Where is the best place to find a P71 these days?

One of my newly-minted 16-year-olds is starting to look for a job and will need his own set of wheels. He seems to have developed some affection for P71s. He didn't get it from me, I've never been a Panther fan. Nevertheless, there's something to be said for something large, cheap, and relatively simple to fix and find parts for when dealing with a teen driver.

I've poked around a bit online at things like police auctions, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of them around. Could be because police departments around here (SE Michigan) started going to Chargers a few years ago, so they may have already rotated their Crown Vics out. There's a dealership in the Detroit area that has a bunch on CL, he's clearly buying them somewhere and reselling them. So I'd like to bypass the middle man, if possible. Local is good, of course, but I don't mind traveling a bit, especially if it gets us something with less rust.

So, where should I look?

Q: Best place to find P71?

A: Doughnut Shop???

This place in Minneapolis always has a selection of them for sale, although they don't have as many Crown Vics as they used to. Their prices are probably at the high end, but the cars look to be nice ones. http://www.xgovernmentcars.com

JohnRW1621 wrote: Q: Best place to find P71? A: Doughnut Shop???

Shoot, you should have looked in my mirrors when I was 19. There were TONS of them...

Someplace outside of the rust belt. A fly and drive is worth the extra cost in broken fasteners alone.

I think Aussie bought like 7 of them from a Las Vegas auction. TnT I think.

Oddly enough, I'd do a fly and drive on an older civilian Panther as a first car. With the money you could spend on a P71, you could get a 98-02 whale from Atlanta or Jacksonville, have a blast on the drive up, and then throw on some KYB Gas-A-Justs, JY PI heads and intake, MZT, Ford Performance $250 Trac-lok and 3.73s, and have more power than a P71 with a more comfortable ride. I bet someone on this forum would be willing to lend their pair of eyes if you see anything really interesting.

G_Body_Man wrote: Oddly enough, I'd do a fly and drive on an older civilian Panther as a first car. With the money you could spend on a P71, you could get a 98-02 whale from Atlanta or Jacksonville, have a blast on the drive up, and then throw on some KYB Gas-A-Justs, JY PI heads and intake, MZT, Ford Performance $250 Trac-lok and 3.73s, and have more power than a P71 with a more comfortable ride. I bet someone on this forum would be willing to lend their pair of eyes if you see anything really interesting.

just to clarify, the panthers got PI heads in 2001, so 98-00 are the ones you could swap PI heads onto, i just dont want to see anyone buy an 01-02 car and swap perfectly good heads

Not really interested in any mods, just a solid, reliable first car for the boy. I'd prefer the 03-up cars for the better front suspension and just general newer-ness.

So, no tips on auctions? I guess the TnT thing is an option, but I literally just did the drive home from Vegas and don't care to repeat it again so soon.

In reply to edizzle89:

Ahh yup, never mind. Sometimes I'm not quite all there.

Around these parts? Any meth cooking operation

There are two types of people who drive P71's around here. Spun out tweakers and the guys who dress like they are SWAT every day but clearly aren't

You know they type. moustache, matching cap, 5 or six multitools, knives and oversized phone holsters on the belt. At least they keep their panthers clean, unlike the tweakers.

A co-worker is shopping for a p71 as a donor car. We have met some ridiculously unsavory characters in the last few weeks. I have never had this experience car shopping before. Jumpy dudes who have smoked their teeth out of their heads and open carry tacticool guys who are always trying to menace you.

10 out of 10 sellers we met at fit either of these descriptions.

Yeah, when Mr. Regular reviewed a P71, he made a lot of sport of the wannabe-cop types.

Govdeals.com

What about finding a Grand Marquis at an estate sale that was only driven to church and the market by grandma?

I'll second govdeals.com. I picked up a 06 with 109K on it for $1300. It has been outstanding so far.

NGTD wrote: Govdeals.com

Thanks! Looks like some good prospects on there.

Tom_Spangler wrote:

NGTD wrote: Govdeals.com

Thanks! Looks like some good prospects on there.

No problem. I almost scooped a retired ambulance off there for $450 CAD, with a 7.3 Powerstroke, but it got bid up in the last hour.

OK, I made the mistake of going down the govdeals rabbit hole. Apparently you can even get things not available on EBay :

Smart 5-0

Car not driven in over a year . I'm guessing this was the penalty box car or something ....

In reply to XLR99:

Dare car for PR stuff. That seems expensive for what it is but sure would be cool with bike engine power.

Govplanet.com has a bunch of Impala PPV cars up for auction.

Be careful of the impala ppv's they go through transmissions.

https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=Main.Item&itemid=30&acctid=2717

The P71 groups on social media (FB) have people posting sales pretty often. Some are plane jane, some are loaded to the brim with lights, sirens, and a cage, and some have been converted to zombie-apocolypse ATVs.

I found mine on the local CG and has been very reliable.

N Sperlo wrote: The P71 groups on social media (FB) have people posting sales pretty often. Some are plane jane, some are loaded to the brim with lights, sirens, and a cage, and some have been converted to zombie-apocolypse ATVs. I found mine on the local CG and has been very reliable.

FB groups, that's a good idea. I just found one not too far away, actually.

I live a half mile from the nation's largest former police car dealer. Chicago Motors

They have a 2008 P71 with only 6800 miles on it in stock - asking $13k - which is a bit high, but try finding another one.

They also have a number of higher mileage examples available for less. If you are planning on registering it in Michigan they should be able to do the paperwork in a way that you don't have to pay the Illinois sales tax and instead pay the Michigan sales tax.