Cop issue Crown Vic

[79rustyk10]

What do you guys know about them?

What kind of mileage do they get, any issues they have?

been thinking of getting one as I hear they can be pretty cheaply bought, and gas is killing me in my truck. Would like to hear some opinions about living with them daily as I know a few brothers on here are LEO's.

 

[gt1009]

From what I hear the only issue with those is that the transmissions tend to go out quickly due to the stress the cops put on them. But all in all when I was looking at them they seemed pretty reliable and cheep, and pretty peppy with the cop motor, cop tires, cop suspension, etc.

 

[DEMON44]

here in calgary, the city runs all their old ones through the public auction and the cab companies eat them up. and run them.

 

[79rustyk10]

What ive found so far on CL and other places is that they all are at about 100K miles and 5 grand or so for non POS ones. I keep hearing of them goin for between $1500 and $2K from people, that must be at an auction.

 

[Fordum]

With anything used, you pays your money and you takes your chances......

But, if you find a good one, they are great cars. Bear in mind, they probably will not get great gas milage.
Back in the day, they came standard with a 460pi engine. The pi stood for Police Interceptor.
And it was not just a set of initials.
Depending on the year, some of them had special cams, compression ratios, different carbs, fuel pumps, special cranks, and most of them were redlined at least a grand above stock 460s

Some of them came with extra support in the frame, and most of them had positrack to try to transfer more power to the road before the tires lit up.

Several years ago, a guy I knew bought his wife one at auction. About three months later, an impala tried to cut across and hit her head on.

Both cars wound up at the junkyard.
But the impala stayed, the crown vic was driven out there to get a new plastic grill then it went back home.

Nowadays, who knows? I have not looked into them in years.
But, if the transmission fluid was red and did not smell bad, it might be worth a look.

 

[blowedupmotor87]

They are sweet but, their gas mileage isn't all that great! As cars go, they are some thirsty pigs! About 17mpg average (EPA rated) from what I was able to look up.

 

[fallout232]

17 EPA but not in real life, I averaged 13.5 miles per gallon over about 100000 miles, lots of idle time in there which probably killed it some and lots of red line runs. Dont waste your time with anything prior to an 05 model Think 03 up got rack and pinion steering and by 05 most of the early problems with the rack and pinion had worked itself out. Transmissions, not so much of an issue in the newer 05 up crown victorias, We usually retire our cars at around 200k with the first 130k being Patrol service and the last being admin cars and non severe duty use. Check the vin if you want an actual "Police Interceptor" model it will have "P71" located in the vin. As many have said its a crap shoot as to what you are gonna get. Expect the driver seat to be blown out. City owned vehicles will usually be a little tighter since they usually have maintained roads, Sheriff's office and highway patrol expect drive train issues since the roads are usually junk out in the counties and the highway patrol loves busting center medians. If they got better mileage I would say do it but unless you get sub 12 mpg Its not worth it in my opinion. Something most dont think to check is the hour meter included in the newer "05 up" P71's, you hold down the odometer reset button to get to it. You can divide the miles by the total hours to get an average miles per hour the vehicle saw. Might be a good indicator of how hard or how long it was idled over the life of it.

 

[Jeremy_C]

Every Crownvic you see on CL, the seller says it was a detective car, or supervisor car.

You couldn't give me a former patrol car..... those cars go through hell and back on a daily basis. Now, you'll have officers who actually take care of an issued patrol car like it was their own....but others treat them like a rental car.

 

[70jimmy]

A few have had tranny problems but we have seen more issues with rear ends whining. Definitely go for a newer one like has been mentioned.

Gas mileage is not that great as mentioned. Older ones were dogs, not much for acceleration. or top speed,

Newer ones are much better. If the people who drove them at high speed were car guys they knew to back off the gas to let them shift instead of just holding them floorboarded, you would get at least 10 mph faster and its easier on the car.

Yep most front seats will be shot,

 

[K5-Kelly]

For something different we rebuilt a 2004 Crown Vic PI and it lead to us building two more. We started out with white patrol cars that had front offset hits and redid them, they look like this when we were done with them

We used these cars for the movie industry and they sat around more then they worked so we stripped them of their police gear and sold all but one which we still have. Up here in BC, Canada the RCMP put 100K on them and sell them. After doing these cars we learned a few things. They don't do bad mileage if you make sure the engine is running synthetic oil and keep your foot out of it. Also the exhaust manifold studs break if the car has been run through a cold puddle while hot, listen for an exhaust leak. Also if you buy one replace the left rear frost plug which is the block heater as the service garage never changes the coolant and the 'wings' rot off the block heater and when you hammer the pedal it blows the frost plug out. If your not careful the engine overheats you'll spin a bearing and toast the 4.6. 2003 and up are good as the 03's had rack and pinions that were garbarge but by now they have been probably replaced. '03's had the lousy recall rims that would rust, 05's only had a quarter panel mounted antenna, and the 06's had the fly by wire gas pedal. I believe they also went to 17" tires then.
Good cars as they will take alot of abuse. Some have seat mounted side airbags as for transmission troubles yes they could have trouble but the one thing a sevice garage does is service the tranny as they know they get beat on. When we got our first car we had to change the speed sensor on the transmission and service the transmission. Also change the fuel filter and keep an eye on the thermostat as they tend to want to stick open and your fuel mileage goes out the door as the engine runs rich and the check engine light goes on. If you are interested in getting a used PI and they don't use them as a taxi in your own town then parts should be reasonable from the bone yard.

 

[AZ79K5Project]

I'll tell you that most fleet cars ARE driven like rentals. They are driven really hard, abused and repeatedly taken to the limit most of their lives. These also spend a LOT of time sitting idling which doesn't show on the odometer.

You can get a great car IF it came from a fleet where the car was issued and not a general use car. Guys that drive it home generally take much better care of them.

 

[79rustyk10]

Ive done some more looking at them and decided against it after hearing more about them from you guys. Just not worth it for what they cost around here. Ive been looking at getting a Chevy Cobalt or a Focus for gas mileage car, so I can have more of a budget for truck stuff.

 

[K85 Octane]

I'd never drive one of those as a DD.

1) Looks like a cop car
2) Bad gas millage
3) looks like a cop car

 

[euzoa]

I'd never drive one of those as a DD.

1) Looks like a cop car
2) Bad gas millage
3) looks like a cop car

My buddy has one, he says there are two types of people, the oh crap a cop (get out of the way) kind, and the oh crap a cop (slow down but don't move over) kind, far more of the latter.

He also had issues getting parts, had to go through the dealer (then again he wasn't very bright)

 

[77 casa grande]

I never liked Fords, but theres got to be a reason Crown Vic's make up the bulk of the New York City taxi fleet. These guys drive them to death, then keep swaping parts into another until nothings left. I have noticed alot of them blowing smoke though. Don't know if its just poor maintaince or a engine design flaw.

 

[6.2Blazer]

78Buford has had many of these over the years and used them as DD's. Not sure what year his current one is but it has over 200K on it with no major issues.....I drove it and was quite surprised how solid it felt and how well it ran. Think he paid around $300-$400 for it at a government auction.

 

[blazin' j]

U can also check out eBay for 06 & up police chargers...most are detective cars with less than 100,xxx miles but they sell for between $8000-$11,000...don't look for any kind of v8 if ur concerned with gas mileage...

 

[owenst7]

I'd never drive one of those as a DD.

1) Looks like a cop car
2) Bad gas millage
3) looks like a cop car

Do you watch "The League"? Pretty funny episode where one of the guys starts driving one and gets girls numbers and stuff cuz everyone thinks he's a cop.