What type of vehicle is a New York cop car?

[marcsmojo]

Hi all - you will not believe what I've just seen - a NY cop car roaming down the back streets of Reading! So cool, I want to buy one later in life. Who knows what make/model they are? It looked pretty retro. Awesome.

[Impret-Sir]

I believe most of them were Crown Victorias

[v64paul]

a FORD crown victoria or, if you are a blues brothers fan, a dodge monaco. in any case, not a subaru...

[Skids]

Depends on the age of the car you saw. Modern NYPD cars are either the Ford Crown Victoria or Chevrolet Caprice. Although, other models have been used, they even had Ford Mustangs as highway patrol cars. The US police/sheriff cars you see over here are generally standard cars made up to look like cop cars. True cop cars have uprated engines, suspension and special interiors plus other extras.

[Impret-Sir]

The special car crime units in this country use Subarus v6paul, for example Manchester's Tactical Vehicle Crime Unit, as shown on BBC1 on Wednesday evenings, they know that not much will get away from them when they are driving one of those!

[wduk2005]

like everyone has said i think most likely to be a crown victoria, but i would think it was a real de-commisioned one as your allowed to have all the graphics left on if its not being used in america, plus it'd be a lot cheaper to get one tuned up with graphics then do it yourself. only problem is they have loads of holes in the dash where all they're equiptment and central computer once was.

I've always wanted one myself n i live right next to reading so hopefully might see it one day

[v64paul]

was waiting for that one impret-sir! yes, i saw that too. the chase with the mazda was a bit of a let down... i always think that having that green imprezza makes it even less of a stealth car, i cant think of another i've seen in that colour. kinda suits it though. performance blue is best left on an st 220 or even an st tdci....

[Coobeastie]

And of course two blokes wearing flakjackets and talking into walkietalkies doesn't look suspicious at all. Som much for being undercover.

[DirtyHabit]

After Chevrolet stopped making V8 rear wheel drive Caprice (1996), most Police dept had little choice other than to buy the Ford Crown Victoria P71. P71 was the Police version having strengthed frame, dual exhaust, disc brakes all round and a few other go fast goodies. It was around this time that NYPD changed the colour of thier cars from blue to white. The story goes that because Chevy had stopped producing police cars, Ford's order booked doubled and to speed up the line, they produced only white P71's for quite a while. Now you can order one in any of the Ford colours.
Some of the cars you find in the UK are just standard cars dressed up as NYPD cars, so if you ever fancy buyinga Crown Vic, just look at the VIN to see if the 5th-7th digits are P71.
What do I drive everyday???? A NYPD Crown Victoria and I love it. Have a look here www.copsandcabbies.com