do ex police cars have any extras?

[McG MkII]

mates looking for a focus st170, seen one on auto trader and says previous owner was south wales police, he reckons police cars are tweeked to give a little more and suspensions are better than standard, while ive heard this been said before im was under the impression when the police were done with it they were reverted back as standard, only got 60k miles on aswell, could this be a nice find or likely to be a rotten egg?

EDIT - just found the ad on auto trader, does state POLICE SPEC

[skodayouth]

mates looking for a focus st170, seen one on auto trader and says previous owner was south wales police, he reckons police cars are tweeked to give a little more and suspensions are better than standard, while ive heard this been said before im was under the impression when the police were done with it they were reverted back as standard, only got 60k miles on aswell, could this be a nice find or likely to be a rotten egg?

EDIT - just found the ad on auto trader, does state POLICE SPEC

Im not sure, it's different in the case of each manufacturer. Some items usually stay with the car, but obviously excludes police equipment, lights e.t.c

Certain police spec cars from some manufacturers have things like:

Re-mapped ECU's

Heavy Duty Suspension and Shock absorbers

Underbody protection (Sump guard)

Heavy duty battery/alternator

Oil Cooler

Dog guard

[faboka vrs]

Its differnent between force. Some force have been known to have their cars mapped some left alone.

I read an article in a vuaxhaul mags months back about police spec cars. Then went on to say some forces with buy vectra vxr's but opt for SRI suspension and wheels. also some are known to not get driving aids.

[AlphaPapa]

I have looked at ex police cars in the past, i think i would avoid it. Its going to have had a very hard life, and all this talk about them being serviced every week i have been told is utter carp and they are serviced like every other car as and when required, but i may be wrong.

Its going to have been driven extremely hard, jumped over speed bumps, driven up curbs, probably had all sorts of criminals and unsavories in the back along with god knows what else. :(

Things like this are normally cheap for a reason!

I would also have a read here; http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=503374

Edited 23 July, 2009 by apinner

[Babs]

They come with more holes

[Phil-E]

They come with more holes

Yeh and a mutilated dash board!

Was in a Modeo cop car about a year ago (giving a statement... nothing dodgy on my part ) and the dash was a mess with big holes and bits of damaged trim where they had wedged a custom bit of trim where the stereo should have been for extra buttons and stuff.

I would give it a thorough looking over and would also get him to have it inspected before he parts with any cash... there could be all sorts of bent bits lurking underneath!

phil

[Babs]

My dad bought an ex-detectives car in Canada back in the 80s and loved it!

Of course, will be entirely different to a Focus ST170 from my fellows in the south Wales fuzz!

[pete8tch]

i was under the impression the spec was generally lower , deleted from normal to keep the costs down.

and if there not they should be . lol.

[skodayouth]

i was under the impression the spec was generally lower , deleted from normal to keep the costs down.

and if there not they should be . lol.

Alot of the Ex Police Volvo V70's are not spartan and have full climate control, leather seats e.t.c

What made me laugh is that they made a big thing in the paper recently on how they were using the top of the range Vauxhall Insignia for motorway patrol rather than the more expensive BMW's etc to save the taxpayer some money

If they had used a Superb 3.6V6 they would have gotten an even faster motor for even less money

[ric04vrs]

A lot of the Ex Police Volvo V70's are not spartan and have full climate control, leather seats e.t.c

as i work in a Volvo dealer , i can safely say that the V70s that we see from the Merseyside police are absolutely hammered, front engine mountings snapped off , aircon damage, new sumps , new engines , new auto and manual boxes

so i would give any ex police vehicle a miss

[faboka vrs]

Regarding servicing. Theirs been a few police tavia's on here. One I remeber had a very good service history. Can't remember the full details now.

[DaveI]

My mate has a Merc Vito ex armed response crew cab van, they apparently forgot to take out the siren and blue lights out of the grill.

[bengie]

i worked in Milton Keynes police station for a while and saw the garages/service schedules and the cars got serviced to buggery!

[P13SST]

9/10 police cars have been in more crashes than you have had hot dinners. Yes they are well serviced, but most are booted from a cold engine. Watch an episode of road wars then ask your self of you want an ex police car...

[jlwah]

My understanding is that the cars will be mechanically identically to normal cars but sometimes with a lower trim level (e.g. bigger engine in a base spec car). As most forces now buy vehicles with a view to selling them on after a set mileage (hence more non-white police cars) no mechanical modifications are carried out (unlike in the Sweeny days!)

As to whether they are worth purchasing, it depends on what they've been used for. Clearly a beat or pursuit car is likely to have had hard life (idling for long periods on motorway bridges, chasing stolen cars, etc. etc - which are not ideal operating conditions), but a covert car may have been used for things like surveillance and might not have been hammered at all or very little.

If vehicles have been used by uniformed officiers, the other thing to watch out for on the inside (apart from holes in the dash) is seat wear. I've seen 25K mile Vectras with the foam showing through the side bolsters worn away by the Kevlar jackets the officers have to wear.

[supersport2]

I'd never have one given! You see the way they re driven and its high mileage servicing! No thanks!

I've just bought a cr170 vrs from Surrey, and the salesman told me that the local force run the same vrs' but with a remap that allows them to do 158mph!

[sms]

and if have any druggie mates then they can spend their free time sniffing the back seats for traces of their druggy friends.

[Leodhasach]

A guy up here has a white Range Rover he bought off Manchester Police, he got it for a song. It's the newish shape as well, with the 4.4 V8.

It was in the garage I used to work at, anf it had stupid miles, 185,000. Still ran/went well though. It didn't have any leather wood or metal interior trim though, all plastic and velour, and no electric luxuries like motorised seats etc. It was more like a Discovery, quite strange. Apparently it's a 'police only' spec not available to the general public.