History of Garda Cars

dermothickey

Worked in a petrol station/ car dealership/garage for a few months in my youth. A garda ford escort due to be collected at 7p.m, Im the pump attendant with the keys everyone else gone home for the evening :D:D Took it around the yard learning how to drive, next thing thwey arrived to collect. How are'ya Garda..its all ready for you, drive carefully

jackomckenna

highdef wrote: »

Slightly off-topic but do you remember the sirens on the garda cars from the 80's and 90's? It was a very distinctive electronic two tone. Haven't heard it in years and actually miss it! Anyone have any youtube/video clips of one these cars in action?

I always thought the siren had a second benefit in that it was different to the regular two tones (and later on waw waws, or whatever you call them) on fire engines and ambulances. So if you were a Joe Soap sitting in heavy traffic and heard this electronic two tone, you knew to look out for a small garda car approaching, rather than an much larger ambulance or fire engine.

I know that today I can still tell the difference between the sirens of the different emergency response vehicles but I'm sure the majority of people would think they're all the same.

Believe it or not there is still a car in tallaght knocking around with one of them. Sounds very funny at night when you hear the new sirens and that old monster. Sounds lovely all the same

Andrew33

jackomckenna wrote: »

Believe it or not there is still a car in tallaght knocking around with one of them. Sounds very funny at night when you hear the new sirens and that old monster. Sounds lovely all the same

I bet I can tell you which car in Tallafornia has that siren too, they have an ancient wine coloured Corolla Liftback still in use.

delly

Having read over the thread it reminds me of a cousin of mine who is based in a two man station in SW Wexford. The story is a bit hazy now but at some stage in the mid nineties he was on his way back from Dublin having got a spanking new Toyota Corolla. Along the journey some lula pulled out from a side road forcing my cousin to jam on to avoid a collision. Having stopped in time he didn't pursue the driver of the other car, because having never used ABS before, the strange feeling it gave made him think he'd somehow broke the car and took him a short time to realise what had happened .

jackomckenna

Andrew33 wrote: »

I bet I can tell you which car in Tallafornia has that siren too, they have an ancient wine coloured Corolla Liftback still in use.

Thats the exact one and theres a black Corolla too. No lights just a magnetic beacon on the roof. Its so funny to see!

endakenny

On the Bombings TV episode about the murder of Christopher Ewart-Biggs and his secretary, I saw archive footage of a red-coloured marked Garda car. Furthermore, I saw a yellow Garda jeep on this thread. Why were these cars coloured differently from other squad cars?

In my opinion

endakenny wrote: »

On the Bombings TV episode about the murder of Christopher Ewart-Biggs and his secretary, I saw archive footage of a red-coloured marked Garda car. Furthermore, I saw a yellow Garda jeep on this thread. Why were these cars coloured differently from other squad cars?

I remember many years ago the patrol car in either Burnfoot and Bridgend in Donegal was a red avenger.

oflynno

In my opinion wrote: »

All cars had a single blue beacon on top of a garda sign

the lunchbox and flask we used to call it.the auld fella was a garda,now retired and i remember a load of cars at home over the years

the IPA calendar has a mk3 cortina as October car,my favourite car of all time.i have one outside after years of looking,dont think i will be doing it up in the garda livery though.

i remember the mk4 in "garda blue" outside the house,the mondeos,focus,carina 2,vectra,jeep cherokee 4.0 petrol,camry,punto,sierra,granada,cortina,escort,fiesta,austin montego

i heard of the zephyr,mini,fiat mirafiori and ritmo,the renault 4 van,toyota landcruiser towtruck,old hiace vans and unsure was there a morris minor van back in the day

i wil ask him to write out a list that he remembers driving

oflynno

the ford orion too,i knew there was at least one i'd forget