Top-notch cars to help gardai chase down criminals

E92

maidhc wrote:

The figures will probably be reversed for 2008 if not 2007 as the Avensis reaches the end of its life. Most 2006 Mondeo seem to have been sold to the Gardai!

I would expect so, but we should see a new Avensis early on next year, so it depends on how early Tim Mahony can persuade Toyota Europe to let him bring in the next generation of Avensis next year.

But even if it does come in very early next year, I still think the Mondeo will have the upper hand for 2008. After that it will be much closer, as up till now Toyota had a 1.6 on offer, while Ford had a 1.8, which gave Toyota a big advantage. On the other hand, the days of an engine sized taxation system should soon be a distant memory, so who knows what will happen after that.

um7y1h83ge06nx

Blitzkrieger wrote:

Have you seen an X5 take a corner at speed? You'd laugh if you weren't worried about the berk driving it killing someone.

IMO *they should never, ever buy a 'suv'. An Impreza wagon, Legacy estate or Volvo T5 would be way better suited to the job.

*'they' can also be applied any soccer mom or urban ****wit driving around in them.

Well said, the X5 is mainly an urban jeep for the twats you mentioned above.

Back in my home region of North Kerry/West Limerick, they are far more Landcruisers doing the rounds than X5s. A lot tougher for going off-road and generally taking the dogs abuse farmers and construction people give them. The gardaí need tough vehicles not flashy ones.

The vehicles you mentioned are pretty good choices.

MercMad

Mathias Scary Drunkard wrote:

Well said, the X5 is mainly an urban jeep for the twats you mentioned above.

Back in my home region of North Kerry/West Limerick, they are far more Landcruisers doing the rounds than X5s. A lot tougher for going off-road and generally taking the dogs abuse farmers and construction people give them. The gardaí need tough vehicles not flashy ones.

The vehicles you mentioned are pretty good choices.

.............mmmm fair enough !

I also dont see the need for 4wd vehicle, lugging around all that extra weight seems a waste of energy !

In reality a mixture of vehicle would work well, the Volvo T5's in the UK were perfect, especially the unmarked ones, fast cars that took abuse well and could take 4 big plods ! Same for the Omega 3.0's too !

Victor

Victor wrote:

But the Garda cars are also 'modded'. And who is to say they are actually telling the truth about what models they are buying?
Because they are cheap and nobody expects them.
These vehicles are for serious crime, not general patrolling and traffic duties. The Garda will not persue joyriders, because thats how accidents happen and its often what the joyriders want.

I don't believe the gaurds would modify their squad cars. In most cases this would void warrenties and service contracts.

edit: If yer talking about factory mods feel free to laugh at me

sk8board

ronoc wrote:

I don't believe the gaurds would modify their squad cars. In most cases this would void warrenties and service contracts.

edit: If yer talking about factory mods feel free to laugh at me

I had always heard over the years that the Guards were 'adapting' the car's, in particular the engines, and were doing their own servicing, with limited or no manufacturer warranty.
Maybe its different these days. I doubt they mod the Yaris

Seth Brundle

sk8board wrote:

I had always heard over the years that the Guards were 'adapting' the car's, in particular the engines, and were doing their own servicing, with limited or no manufacturer warranty.
Maybe its different these days. I doubt they mod the Yaris

Maybe they are filling the engine bay with loads of those resistor things to bump up the BHP!

Terrontress

I was in North Queensferry last weekend which is where Gordon Brown's house is.

There are constantly two X5s on the prowl. They have Police battenburg markings and lights within the grille but no lightbar on the roof.

The guys who are out on foot are fairly kitted up with machine guns, tasers, handguns.

Bearing in mind that is the Garda ERU that are getting the X5s, could there be some feature of the X5 that is suitable for specialist Police officers?

Believe it or not, one of the extras that was designed by Audi for their A2 was a safe to store guns in. I've never seen an A2 police car but there may be something in the X5 which is useful for highly armed Police.

Victor

Blitzkrieger wrote:

IMO *they should never, ever buy a 'suv'. An Impreza wagon, Legacy estate or Volvo T5 would be way better suited to the job.

*'they' can also be applied any soccer mom or urban ****wit driving around in them.

One reason to buy SUVs is the height advantage over cars. Much more legitimate for the garda than soccer moms. They are also useful in off-road circumstances, something they at least have to think about, even if they do limited off road mileage.

ronoc wrote:

I don't believe the gaurds would modify their squad cars. In most cases this would void warrenties and service contracts. edit: If yer talking about factory mods feel free to laugh at me

Yes I mean factory mods. I understand the majority of Garda servicing is done by main dealers.

Terrontress

Del2005 wrote:

AFAIK the reason they buy X5's for cop cars is cause the boot lifts up. Saw a program on the English Motorway patrols and they only used vehicles where the rear door went vertical incase an officer was on a the road side and a something was going to hit them, if they had a LC with a side opening door they would have to run around the door and it would take longer.

I have seen UK police recently with Discoverys, which have side opening doors. Also, the Highways Agency in the UK, which seems to do the work of police on the motorway where there is no criminal element, drive Mitsubushi Shoguns.

But what you say makes sense.

Lucifer

sk8board wrote:

I had always heard over the years that the Guards were 'adapting' the car's, in particular the engines, and were doing their own servicing, with limited or no manufacturer warranty.
Maybe its different these days. I doubt they mod the Yaris

I work in an opel main dealer in dublin and we service quite a few garda cars. They are standard cars with no modifications done to the engines. they do have a few 2 litre turbo vectras and other fast cars but are still factory standard except for their radios and lights installed. All their cars are covered under normal warranty and sometimes even get covered outside of warranty.

wingnut

Live in Swansea local police station has marked:

BMW X5
Lexus RX
5 Series touring
Mondeo ST

Not bad, I wouldn't fancy trying to outrun them!

Robbo

layke wrote:

No they have hardened suspention, the rest is bog standard. The 2.0l mondeo puts out 145bhp (if memory serves), a vtec 1.6 civic puts out 160bhp, has better handeling and is lighter. Trust me victor, I have very very very reliable sources for this.

It is only on the internet that a Honda Civic may, in all seriousness, be compared favourably to a common cop car.

Victor

Of note the X5 has running boards, if you want to do Die Hard-type stuff.

Lucifer wrote:

I work in an opel main dealer in dublin and we service quite a few garda cars. They are standard cars with no modifications done to the engines. they do have a few 2 litre turbo vectras and other fast cars but are still factory standard except for their radios and lights installed. All their cars are covered under normal warranty and sometimes even get covered outside of warranty.

No upgraded shocks? No dirt-attracting paint?

Turner

Untrained Garda drivers can only drive vehicles up to and including 2000cc.

These high powered cars are required, every night traveller and criminal gangs leave dublin committing burglaries in the country targetting houses with powerful cars, 2.5t and up.

It was getting embarrassing for the gardai to tell home owners that yeah they pursued their car but lost it on a motorway in a 1.8 mondeo.

TheNog

What I cannot understand is why the gardai are buying ford focus. Good god those cars are crap!!!!!!! They are a 1.4l engine that tbh wouldn't pull you outta bed.

Once a car has reached 100k then the guards can apply for a new car. It is sensible to get rid a car at this mileage cos they take a huge amount of abuse. The only car I know that can take this abuse and still be rock steady on the road is the Mondeo. I was never a fan of the mondeo until I saw the abuse they can take. Its phenomonal. It is true what some people have aready said here that these cars do get crashed and rammed regularly. I know of two patrol cars that have been crashed and rammed 2 and 3 times since they were received at two separate stations and these cars are only 3 months old.

Del2005

TheNog wrote:

What I cannot understand is why the gardai are buying ford focus. Good god those cars are crap!!!!!!! They are a 1.4l engine that tbh wouldn't pull you outta bed.

The reason they buy these is because they are only supposed to be used for local patrols and not for chases. The government is supposed to try and get value for money and there's no point in sending a EUR50k+ car into a scum bag area to be wrecked when they could send in cheaper cars. They only need the high end cars for traffic work and ERU etc, bog standard police work doesn't need high powered cars. Didn't they buy a load of diesel cars a while ago for rural patrols a while ago, or am I getting the country wrong again?

Keith K

2.5 v6 bodykitted zetec s mondeo going around lucan and clondalkin, it still is so obvious up close with three aerials

also 2.4 camry with window tints and very cleverly hidden aerials(on the side rear panel at hip height)
going around in these does surprise some people and probably have the element of surprise that they were bought for too

PeteK*

If anyone saw any of these cars or the X5 yet, take a photo and post it!

I've not seen any.

ballooba

I saw a Garda BMW 3 Series chasing a stolen mini a good while back. Not the best time to be taking a photo me thinks. (No, not because I was driving the Mini )

2stageturbo

Seen a 407 diesel on the m1 recently. Very stealth car. Never deck it as a garda car. It's getting very sneakyout there.:eek:

timmywex

seen a few of the bmw ones around, they had it in gorey a while back around when the bypass opened

junkyard

I don't know what problems some of ye have with BMW X5's as regards handling, I've owned 2 of them and they handle very well and they're not bad off road either, have ye even driven them? The best off roader is probably the Land Rover Defender because it's light and won't sink as quick as most modern 4x4's. The X5 is a very good choice as a Police vehicle as it's fast, refined and handles exceptionally well for a 4x4, proof of this is it's used the world over.

miju

R.O.R wrote:

Having dealt with a government agency regarding vehicles I can state categorically that they do not pay VAT or VRT on new vehicles. What would be the point? It goes from one government agency straight to another so they just save on paperwork.

True what you say about there being a lot of gobsheens around :rolleyes:

well your the gobsheen cos i can tell you categorically VAT and VRT is paid and thats something I know for fact.

that egg on yer face there?

Wertz

crosstownk wrote:

Not many can out run one of these.................



More expensive, but a serious tool for the Gardaí.

I do think that a few decent Garda vehicles will be a lot better than the current 'run of the mill' stuff that they have used up to now.

Was just about to make the exact same point....a few 10's of millions spent readying a fleet of these 'copters and training for crews to man them 24/7 would be a much more prudent use of the public's money, given the state of traffic congestion around our towns and cities. I mean why have X amount of prestige cars going no place fast with their blue flashers on, when you can have one copter in the sky keeping tabs on whatever it is they're pursuing?

One copter for a police force on an island of this size is laughable, especially when the one they have seems to spend more time hovering over croke park than anyplace else...

PeteK*

2stageturbo wrote:

Seen a 407 diesel on the m1 recently. Very stealth car. Never deck it as a garda car. It's getting very sneakyout there.:eek:

But you still noticed it Lol.

2stageturbo

Chatmaster wrote:

But you still noticed it Lol.

Only cause they had someone pulled over !

yayamark

Wertz wrote:

Was just about to make the exact same point....a few 10's of millions spent readying a fleet of these 'copters and training for crews to man them 24/7 would be a much more prudent use of the public's money, given the state of traffic congestion around our towns and cities. I mean why have X amount of prestige cars going no place fast with their blue flashers on, when you can have one copter in the sky keeping tabs on whatever it is they're pursuing?

One copter for a police force on an island of this size is laughable, especially when the one they have seems to spend more time hovering over croke park than anyplace else...

The Gardai have 2 helicopters and one spotter plane actually.

CLADA

yayamark wrote:

The Gardai have 2 helicopters and one spotter plane actually.

As of next month they will have 3 helicopters and one plane.

yayamark

CLADA wrote:

As of next month they will have 3 helicopters and one plane.

touche. any more info?

CLADA

yayamark wrote:

touche. any more info?

They are taking delivery of another EC135.

So the heli fleet will be two EC135's and the original squirrel.

It appears Limerick merits a helicopter to itself as one seems to be constantly based in Shannon.