic, along the lines of a Rubbermaid tote, but I suppose it lends itself to easy cleaning and long life, things that matter more than pretty much anything else in this line. If you wanted something a little fancier, you visited the Mercury side of the showroom. Or ordered a fancier Crown Vic I guess. Or a Lincoln Town Car, also based on the same Panther chassis. See the button in the middle of the dashboard? That’s the trunk release button, located there only on these models, normally it’s on the driver’s door panel.
The police package also gets one a set of genuine bucket seats instead of anything benchy, and look how wide they are! So wide that the seatbelt has to come through the bottom cushion. They are clad in a sort of black and white (hey!) peppered cloth material that feels pretty grippy even without various grippy-looking sticky fluid stains on them as with these examples. And who doesn’t love a vinyl floor!
What perp wouldn’t like to get cuffed and stuffed into this backseat? While it’s of course possible that there was a slight mix-up on the production line, it’s more likely that an enterprising owner got rid of the hard fiberglass vomit-proof rear bench and installed a far more comfortable item from a Lincoln. The color even matches.
The P71 also got an instrument panel with various bits of info and of course most importantly a 140mph speedometer with Certified Calibration.
I thought these things were supposed to last forever? 104k seems kind of not so. Either the car broke or the odometer did but since the top of the engine was disassembled a few pictures ago, I’m guessing the odometer is fine.
While I adore the Zero F’s Given mounting method securing the cupholder and CD/tape holder to the floor (two phillips screws into the floor), the electronic button gizmo made by Code3 up front intrigued me. I like the warning that the round things are not to be used for lighting cigarettes (what are they, power ports?) but what do all of the red buttons do? They are marked (from left to right): Rotate, Rear FL, Take Down, L Alley, and R Alley. I think L Alley and R Alley are for the A-pillar lights, the others I’m not sure. “Take Down” is the one that frightens me the most I think.
Under the hood was this thing attached to the side of the engine bay, which appears to be the service center used by this police force. Very handy, if it breaks down, pop the hood, and hey, let’s call Espino’s! Espino’s is in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, so part of the Inland Empire area, so this car was likely part of one of the police forces out there. I always thought all police departments had their own motor shop (like where Harlan ran the show on CHiPs), but apparently not. Or maybe Espino’s handled the stuff the department couldn’t do in house. Apparently they pride themselves on their service. I’d probably be even more service-minded than usual in my own business as well if every one of my clients carried a gun and a taser.
We don’t really know what brought this one here, but the boys in blue divested themselves of it some time earlier. Perhaps if Espino had the chance it would still be out there, who knows. But for now, as a public service remember, you just might be able to outrun the car, but you can’t outrun the Motorola…
(Author’s note: All of my police info was gleaned from watching way too much television over the years, if any genuine officers reading this feel I was misrepresenting anything, I sincerely apologize and meant no disrespect, please take it up with Hollywood, I can’t do time in the hole.)
My one and only interaction with one was being busted for speeding on I-10. In an 85MPH zone
I was curious to see what the 2011 Malibu rental would do.
I was in the high 90s when I saw the Texas Highway Patrol Crown Vicky cross the median and then the lights in the mirror.
Officer Carl Mitchell was courteous and professional. Best part? I got a written warning that will not appear on my licence. Since my licence was Queensland, Australia I was content with that!
Had you been exceeding the speed limit by that margin within Australia, then it would have cost you plenty in fines and resulted in loosing your drivers licence for some considerable period.
Its interesting how many drivers see ‘speed limits’ as targets taking the view that you should always drive just a bit over the posted speed limit. I don’t agree with this approach.
I see speed limits as the maximum permitted speed and that often you should be driving at lower speeds than legally permitted. In any case, driving at slightly less than the posted legal speed limit ensures that you have a buffer and you are unlikely to exceed the speed limit.
Many will not follow my thinking, but i agree totally with the fact that where I live (Victoria, Australia) we ‘legally’ cannot exceed 65 MPH on country roads and many of our 4 land freeways have maximum speeds of just 45 MPH. As a result, by world standards, we have few deaths from motor accidents.
Many will not follow my thinking,
True that. But this issue is very much location-dependent. I understand Australia takes its speed limits very seriously. Here in the US, 10 mph over the limit has become the de-facto limit. And if you drive less than the posted limit, as you suggest, you’d better stay in the right lane, but even then, you’re not going to be popular, because you will be creating a backup wherever you drive, if there’s an amount of traffic on the highway.
And I understand that in Texas, traffic on the freeway commonly rolls along at some 90 mph. I’ve seen that in places in CA too. The reality is that if much of the traffic is doing that, it’s a bit hard for the police to pick out one perp out of the hundreds to ticket. If conditions are good, it seems they’re often just ok with that.
Same here in the Chicago area, on the expressways when there isn’t stop and go traffic 85-90 is the norm. The few cars going the posted limit seem like the reckless ones by comparison to the flow, even the semi trucks blow passed them
90mph would be only 5mph over the 85 mph speed limit for a 40-mile stretch of the SH 130 toll road between Austin and San Antonio.
Perfect.
Right reasoning.
No chance of loosing my licence. I was 20 odd Km over the limit, so even in a our Nanny State, I’d have kept my licence. Granted, my wallet would have been lightened.
On the ‘few deaths by world standards” credit needs to be given to safer cars and roads, not the ‘speed, speed, speed obsession with revenue addicted state governments.
I have enjoyed many roads out West with no posted limit! As well as the Autobahn. Where there are posted limits in the US, though, enforcement varies greatly from state to state, so be aware of that on a return trip. Speeding over 90mph in my state is an automatic 30 day revocation of your license, unless you can get the ticket reduced by the prosecutor.
In my state, what the prosecutor will do for you varies greatly from one judicial district to another (one district usually being one large county, or 2-4 smaller counties). We have 100 counties in my state, and probably 40 different prosecutorial districts, so that’s a lot of different treatment in court as far as what kind of deal you will get from the prosecutor.
Right now, the largest county is my state is dismissing all tickets up to 20 miles over the limit committed prior to 1/1/2022, trying to work through the tremendous backlog they have. A smaller county would never agree to do that. Part of the $250 court costs go to the local agency issuing the ticket. but most goes to the state.
I have enjoyed many roads out West with no posted limit!
Are you suggesting that these roads had no speed limit? Because every road does, even if there’s no signs. All states have a basic speed limit that applies to highways (statutory speed limits). For instance, in Oregon any two lane highway in the state automatically has a 55 mph limit unless posted otherwise.
Out in the big West, it’s quite common to not see speed limit signs, especially on the secondary highways. But the limits still apply, posted or not.
As to prosecution, when I got my ticket for 130 mph in Nevada (two lane highway) I just got a $700 ticket; no license revocation. But they could have taken me to jail and face a judge. In Oregon, if you get caught for over 100, it’s automatic jail.
I was concerned what that 130 mile ticket would do to my insurance. Ironically, it went down considerably in the next renewal. Apparently they never picked up that ticket, and meanwhile two more minor speeding tickets “aged out”, hence the drop in insurance.
As far as I know, only Montana did away with speed limits entirely. Rural roads in Montana had a “Reasonable & Prudent” daytime limit for a few years in the 1990s after the federal gov’t lifted its speed limit mandates. But the state found No Limits a bit unwieldy from a legal standpoint, so they adopted actual speed limits again (80 on Interstates) after a while.
Reasonable and prudent? That is nothing but a license to steal. Now I have some real time information on California highways as I got in from the L.A. area 4 hours ago. Drove down US 5 Friday morning and back up mid-day Sunday. I like a nice peaceful drive. Nice and peaceful means I can drive a steady speed and not have to change lanes that much.
Going down Friday morning meant lots of semis out of the Port of Oakland and holiday traffic. It wasn’t that peaceful although I never went above 70 till making a fast pass. I drive the #2 lane and stay out of #1 the crazies lane. Sunday was much, much better. Did a speed control 68 the whole way up and from the Grapevine to the Altamont Pass only had to pass two semis. Meanwhile the crazies in lane 1 are running between 70-85 and every speed inside that range. They were constantly hitting their breaks when a 80 mph car came up behind a 75 mph car. Never a problem for me and it was an enjoyable drive through the Central Valley on a nice cool day. Oh US 5 is posted 70 mph limit and the Buick is a great highway car.
The Supreme Court ruled that the “Reasonable and Prudent” standard was unconstitutionally vague, so goodbye “Montanabahn”, hello speed limits. The Fifth Amendment guarantees of due process require that there be an objective standard to define a violation, based on precedent, so Montana had to put up speed limit signs.
Bottom line. ‘Speed Kills’. Want to drive fast, then becoming a racing car driver.
Australia where I live has perhaps the worlds most conservative and strictly enforced speed limits. Basically, for the most part and with few exceptions, Australians can’t drive faster the 60 MPH.
Many don’t like it, but death from road accidents in Australia is impressively low when compared with other countries. Its hard to argue, with the fact that the faster you drive, greater the chance of death or serious injury in an accident.
My auto insurance insisted I load their app on my cell phone. Got an initial discount, but a few weeks later I realized how close they monitor your movements.
My cat had wonder off, and late one night on the way home, I circled my block out of curiosity instead of pulling directly into my driveway. Got a text message wanting me to confirm that I had circled the block.
Since I’m in my 60’s, my days of pulling an all nighter driving with my buddies to Florida are over!! I wonder if the app gets confused when I hop on Southwest and fly over the Gulf to Fort Lauderdale??
Insisted? I’ve seen such things required in order to receive or maintain a discount on premiums, but I did not know that any insurance company could require such monitoring.
At least you have the type of monitoring that works via your cell phone. My mother-in-law signed up for such a program several years ago and wound up a device that plugged into her car’s OBD port and communicated directly with the cellular network. Except the thing was defective…and kept discharging the very small battery on her Honda Fit.
If I were you, I’d delete that app from your insurance company.
With State Farm they give you a little round dealybob to put in your glovebox and you pair it via Bluetooth to your phone. I don’t mind it since I typically drive only once a week or so. I did lend my van to a friend for a few hours and the app sent me a message “Did you lend your car out?” Apparently his driving was different enough to have them question me, although looking at their metrics neither of us did anything particularly different when it came to speed limits, acceleration, braking, time on the cell phone, etc.
Good thing bicycles don’t need to be insured as I’d never get a discount.
Creepiness aside, I’m curious: What’s so suspicious about driving around the block? Doesn’t seem to be the kind of driving maneuver that would arouse insurance company suspicions.
I have always wanted a retired cop car like this. My uncle was a Sheriff’s deputy and mid-size city cop, as well as a firefighter, at various times when I was a kid. Playing in his patrol cars at home (or going to the fire station) is a clear and happy memory. I remember a white 77-78 Fury (with the stacked headlights), which was the Sheriff’s Dept., and a late 70’s metallic brown Nova for the City police, which I always thought was a strange color for a marked police car.
Take down lights are the flood lights they turn on when they pull someone over that’s really up to something, for officer safety. The TDL’s would have been located in the light bar on the roof. The occupants of the pulled-over vehicle are blinded if they look back towards the patrol car; they cannot see the officers exiting the patrol vehicle or walking up.
On a regular commute on the interstate I sometimes encountered a guy who drove a white Crown Vic. It was not a police car. But he always had a blue coffee cup on top of his dashboard right in the center. He drove in the fast lane and all the cars in his lane peeled off to the right to let him by. It was like he had his own private highway lane.
Funny… that’s the opposite of my experience. I used to own a Crown Victoria LX Sport – not a police package, but to the casual observer it was awfully close, and also in a similar shade of gray as our State Police cruisers.
More often than getting out of the way, I noticed that other drivers tended to slow down when they saw me approaching from behind. Annoyingly so. It was amusing at first, but eventually I looked forward to the day when Crown Vics would be retired out of police service and my car would just appear to be another old car. However, I sold it in 2018, so I never got to enjoy that blissful anonymity.
I had the opportunity to choose a new 2003 Mercury Marauder as a company car, and it was like the parting of the sea as I drove down most highways – until other motorists noticed the chrome wheels and exhaust pipes. Never got a ticket either during the time I drove that car!
We had a yellow , plain looking, “Fury III” in the early-mid “70’s”. Looked like a state police (unmarked) in folks rear view mirror.
For a few/three years, traffic on PA turnpike was always moving to the right as our car approached.
Hilarious commentary, thank you for that! The calculation of vehicle weight and the trunk were my favorites.
Except for the pigment in the paint and the seat cloth, this is equipped scary close to the 2001 CV I had and have written about here.
This one looks like it had a lot of hard use in those 104k miles, an amount which surprised me. One possibility I can think of is the plastic intake manifold cracked where the coolant ran through it (a weak point which I think Ford got sued over), causing some sort of engine issue that stymied further use. However, the intake manifold is precisely what is missing, so who knows. Perhaps somebody started the task and didn’t finish. Mine had just over 100k when the coolant passage called it quits.
From having owned one of these, having the trunk release in the middle of the dash, while not aesthetically pleasing, was a wonderful feature. Also, the A-pillar spotlight worked well for discouraging neighborhood hooligans from blasting fireworks during a drought. Plus, you could speed all day and the cops just waved “hi” in passing.
Like you, I still see these out and about. This past weekend, when headed to the in-law’s house, I saw a CV that had been retired from taxi service – how often does one see that? I suspect that example helps compensate for the low mileage of this one.
If you include the time this car spent idling on the side of the road, the actual time the car spent running is probably at least 3x-5x higher than the mileage would suggest.
I was going to comment re. Jim’s discussion of the lack of grunt in the engine installed in these things that really most of the hours on a basic cop car’s engine is going to be from idling. Hours and hours a day of idling.
I would never suggest such a thing. There are crimes to solve!
Idle hour meters reading of 5000 is not uncommon on these. We would use cars that had been brutally curbed as decoy cars.
You lived the dream.
My only ride in a P71 was in the front seat, fortunately. I had a secretary whose husband was a police officer and who got elected as a township constable (whose job is serving small claims court papers). I forget the occasion, but I rode somewhere with him in a black unmarked version, but it had that same heavy duty interior and rubber floors.
I would not discount the possibility of the odometer going 10-7 (out of service – I had to look that up). Those in civilian versions have been known to do this with some frequency. And was there ever a better name than “Police Interceptor”? It always sounded really menacing, even if the actual cars were on the mild side. Also, Indianapolis Police Department still runs some marked P71s in normal patrol duty.
Last thing, I think that change from the aero roof to the Grand Marquis roof was for the 1998 model year. Which began in 2007, so you get off on a technicality.
I think it went 10-42. End of Watch.
The name is fantastic, in a Mad Max way. But an even better use of part of it are those little meter-maid trike cars, yes, also badged “Interceptor”. Everybody’s gotta feel like they’re contributing.
I confess I have spent so little time pondering the Grand Marquis roofline over the years that this little nugget completely slipped by me. I had no idea they just went to that roof for all of them. You learn something new every day on CC…
Ford has policified the newest generation Explorer and yes, that menacing black “Police Interceptor” badge is still attached to them.
Love the reference to Harlan on CHiPs, one of my favorite shows to watch reruns of back in the day. I was too young for its original run, but it seemed to be on all the time in syndication when I was a teen. Much of the show’s 70s LA was still very familiar in the 90s.
This looked like too nice of a car to die a death at 104k miles. But who knows what kind of life it lived.
I would never want to own an ex-cop car. To be honest, they give me the willies for all the reasons Jim mentioned in the article about looking over your shoulder when you see one of these things in the flesh.
Low miles, but how many hours of idling? Being 20 years old, last owner just junked it when needed repairs. Also, the front push bar is dented, maybe totaled by insurance?
Nowadays, Explorers are the common cop car, and younger drivers don’t know Crown Vics. My 19 y/o nephew is interested in used Explorer PI’s.
I bought a 2003 P71 as my daily driver about 15 years ago, having grown up with
The Blues Brothers and Cannon Ball Run. Despite general derision, after a few
Performance mods and a Bullitt green paint job over the fridge white, it was a fantastic
high speed, long distance cruiser. A performance chip removed the speed limiter, and I had
it up to around 135 a few times, and think it would have been good for a bit more.
No real issues during the 90k I put on it, no tickets either.
Another great post, Jim. I too laughed out loud at the weight calculation.
That paint job reminds of the Fraud Taurus Interceptor Cannonball record holding Audi A6. Maybe they were trying to turn it into a Fraudi S6?
“… Crown Vic was restyled from its previous aero-style to this look back in 1997…”
Actually, Ford took the Mercury’s more formal roof line, no re-tool needed. Just put Ford front clips on Grand Marquis, and voila! “New Styling”.
More like cost cutting, to switch to one roof.
Yep, even with the bigger bolder headlights all they did was reshape the plastic bumper cover to accommodate them, using the same old fenders. The only sheetmetal change was the hood trunklid and the slight retooling of the quarters for the taller taillight cutouts. Pretty effective for how cheap it was, but it sucked all the distinction out of the Mercury variant
The Alley lights are ones on each end of the light bar that point to the sides. The spot lights have a toggle switch on the handle, that is visible in the photo. Some departments, like King Co Wa add one next to the trunk button that is inline with the power supply to the passenger light. That way they can leave the original switch in the on position and control it from the driver’s seat.
The low miles are interesting as right about 105k is when they were usually retired from service by my county, but I have seen a few departments that still retired their cars at 60k though those were often picked up by smaller agencies that couldn’t afford new cars.
As some people have mentioned these could part the seas, but other Panthers were known to do the same back in the day. My Daughter did most of here learning to drive in our dark blue Grand Marquis and she loved watching people freak out, drop their phones, put on their seat belts, and move over. So when it came time to get her own car a P71 was at the top of the list. It also made her a hit with many guys who thought it was soooo cool that she had an ex-police car. Thankfully our county had pretty much given up on the black and white livery and mostly had all white cars. She really likes that center dash location for the trunk release. The wiring for the door panel switch is still present in all of these, but some like this one, have the switch on the door panel too.
This one does have the optional silicone hose package, but they failed to check the box for the limited slip or 3.55 gears.
For a car being used in one of the communities a little southeast of L.A. those specs/options would seem to make sense. Hot and dry weather and lots of traffic…A Ford C-Max could likely handle the same duties just as well. 🙂
Thanks for the lights education. My assumption was wrong!
I drove one of these P71s once, about 20 years ago. The City I worked for had a few former detective cruisers in its general fleet, and I drove one for a few hours to go to an out-of-town meeting.
I liked it a lot – a big, heavy, yet reasonably comfortable and powerful car. In fact, that drive prompted my wife and I to look at a civilian Crown Vic as our next car, which we purchased in 2007. But one thing I preferred about the police version was that durable burlap-inspired upholstery… I remember lamenting that one couldn’t order than on a civilian Crown Vic, though I’d probably be about one out of five people worldwide who would want it.
This is timely. When traveling on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Bedford, Pa., this past weekend, a white one of these passed us. It was sporting Virginia plates, and the driver was a 20-something male.
Can’t say it parted traffic, however, as the Pennsylvania State Police long ago switched over to Ford Explorers. Ford must have a complete monopoly on the police car market in the Keystone State, as not only the State Police, but also municipal police departments, now use Explorers.
There are quite a few P71 Crown Vics in NZ but of course hardly any parts Ive seen ads by people hunting parts for their cars,
Police cars get the shit beaten out of them on a daily basis why anyone would want one is beyond me police cruisers and ex taxis should just go for scrap when their term is over.
I’m kind of amazed at how rapidly these disappeared from the u pull it type junkyards in the wake of their production ending, I used the driveshaft from a P71(high speed rated, solid 1 piece aluminum!) in my Cougar for the manual trans conversion and when I was on the hunt even in in 2013-2014 I didn’t have much to choose from.
I think the average lifecycle of these was something like this: Police fleet – auction – Taxi – junked. A lesser percentage went Police fleet – auction – private buyer(Elwood blues type) drives it’s wheels off – junked. My friend scored a detective one in a nice charcoal grey, a refreshing variant from the usual refrigerator white, and while the car was in remarkably good shape there was just no getting past the low spec police equipment, drilled holes, spotlight and what have you, what he really he wanted/imagined in the P71 was Town Car smoothness and plushiness but with a firmer suspension, what he got really just turned out to be a thirsty gigantic Escort. He ended up selling it off to a relative and bought a accident damaged V6 Camry which ticked all the boxes, he still uses the spare P71s 17” steelies he bought for winter duty on it since they happen to fit.
Jim you are amusing writer. All the counties and the state here have moved on from Crown Vics. We used these along with some old turtle GM cars. I found the Vics to be more powered by the gearing than the motor. We used the LT1 turtle cars to catch runners and to tow equipment. The Vic drove better and didn’t seem to run the battery down if you left to radio on
The only difference between a Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor (CVPI, for short) and a Mercury Marauder is the floor shift and auxiliary gages in the Marauder, versus the column shift in the CVPI, as the floor shifter in the CVPI would interfere with all of the “cop equipment” upfront, such as the radio, computer and shotgun rack. Allegedly, Ford built a civilian Crown Victoria with a “Sport” option, which included the floor-shifted transmission and floor console, but I’ve never actually seen one, even in pictures, let alone in the flesh! Not too surprising, since the market demographic for the “Crown Vic” in civilian livery was somewhere between retired and deceased, LOL! They were generally only seen being driven by old men who still wore a hat inside the car, something most men stopped doing when JFK became President, LOL!
I have owned two police interceptors. You don’t get the “living room sofa on wheels” ride like you do in a regular crown vic. Sometime around 2007 the cars came with the amount of idling hours recorded. (Mine had around 900 hours.) The Ford 4.6 liter V8 is an incredibly durable engine.
Both times I bought one, they were practically giving them away!! 🤪🤪🤪
Nice looking car, I too like the upholstery fabric .
-Nate
Still a few in active duty with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. they just keep going.
It’s interesting how ingrained our responses to certain sights become. These cars have been gone from mainstream police use for some time, but the sight of one still causes me to check my speed….
Hell, it’s been more than 35 years since the RCMP used Chevrolet Impalas (’77-’85 or so) and I still do the same thing on the rare occasions I see one!
These days I’m a lot slower and better behaved so I don’t even notice police cars any more, and it’s likely to be a truck or an SUV anyways. They lack a certain presence somehow.
These cars are transitioning into a 3rd act now, post LEO and livery service use: https://autointerests.com/spec-panther
The local police version had no inside door handles for the rear seat. One year at the local autorama show, the police had a couple of these on display and allowed the public to sit in them. Two teenager guys got into the back seat, and my son’s best friend closed the rear door on them when they weren’t paying attention. I can still hear them yelling “Open the back doors, Bro!” He just walked away laughing his head off. He is now an officer in the California Highway Patrol.
My big issue with the Panther platform is the back seats really weren’t roomy for a car that size. I will never understand why they didn’t take a few inches out of the absurdly sized trunk for more passenger room.
Whole platform was basically built around transporting back seat passengers.
In the wake of a mass shooting that occurred in Nova Scotia in 2020 using a car made to look like a police car, that province has outlawed possession of law enforcement “accessories” (light bars, decals) from used police vehicles. The shooter who impersonated an RCMP officer had also mounted a push bar on the car.
Now in Nova Scotia, used police vehicles can only be owned by authorized individuals (approved by the police force I imagine). The law was enacted in 2022, so it would be unlikely to see a retired police car in a junkyard in that province, according to how I read the announcement.
That was an unusual event for Canada. Not everyday, a private citizen openly replicates an RCMP police car. The fact he was a dentist, may have fooled authorities into thinking what he was doing, was benign.
Several years ago, I was returning to Ottawa, from visiting a friend in Timmins. I detoured to Sudbury, to visit a friend there. Desolate Highway 144 through Northern Ontario pine forests is the direct route, for the 270km drive. Early in the journey, a white Crown Victoria approached from behind, but kept a significant distance. At least 125 metres, with no light bar, or push bar visible.
As the highway generally has very light traffic through several hours of forest, my cruise control was set at about 9 kms/h above the 80 km/h speed limit. The Crown Vic remained far back for at least 30kms. Never approached, remaining at my speed. As it turned off on a side road, I could see its police hub caps. Perhaps a police officer returning home, or making a check up. But he had no interest in me.
Not sure how strict they are in Canada Daniel, but in the US, at an 80km/hour (50 miles per hour) speed limit, only 9km/h over is well within what we call the “Gentlemen’s 10” (10 MPH over the limit) down here.
The police usually won’t even pull you over even if you pass them within the “Gentlemen’s 10”.
We have generally the same police tolerance here for 10km over the speed limit. Certainly, safe, when there is more than one car in highway traffic. Driving the speed limit on highways in Ontario, will get cars lined up behind you.
In this case it felt a bit awkward, just me and this one (potential) police car driving steadily behind me. Usually they speed by you, particularly on a very quiet road, with destinations far apart. Because he was remaining behind me, I thought I might need to lower my speed a bit. After 10 minutes, I saw he had no interest in catching up to me, so I left the cruise control where it was.
My experience in southwestern Ontario is that 15 kph is the accepted tolerance. I drive mostly on 2 lane rural highways where the limit is generally 80 kph (90 in a few counties). I set the cruise to 95 and it seems to be the speed of the traffic.
The P71 package is denoted right there in the VIN, characters 5-7, and like all of these this fine American car was assembled outside of this country. Or our 51st state, depending on who you ask (not me).
A little balance is needed here. Through its production, the LTD Crown Victoria was produced by Ford at several different facilities. At launch, it was built at the Louisville, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Oakville plants. By 1982, Oakville was the sole assembly location, and the following year production was added alongside the Mercury Grand Marquis at St. Louis Assembly in Hazelwood, Missouri. Canadian production shifted from Oakville to St. Thomas Assembly in Southwold, Ontario for 1984 models; the facility would become the exclusive production site a year later, producing the LTD Crown Victoria until 2011.
Ford’s Panther was not a sale success when launched, and due to the economic recession and the gas crisis, many believed that the Panther would be phased out for the smaller, similarly named LTD, based upon the Fox platform. After the recession passed, the cars sales increased enough to add a Panther production plant in 1984 in the US.
When the 1992 Crown Victoria and its Grand Marquis twin were launched, to avoid CAFE fleet average “gas-guzzler” taxes, which were going down due to the Ford SUV/Truck market boom, Ford modified its supplier network so that the Panther could be classified as imports from Canada, effectively removing the full-size sedans from the Ford domestic CAFE fleet (alongside the Ford Mustang V8) and placing them in its imported fleet. The cars were assembled in Canada because assembling them in the US was prohibitive. With the expanding popularity of the SUV, Ford’s average CAFE fleet goals could not be met if it had included the Panther cars, or the popular 5.0 Mustangs.
So, while we are continually ribbed as driving imported cars – they are onlytechnically considered imported cars due to CAFE and the SUV boom. The Panther body has had many different production plants throughout its run in many different North American locations, in both the US and Canada.
The Crown Victoria on the Panther chassis was introduced in 1979 as the LTD CV, later the LTD part of the name was dropped and since 1985 until production ended in 2011 (so the last 27 years of its run) has exclusively been built in Canada and shipped across a border patrolled by the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency on this side and its Canadian equivalent on the other.
Canada is a different country than and distinct to the United States of America. Thus, that makes this car one produced in a foreign country. The EPA and the FTC may claim that Canadian (and Mexican) produced vehicles are “domestic” for their purposes, however that is political and doesn’t actually make those vehicles be produced in any of the 50 states, those factory wages supporting American workers and communities. I somehow doubt you consider a Toyota Sienna or a Honda Accord to be “domestic”, yet they were both designed in the United States and are produced in Kentucky and Ohio, respectively.
Please show a reputable source for the different CAFE rules for domestic vs foreign production of vehicles. I’m always willing to learn new (non-alternative) facts. I really was not aware that manufacturers building in foreign countries are held to different (looser) standards than if those vehicles were built in the USA as you appear to claim.
And before you or anyone decides I’m a domestic brand hater and nitpicker, I currently own five cars I’m fairly happy with – One produced in California for a US based company, one in Ohio for another US based manufacturer, and a Michigander for another well known US manufacturer. The fourth was produced in Indiana by a Japanese-based company and the last was built in England for a company owned by Ford at the time of its build. I’m guessing the first four did far more to support U.S. Americans than the fifth one did.
From https://fbaum.unc.edu/lobby/_107th/126_CAFE_Standards_2/Agency_Activities/NHTSA/NHTSA_Cafe_Overview_FAQ.htm
The rules are different for passenger cars and trucks. There is a statutory “two-fleet rule” for passenger cars. Manufacturers’ domestic and import fleets must separately meet the 27.5 mpg CAFE standard. For passenger cars, a vehicle, irrespective of who makes it, is considered as part of the “domestic fleet” if 75% or more of the cost of the content is either U.S. or Canadian in origin. If not, it is considered an import.
So yeah Ford made the Panther’s imported cars so they would be considered with cars like the Aspire and Festiva. Of course as seen above Canada was considered the 51st state in someways so many Ford sourced many Panther components from other countries to make the content count.
Thank you for the link Scout, that is interesting. So Ford made them count it legally as an import for CAFE rules in apparent contravention of the standards previously set by EPA and FTC that considers vehicles make in Canada as U.S. domestics, i.e. Ford took an an actual physical import from Canada that would be officially counted as a US domestic produced vehicle under previously set policy and then made sure it was actually counted as an import.
I think that’s what I was saying all along. 🙂 That it’s an import, I mean. And now Ford agrees because it benefitted them financially.
Just different definitions from different regulating bodies. I’m certain this isn’t only time that gov’t bodies use different definitions to suit their specific desires.
I’d love to know the original reasoning behind two fleet arrangement. Certainly the domestic mfgs would not have been big on it since they couldn’t use those small captive imports to balance out the larger US built vehicles. I guess the intention could have been the same as when the US gov’t gave Chrysler to Fiat, to force the mfgs to build small cars in the US rather than just import/rebadge them.
Of course I’m guessing they never considered that the mfgs would see the full range of possibilities under the law as written and instead move the large cars to being imports.
Not sure why that reply below didn’t post as a reply to this comment, but also wanted to tell me you’ve got me guessing on what the 5th vehicle in your fleet is. CA – Tesla, OH – Jeep, IN – Subaru and of course the Jag from England.
I would happily drive an imported car assembled in the US, if it was assembled in Detroit to offset the economic devastation that Americans buying imported brands have had on Detroit. Just my opinion.
Here is one source
https://fbaum.unc.edu/lobby/_107th/126_CAFE_Standards_2/Agency_Activities/NHTSA/NHTSA_Cafe_Overview_FAQ.htm
“Are import vehicles treated the same as domestics when it comes to CAFE?
The rules are different for passenger cars and trucks. There is a statutory “two-fleet rule” for passenger cars. Manufacturers’ domestic and import fleets must separately meet the 27.5 mpg CAFE standard. For passenger cars, a vehicle, irrespective of who makes it, is considered as part of the “domestic fleet” if 75% or more of the cost of the content is either U.S. or Canadian in origin. If not, it is considered an import. ”
So yeah Panthers had just enough parts to keep them considered an import for CAFE purposes.
Not sure if that is still the law, but it was for many years back when the Panthers were still in production.
Ex-NYC Taxi, now touring around in Metro Vancouver:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/new-york-city-taxi-1.7058728
Only two still in service in NYC:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/nyregion/taxis-crown-victoria-new-york.html
For what it’s worth, my union includes the Crown Vic on its list of “approved” vehicles, while clearly stating that it is assembled in Canada. 🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️