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Gary,
Aaah, Gary, I guess this is the part where I jump on you -
Okay ..I'm open for abuse. I can take it. It's part of my "neanderthal-'ic" heavy duty American persona.
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I clearly should have known better than to challenge you.
Why? This isn't a competition. It's discussion and that includes opinions and impressions. You are surely invited to change mine
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You obviously have a vastly superior knowledge than I do of life and the automotive world in general.
No, probably not. I would term it "automotive wisdom" and knowing people ..systems ...groups ..segments ..
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This is apparant by your postings that I continue to be unable to decipher (what is "SBC" and "SBF"?)
Small Block Chevy - Small Block Ford (include any and all mainstay engines that were used over multiple platforms and in various combinations over many years ..and their successors that also served many millions of miles over a broad demographic and service duty).
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If you watched the video on the link I posted earlier (you did watch the video, didn't you?), you would have seen that Ford has done the equivalant of 1 million miles durability testing on the engine, and it didn't hand grenade.
There's a problem that all kinds of durability testing runs into ..time. They compress time as required in the R&D phase. It always leaves out way too many X factors. Ford itself left the recommendation for 5w-20 intact for the CVPI and was unprepared for units that never got the oil checked between shift and were subjected to, literally, 24+ hours of high speed operation. Consumption was part of that service and a few engines grenaded as a result. The engine itself, obviously, was very durable.
Police officers/troopers aren't unit owners (typically). They're mule whippers if need be.
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And if you don't think that the police market is anything but a competition, you really don't know what you're talking about. Ever since the 90's Caprice left the police market in 1996, Ford has been the segment leader. Yeah, they've continued to lose market share since Dodge introduced the Charger, but they still own 70% of the police car market.
This assumes that the Charger has any longer life in being produced. I don't think that it will. If you're old enough, you may recall the all time KING of police units ..the 1973-74 Fury III with the 440 Super Commando engine. 140+ certified mph capability. After its retirement due to a fuel embargo or two ..the engine was down to a 360 ..and then Chrysler reinvented itself to nothing above a 4 cylinder except in pickup trucks.
That is, I predict that it will be a chicken /egg scenario. Will the Charger be retired due to the new wizbang Taurus or would it have been retired anyway due to lack of demand which would have left the CVPI the last man standing ..like the Mustang did throughout the inevitable roller coasters in economics and everything else?? Muscle cars came and went ..in production ..out of production ..but you could always buy a Mustang in high output trim (except the Pinto versions).
Again, I don't necessarily have the "knowledge" ..but I've seen trends and outcomes.
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As long as they've been making police cars, and with the reputation the Crown Vic has earned, they probably aren't all that eager to just give up and put out a piece of junk so they can call it quits and go home.
Like Chevy did with retiring the Caprice? No top this there. Just stopped.
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Why do you think the Charger has been doing so well? It's because its' performance blows away the CVPI and Impala.
So? Where would that be a critical aspect in the full scope of selecting a police unit? There was a time when highway police units had to use Mustangs where traffic/pursuit duty made the high speed capability a mandate. There was no production model capable enough to do the job. Did police depts nationwide start buying Mustangs as their standard use units? Of course not.
Dated or not, the CVPI was a great success. I can see no successor having such distinction when all things are taken into account. I see only trouble with a more complex and tweaked power plant.
Now if one wants to adopt some European theme to police units ..more specific duty units, and abandon the simplicity of "one size fits all" streamline approach to fleet maintenance, then fine. A police garage can have everything from decked out Smart-Car's to Suburbans ..parked right next to the light equipped pedal bike units.
..and, yes, time will tell. I hope that they REALLY built this thing to the same standard that the CVPI was. I anticipate growing pains in the transition. I hope that I'm wrong.
There was a reason why Russians made a cheap MIG. It took only a few months to build. Our fighters took 13months. In an all out competition, they could afford 16:1 losses. The spare parts required to keep our superior fighter fleet intact and fully operational would be on back order until the conflict was long over.
