Would you buy a police car?

ballooba

I discovered an auction house a couple of months back that sells used police cars. They come up for auction every 2nd thursday. Question is, would you buy one? :eek:

www.woma.co.uk

ambro25

Hi-milers, presumably serviced regularly, but regular hi-revs & driven by dozens = clutch & gearbox within an inch of their lives, and higher-then average engine wear.

I wouldn't - but the advisers aren't the buyers, so up to ye

Volvoboy

Yes i would who wouldnt want a car with flashing lights a siren?

Seriously, ex-police cars have a hard life, i'd steer clear unless you were prepared to put alot of work and money in.

-VB-

overdriver

If it was cheap enough, it might be worth a look.

Blub2k4

My boss when I was younger had a granada that was ex customs and excise, it was the fastest/best serviced* car in Roscommon at the time. Depends on what you're looking for, regular three month services and sometimes nicely specced parts, if the saving is enough then I reckon it's worth looking at.



*may be a slight exagerration.

ballooba

I'm not thinking of buying one. Just thought it would make an interesting topic.

Would the larger engined cars necessarily have been revved that much?

Also, there are a lot of cars there that wouldn't necessarily have been driven fast. Vans and chauffeur driven type jobbies.

There is a Saab 9-5 Aero Automatic there. Surely that's not a regular police car? More likely to be company car for the head honcho?

Alun

Back in the day, I know the police in the UK used to have their own garages and mechanics to do all maintenance work. They were always very highly regarded, and their used cars were highly sought after because of this. I've no idea whether this is still the case or whether it's all been outsourced these days, but I'd feel pretty safe buying one of their cars, especially the high performance traffic division ones. Not so sure about the day-to-day patrol cars. No way I'd buy any of the old rust-heaps they drive around in here mind you.

junkyard

I bought an ex-special branch Sierra a few years ago and it was great value for money, a bit rough around the edges but the upside was I always got waved through checkpoints and could park it anywhere with out getting a ticket.:D

ballooba

junkyard wrote:

I bought an ex-special branch Sierra a few years ago and it was great value for money, a bit rough around the edges but the upside was I always got waved through checkpoints and could park it anywhere with out getting a ticket.:D

Where do the Irish police cars get sold?

junkyard

They used to sell them themselves from their headquarters in Dublin but I think Wilsons and Merlin sell them now.

DirtyDog

If its good enough for the blues brothers......

Personally no, they run the **** out of them most of the time so its a hard 100k milage on it (or what ever it is)

irish_bob

i wouldnt hesitate to buy one of them
considerring that most cops and the cars they ride in , the only time thier travelling at high speed is while on the way to the chipper
i would say , great opportunity to bag a ford mondeo at a really keen price

ballooba

I had a look at the Garda cars on the Wilsons site there. They are all 115K+, some of the UK cars have half that mileage and are probably a lot better looked after.

rebel.ranter

14 years ago I bought a 1983 ex-Police (UK, not Garda, when did Irish people start calling the Gardai "Police") Landrover Defender. It was used to tow the police horse boxes. So in theory some ex-Police cars are not driven hard, exception rather than the rule unfortunately. There were plates where all the lights used to be.
I wouldn't by another one, although the British traffic copsdo have some fancy squad cars.

Ban me?

I wouldnt buy one, for deffo!
I've seen over the years so many drunks pukking their guts up in the back of them... and people pumping blood being rushed to the hospital...

I'd say the tyres are all well dodgey anyhow:D
(We all heard about the Advance Pitstop Golfing trips!!?)

riddik

Ban me? wrote:

I'd say the tyres are all well dodgey anyhow:D

ha ha ha!! ur jokin right?

Capt'n Midnight

[Jake and Elwood are arguing about the new Bluesmobile]
Jake: You traded the Bluesmobile [a Cadillac] for this?
Elwood: No ... for a microphone.
Jake: A microphone? [Pause] Okay, I can see that. But what the hell is this?
Elwood: I picked it up at the Mount Prospect police auction last spring. It's an old Mount Prospect police car. They were practically giving them away.
Jake: Well thank you, pal. The day I get out of prison, my own brother comes to pick me up in a police car.

[The Bluesmobile has just jumped an open drawbridge.]
Jake: Car's got a lot of pickup.
Elwood: It's got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas. So what do you say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what?
Jake: Fix the cigarette lighter.

Manic Moran

My brother-in-law picked up an unmarked Crown Vic some time ago, he loved it. Big V8 engine, ram-bars on the front, spotlights... It's like the Red Sea parting when driving, and he didn't have any worries on it at all. Police cars around here rack up the miles quickly, but are well maintained enough that they're not that risky a purchase, especially for the money.

Father-in-law just bought a BMW bike ex-California Highway Patrol with 40K miles on it. Massive bike, seems to be a good, reliable performer.

On their experience, I'd buy one.

NTM

astraboy

My buddy bought an ex cop car in Boston. Huge crown vic, 4.8 v8 I believe. I saw it, still had the ariels attached. Had about 220,000 up on it though so the gearbox died after a few months.
As for ex-british police cars, they have probably been well looked after, and you will find some high powered cars like Volvo T5's and Vauxhall Omega 3.0's. High miles would not put me off, at lot would be motorway. Give the car a good once over and if its cheap it'll pay for itself before if/when it packs in.

Rovi

Just for the sake of pedantry, the genuine original Bluesmobile was a 1974 Dodge Monaco. :cool:

A 1990 Ford Crown Vic was used in 'the other film'.

overdriver

rebel.ranter wrote:

(UK, not Garda, when did Irish people start calling the Gardai "Police") .

Since "GArdai" is such a stupid word to say. They can ram that dead language down our throats all they like, but they'll never actually succeed in having people utter more than the cupla focail. With the exceptionof the few subsidised Gaeltacht areas.

Anyway, back on-topic, A US cop car would be cool for shows, but you'd look like a maniac driving down to tesco in it.

Another thing to rmember is the vandalism. I had a navy Carina E when the cops were using Corollas of the same colour, and I was bottled by ( obviously short-sighted) scummer kids at St Teresa's gardens, shouting " pigs!!".

Diddy Kong

I bought one last year, 03 Ford Focus, 1.4, 112k miles on the clock. It was well looked after and was serviced every 10k miles. Couple of scratches, but what do you expect with a 03 car anyway.

Cant complain, still drives like new.

m_stan

dbfarrell wrote:

I bought one last year, 03 Ford Focus, 1.4, 112k miles on the clock. It was well looked after and was serviced every 10k miles. Couple of scratches, but what do you expect with a 03 car anyway.

Cant complain, still drives like new.

last year as in '06 ? So three years old ? Was it cheap as chips (pardon the pun!) or what ?

Diddy Kong

Cheap enough for a 3 year old car, €5,500. Happy enough with that price. Dont mind the milage so much as I got the full service history with it, and got it with brand new tyres and a brand new timing belt...