Ex-Police Vehicles?

Experiences, thoughts? There are some attractive prices on 2007+ Tahoe PPVs and they look awesome

I want one.

I just looked at buying one myself. The GMT900 chassis is nicely improved with boxed frame, Rack and pinion steering and coils at all 4 corners. PPV 2WD have all the good parts for handling and braking with the only concern being the cylinder deactivation AFM needing attention. I ended up with a BMW X5 more due to my wife liking how it was to drive.

What are your plans for use?

These and the 4x4 "Special Service" variants have had my attention for a while. I'm more likely to purchase the 4x4 special service, if I were to get any.

I really can't see a downside to these, other than the use they get. However, I've talked to a few local police and they apparently take better care of these than their old cruisers because many of them plan to buy them for themselves after the vehicles leave fleet service.

Dad and I ran the old 9C1's. His was over 350k miles, I sold mine to a friend at 220k miles. Solid vehicles. You have to remember, these are used a lot, but they are also usually very well maintained.

Bobzilla wrote: Dad and I ran the old 9C1's. His was over 350k miles, I sold mine to a friend at 220k miles. Solid vehicles. You have to remember, these are used a lot, but they are also usually very well maintained.

That is sort of what I was thinking as well, lots of use but also proper maintenance.

True the maintenance is usually quite good and a lot of the miles are easy cruising miles and tons of idling more than hard pursuit and emergency runs.

Strip the interior. Do not use any on the interior carpeting or seating from a patrol car. If you can find a FD or detective car get that.

Seriously, drunks regularly soil themselves in the back of a patrol car on the way to the drunk tank.

I'd not hesitate to purchase another personally.

They idle alot. During any given year mine was running almost non stop 12 hours a day for six months. That doesn't take into account off duty jobs etc..

I may have only drove 100 miles in a shift but that was over 12 hours of running.

I would love to have one but they are out of my price range.

pimpm3 wrote: They idle alot. During any given year mine was running almost non stop 12 hours a day for six months. That doesn't take into account off duty jobs etc.. I may have only drove 100 miles in a shift but that was over 12 hours of running.

The P71s have a hour meter on them. I was surprised that mine only has 2100 hours on it.

In reply to Ojala:

Can't be worse than your average minivan!

The brake fade is strong with this one. Don't ask me how I know.

They do get up and get moving pretty quick.

Watch the Active Fuel Management - there have been a few threads about it on here lately.

City cars are often run in to the ground with low mileage. Transmissions and brakes get used up.

Highway patrol cars are usually a better buy albeit high miles.

I bought a 2005 one (last generation) and just sold it due to frame rust from the Northeast with only 60K miles.

I looked at the 2007+ SSV ones at auction recently and ultimately chose a 2008 Expedition with low miles. The cylinder deactivation time bomb, coupled with more of a tenancy to rust vs what I saw on the Fords is what made me go to an SSV Expedition vs SSV Tahoe

No squad car will have carpet, unless it was a fluke on the fleet order form. You will get rubber floors.

Being well maintained and how they are driven depends on the agency. My previous agencies abused cars and never did routine maintenance other than the occasional oil change and they were pool cars so they were abused. My current agency actually takes care of the cars plu they are take homes so they are in pretty good shape even with high mileage. You still couldn't give me an Impala what a sad excuse of a patrol car.

Our local PD loves the Impala.

The Impala is/was the cheapest available. It's too small, uncomfortable, and always breaking down. They also love to overheat.

The impalas suck as patrol vehicles. No room, terrible A/c and transmissions. My agency buys them because they are the cheapest.

Its a little better now that i have an unmarked car. At least i have some legroom without the cage.

We are allegedly getting fords interceptors and explorers for patrol. Investigations are getting fusions. I will believe it when i see it.

On the subject of 9C1 Impalas overheating, GM had this to say as it introduced the 2013 models – in Tucson in August, as it happens (from an article in "Police Fleet Manager"):

On the topic of the heat of Tucson, GM Fleet gave an update on Impala 9C1 cooling issues. First, the cooling fan problem. Electric relays that control the fan motors were originally mounted under hood in a black box — without ventilation. Under hot ambient conditions during periods of extended idling, the fan relays would overheat and fail. This shut off power to the electric radiator fans. GM fixed this two ways. First, the relay was upgraded to a heavier duty circuit. Second, the relays were moved to the cowl, away from the under hood area, where it is both cooler and ventilated.

The second cooling issue is the HVAC that overheats at idle under hot ambient conditions, overloads and shuts off. The fix was to get more air into the condenser coils, which keeps the whole system cooler. Again, two solutions: One is a higher watt electric fan that forces air across the condenser. It was bumped up from 225 watts to 300 watts. The other is a baffle redesign. The baffle that moves air into the condenser was revised, including the elimination of any air gaps. With the new baffle, all the forced air does indeed cross the HVAC cooling condenser.

Our fleet keeps cooling fans in stock. They go out every year during the summer like clockwork. Thankfully we have almost gotten rid of the Impalas for patrol only a handful left. Replaced them with the Caprice and Tahoe.

I was wondering if a black/white paint job in Florida had something to do with it, but apparently the Jacksonville color scheme doesn't use black.