Ford's New Twin-Turbo Police Interceptor>?

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As much as I dislike GM, I think they have it right with the Caprice and a V8. IMO a RWD V8 would have been the way to go for Ford. FWD and a Twin Turbo V6, two strikes against it for Police use. JMO

As I said before, time will tell. If I had to guess, I'd say Ford make a major mistake with this one.
 
And I would assume that with the AWD, when one tire is damaged and is unrepairable, that all four tires must then be replaced.

Gee, there's a quick $800 that most municipalities just don't have sitting around.
 
Good old fashioned RWD can`t be beat! Cars should be kept simple with no computers and electronic gadgets.
 
Originally Posted By: HangerHarley

Police are the worst offenders of driving cars "poorly" but then again, its not their $$. logical choice, to be a Fords. Even if it does look cool and can out-accelerate an A6 V8 4.2... Id rather have the Audi.


My dad was disappointed when his '96 Caprice bit the dust. High speed chase on a street with major dips destroyed the undercarriage.

Sure, the Crown Vic would actually make a u-turn instead of making a 3 point turn but when you stabbed the skinny pedal on the right, the upside down bathtub would move out. The Crown Vic? Meh....
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He did like his Tahoe. More than the CVPI. But then again he is a pickup truck guy. If they put a light bar on a Tundra or Silverado he would have loved that.
 
FWD police cars haven't seemed too promising in the past, but I hope this one works for Ford. We'll soon see, the only thing this has on the Vic is power for now.

BTW I agree, if I owned the Ecoboost, it would be synthetic only!
 
Originally Posted By: panthermike
FWD police cars haven't seemed too promising in the past, but I hope this one works for Ford. We'll soon see, the only thing this has on the Vic is power for now.


Many cities (ie: Dallas)have a "no pursuit" or "partial pursuit" policy. No PIT manuevers. No wrong way traffic pursuits. Nothing. You radio ahead and use stop sticks when you can. (State Troopers have no such rules. They will shoot the tires or the engine of a fleeing suspect. If the suspect catches some of the 00 shot, oh well. Shouldn't have been running)

In those cities, they could use Chevy Cobalts or Ford Focuses (Foci?). CVPI, Tahoe, and Hemi Charger are overkill. Can't use them for what they are best at anyway.
 
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Good old fashioned RWD can`t be beat! Cars should be kept simple with no computers and electronic gadgets.


And mileage would drop 25%.
 
Face it, the Crown Vic is a orphan, the 4.6 is going bye-bye, the tooling ancient, and almost no one other than fleets, livery and a few old people (Mercury Marquis) buy them.

Ford is moving in a new direction and need to spend the $$ on car and truck platforms that will sell to the public and be profitable. If they loose some of the police market, so what?...they were making money selling a 30+ y/o platform, investing billions in new tooling just wouldn't make any sense.
 
I think the issue Drew200 is not the profitability of the platform, as I am sure many police jurisidicitons would continue to buy the Vic. The issue I believe is meeting CAFE standards, with which over time the venerable 4.6 would fall by the wayside. That is why I think they are going with the turbo...increased power at a fuel savings over a naturally aspirated engine. Since they get rid of the cars after around 100,000 miles, long term reliability of the system isn't an issue for the police market. And who knows? Maybe these turbos will be more robust than others of the past.
 
We've gone through this before. There was a "Dark Ages" in pursuit vehicles when the Fury III with the 440 Super Commando went bye-bye ..the LTD that replaced it was about as useful as udders on a bull and was short lived as a police vehicle. At one point a (would be) SUV was about the only thing that could be used for police ..and even something like a funeral home. All the decent sized sedans were not viable in the market.

I think that this will be a learning curve for the industry. Perhaps Ford does have the ability to buffer for ultra severe duty on the suspension/drive train that police duty requires. The RWD was a natural for this in that it pretty much divorced the engine/trans from the whole environmental abuse aspect of police service. FWD/AWD? It's all integrated. You rip out one of the corners on the thing, you're into REAL $$$$.
 
If I'm way off base, someone please edumacate me.

Turbos are used on OTR truck engines and last many hundreds of thousands of miles before needing repair/rebuild/replacement. They're also used extensively on off-road construction machinery like bulldozers and backhoes and what-not, with little issue.

If Ford designed the Interceptor package correctly, why would this EcoBoost motor not hold up under police use for a reasonable time?

Mind you, I don't think all-wheel drive is the best package for police use either, but it's still better than wrong-wheel drive. I was just wondering why people don't think the motor will hold up...

I agree that the CVPI and the 9C1 Impala (until '97) were the best darn police cars made in the last 20 years.
 
Originally Posted By: ChuckBerry
I think the issue Drew200 is not the profitability of the platform, as I am sure many police jurisidicitons would continue to buy the Vic. The issue I believe is meeting CAFE standards, with which over time the venerable 4.6 would fall by the wayside. That is why I think they are going with the turbo...increased power at a fuel savings over a naturally aspirated engine. Since they get rid of the cars after around 100,000 miles, long term reliability of the system isn't an issue for the police market. And who knows? Maybe these turbos will be more robust than others of the past.


No, it is exactly about profitibility and sustainability. At the numbers that will be required moving forward there is no way that the orphaned platform can be maintained. New tooling is required as an ongoing thing with any vehicles being manufactured. If every police dept in the country bought exclusively CV's there still wouldnt be enough demand to keep even one line operational. As it is with new competition entering the market, the numbers that would have been sold in 2012 would be even lower than previous years. Keeping that single platform alive for this market alone would be financially ignorant on Fords part.

Suggestions that Ford could easily continue to produce the CV in small numbers for a small market ignore facts that cant be changed and offer a simplistic view of what it takes to make a car from scratch. Supplier issues alone and the un availability of certain parts make this proposition very difficult at best...and expensive to be sure. It's all about the numbers.
 
Well, being a COP, I can tell you a few things.

Turbo applications don't work for police. We were given a Turbo Volvo for a while and it didn't work. Too much LAG and we don't maintain vehicles enough let alone with Turbo. Get if fixed, get it fast and get it cheap. With all that stop, go and hard driving, we'll burn those turbo's in no time.

Even though the 4.6 was underpowered for the current Vic, it is bulletproof. Reliable and tough, needed about 60 more horse's to do the trick, but those cars start all the time and you can absolutely pound the [censored] out of them. And they will run on anything. Cheap oil and cheap gas, not premium fuel for turbo's and synthetic.


As per synthetic oil in our cruisers, good luck. Your lucky if we change the cheap bulk in them every 10,000 Km's. I think that you will see a lot of agencies going with the rear wheel drive Caprice. Normally aspirated is better suited for police/taxi applications.

And cabbies, who buy the most our our used cars anyway wont touch a used and abused turbo. But they will buy an abused V-8.
 
Originally Posted By: westcoaster
Turbo applications don't work for police. We were given a Turbo Volvo for a while and it didn't work. Too much LAG and we don't maintain vehicles enough let alone with Turbo. Get if fixed, get it fast and get it cheap. With all that stop, go and hard driving, we'll burn those turbo's in no time.


Your experience with the turbo Volvo isn't applicable to the EcoBoost 3.5. For one, there is no turbo lag with the 3.5. None. It's torque curve would makes a ~6.0L N/A V8's look peaky. The EcoBoost turbos are also water cooled.
 
Originally Posted By: Spazdog


Many cities (ie: Dallas)have a "no pursuit" or "partial pursuit" policy. No PIT manuevers. No wrong way traffic pursuits. Nothing. You radio ahead and use stop sticks when you can. (State Troopers have no such rules. They will shoot the tires or the engine of a fleeing suspect. If the suspect catches some of the 00 shot, oh well. Shouldn't have been running)

In those cities, they could use Chevy Cobalts or Ford Focuses (Foci?). CVPI, Tahoe, and Hemi Charger are overkill. Can't use them for what they are best at anyway.


In Miami-Dade and Broward County we still have chases...Generally at least twice a month and they use the pit maneuver all the time...Some chases start in North Broward and end in downtown Miami or Miami Beach...There was one today in Oakland Park.

The FHP has no chase policy for Organcycles only..They decided instead of chasing them at 140MPH [as alot of innocent motorists have been injured and killed down here in the past] just let them kill themselves...That really does happen alot and some get decapitated.

The Leos down here in the jungle will keep getting their CVPI,Charger Hemi and Tahoe like they are now.
 
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