Hi all,

Just bought an ex police car. Think it was traffic branch. There are a few buffs, scrapes and dents as can be the case with a cop-vehicle. Have sourced second hand parts to fix this.

Can anyone advise me on some basic styling tips. Lights, interior, sound maybe? It's a 140bhp but my mechanic reckons it has been remapped as a police vehicle. Any engine mods people can advise??

Also, has anyone any tips for removing adhesive residue? Masses of it all over the car from removing the stickers and strips etc. It's an '06 model and cost me £3,300. is that a good deal?

Thanks in advance.

the adhesive residue is difficult to remove

i used to de-sticker RAC vans

u need plenty of cloth and petrol is the best it softens it then starts to wipe off eventually

be patient do 1 panel at a time of it just dries again

ex Police usually = been to the moon and back, ragged within an inch of it's life from shift to shift and generally driven with utter contempt. White spirit will remove the adhesive residue but if it's had cellulose based paint repairs at any point (SMART/touch up stuff) it'll normally take those off as well, the same is true of any solvent. As for it being a good deal only time will tell, it all depends how many miles and how much work it will need and how trashed the interior is from the 'screw it into the dash it'll be fine' mentality and what it'll need to keep it on the road while you own it

Welcome to Briskoda. Only one thread per topic, please. The other thread has been merged with this one and the identical post then deleted.

WD40 is good for removing adhesive.I used it to remove the baked on glue from my plastic headlamps on the MX5 when I removed the beam deflectors after my European trip last year. When I peeled them off the glue was left behind. WD40 did the job nice and easy with no damage/discolouration to the plastic.

Police cars tend to be in good condition in regards to the engine. In West Yorkshire they have full services every 6 weeks to ensure that they last a long time. So even if its been ragged everywhere its still been looked after.

Surrey Police cars are very well looked after and the drivers here do seem to respect the cars. I see them from time to time and they are usually well cared for, clean, and highly maintained. Even with the high miles they still feel nice and tight. It wouldn't bother me buying a Skoda ex-police car, but service it a soon as you get it as they only get rid of them when they need work doing on them. The unmarked cars are pretty much completely left standard in the interior, you might find a couple of holes in the glovebox, ashtray and the coke can holder in front of your right knee, also sometimes they mount the switches for the lights in the armrest.

id say u got a good deal

Ex-Police cars are a complete lottery I'm afraid.

BAD POINTS:

You can pretty much guarantee it's been in some sort of crash at some point in it's life. There are very few police cars that are un-bumped. If it's a formerly marked 140bhp then it's highly unlikely it has been used by traffic as it's simply not fast enough. It'll have been used by the response bobbies who have far less respect for the vehicles than the traffic lads. This means it'll probably have been thrashed to within an inch of it's life. The other problem is the system drive used by police. This teaches that you should always be in the most flexible gear. What this means is that if you take your foot off the accelerator the car should slow down and if you boot it it should accelerate quickly. This is obviously achieved by driving constantly high up in the rev range.

GOOD POINTS:

It will have been regularly serviced although there are tales usually from larger forces about services being missed by tens of thousands of miles. And it will always have been repaired with little or no expense spared using genuine parts wherever possible.

There really is no way of knowing whether you have a bargain or not until you've got your moneys worth. If you're back on in 2 months saying it's died then you've lost out. If you're still going strong in 2 years then your quids in. Just enjoy it. These engines are strong and can handle most of what the police can throw at them anyway.

PS It's not routine in all forces to remap cars (especially if they're being used by regular plods rather than traffic) and if it's the 140bhp then a remap would probably take it into a higher category meaning response won't be allowed to respond in it. I'm 99% certain it won't have been mapped. Rolling road is the only way to know for sure i'm afraid.

Best of luck and enjoy!

To remove adhesive from car by a gallon of tar and glue remover from a car paint supplier it works well and is not expensive I use in on my rally car to remove glue left after taking sticker of after events.

Edited 6 February, 201016 yr by ralle

Hey folks, great advice and thanks for al the feedback. I'm new to forum use so I didn't even see that I had got replies but thanks so much. The car is still on the road and getting some of the bodywork done at the end of this month. A new SPORT bumper for the model costs in excess of £360 direct from skoda, aghhh. So I've found a guy down the road who is gonna plastic weld and patch repair for alot less. I will post some picture throughout the duration of the work.

Thanks again all!!