I'm contemplating putting the van away for the winter and buying a beater. Are these Ex Cop cars any good? Says Police interceptor on the trunk lid It would be around $1,500 U.S. Was not used as a cruiser, no holes in dash from equipment. It's got traction control and antilock and has snows on it already. https://montreal.craigslist.org/ctd...-crown-victoria/6987110052.html?lang=en&cc=us
For the most part Crown Vics are bulletproof. Body on frame, V8, RWD. Not the fastest but sturdy. Common are a few issues-wiper modules and lighting control modules (GEM Modules?) (there was a recall/service campaign on one if not both). The cooling fan assembly is failure prone and expensive. The A/C control can have issues with its vacuum ports, and the Interceptors carry an expensive clutched 200 amp alternator. Also, some years had failure prone intakes, but that one should have the improved intake with metal coolant crossover. I’d be curious why that one has one cheesy chrome wheelwell trim piece, not four... Patrick I don’t speak french, but are gonflables good? It has a lot of them!
gonflables are Airbags. Front and side. I know, sounds like a diet cream for your thighs. They never had the chrome wheel well trim as cop cars, It's probably covering rust or accident damage.
None of the panther cars had chrome wheel arch trim but that didn’t stop people from adding the cheap stick-on junk. MyMIL’s Grand Ma(rquis) had them, along with a landau roof and chrome rocker trim, but it was too good a deal to pass up. Patrick
If you're good with RWD instead of all wheel or front wheel, a better car for your purpose you will not find. There's a reason they are (were?) used as NYC taxi cabs, police cruisers, and limos (as Lincoln Town Cars). They're damn near indestructible.
Thanks for all the feedback! I have to sell my wife on the concept as she likes to sit higher in the van, but hates parking it. I don't imagine she will have any better luck parking the Ford.
Don't put too much faith in the traction control for winter driving.....especially if you have hills. In my opinion its useless and I shut it off when I was driving those RWD Ford beasts. I know before FWD everyone had RWD and got around in winter and I was a hold out for awhile but really, there's no comparison to a FWD with winter tires. Look how much mass is in front of the rear wheels that you have to push with one rear wheel. You can load the trunk with some tube sand which will help. If I was buying a winter beater, it'd have to be FWD or AWD.
A set of winter tires will help immensely. At one time, both the son's had Panther's. With REAL snow tires, they're great.
The cops around here all run Blizzak DM-V2 tires on them. I never saw one stuck, and we actually get real snow here.
What I can say about those cars, and I can't stress this enough, is they are DOGS. I know you aren't looking for a monster for a winter beater, but just be aware of what you are getting into. Otherwise I agree with what others have said. Good snow tires make a night and day difference in how a car drives in the winter. Also if it doesn't have posi, that is a good upgrade for winter driving.
I’ve only ever driven RWD cars daily (built 1954-1972 mostly) with 1 exception. Cars built on Fords panther platform are very rugged. I agree with everyone. Good all season tires, sandbags in the trunk, and it should just need gas and oil. A tip though, reflash the ecm for fuel economy. It makes the gas less touchy, shift lower, and lower your power output a bit. I did that to my GMC Sierra 4wd and it helps when plowing through snow or slick roads
The former police cars have their ups and downs. They are well maintained for the most part. You may occasionally run across a slack agency when it comes to vehicle maintenance but most agencies require vehicles to be serviced by policy every so many miles. Anything with wear is replaced long before it’s actually needed etc. There is a lot of liability in operating emergency vehicles so typically they are well maintained. All those records should be available and in writing too. The down side to these cars is they are driven very hard. Running code and driving from call to call puts a lot of hard miles on a vehicle. Anyone whose done it will completely understand. Avoid former cars assigned to patrol as that’s where the most hard driving is done. Try to get a former command staff car especially or a former detective car. Not to say these don’t see hard driving and running code, it’s just way less bc those cars are not typically call responsive every day.
Another thing that NOBODY has mentioned is the Police Interceptor specific cars. They have different chassis, rear doors, specific wiring components, etc that are not on standard Crown Vic's. If it is a 'standard' Crown Vic that was used by PO PO, that would be ok. 2005 was the first year of the drive by wire throttle control, if I recall...
That's news to me, and I worked on the things for the Police department and many, many civilian Panther chassis cars during my years at Ford. We did do the recalls to the Police cruisers after they were having the rear end explosion things happening, and that was adding padding to the diff cover and fuel tanks. As far as I know and remember, chassis was identical, as were the doors except had different mechanisms inside. I've had a few buddies buy them and use them as regular old cars. Main differences was oil coolers and no speed limiter, and all of the Police Interceptors had dual exhaust, but you could get that on a regular civilian car with the tow package as well.
Lucas, Measure the rear doors on a TRUE Police Interceptor; they are about two inches longer than standard. The drive by wire throttle sender is different. The entire dash harness is different. look where the rear defroster button is. Several other things on the dash harness as well. (At least this was true on the 1998 -2002 cars...) We were trying to do a harness swap and NOTHING matched up. I know about the design change when they went to the rack and pinion vs old school ball and sector change where they moved some component to the center under the carpet below the radio.
I got tricked by the longer wheelbase. I needed a used rocker molding for my mother in law’s Grand Marquis and grabbed one off a yellow CV in the PullAPart. Turns out it was built as a taxi, not just an old CV painted yellow. It was about three inches too long. (Anyone need one?) That said, I don’t recall seeing a long wheelbase in the Atlanta area used as a cop or detective’s car, but maybe I didn’t notice. I dealt with a lot of cabbies who were using ex Atlanta city police cars as taxis, and the only issue I ran across (that mattered) was the alternator being expensive. The Interceptors (especially detectives’ cars) are very popular in Georgia, both with rural older folks and younger urban folks. Patrick
One of the great American sedans. Having said that, you can get a good one or a bad one depending on how they were treated. There was a torque converter issue with some of the big RWD Fords, but it wasn't something that would leave you stuck. If the oil was changed once in a while the 4.6 engine was indestructible.
