The 1990’s ended quite some time ago, but as Matthew McConaughey’s character from True Detective would say, “Time is a flat circle.” Just think about it: in 2015 we have a Clinton running for President, TV shows like Full House and The X-Files returning to television, and fresh installments of the Jurassic Park and Terminator franchises about to hit the big screen. And just like twenty years ago, Ford makes a Taurus police variant that isn’t very popular.
That’s the polar opposite of how the civilian model was received, of course. At this point in its life, the Taurus was still the apotheosis of the American mid-size sedan, and a clear indicator the Malaise Era had ended.
Today’s eBay find is actually the second generation of the Taurus police car, which was first introduced for the 1990 model year. Astute pop culture aficionados will note that this was three years after the first Robocop movie, which came out in 1987. I’d imagine the combination of positive buzz surrounding the Taurus and its firm entrance into the American zeitgeist were the reasons Ford ultimately decided to give police departments another option besides the Crown Victoria. Or they thought municipalities that dealt with harsh winters might appreciate a vehicle that could plow through the snow better than their traditional rear wheel drive offering.
Ford engineers beefed up many suspension and engine components, in some cases just realizing elements from the SHO could do the job for their front wheel drive police cruiser. Due to the requirements demanded of a police cruiser, two air vents had to be carved into the non-grille area between the headlights, which kind of betrays the design of the aero look a bit, but if they needed more oxygen to get into the engine bay, so be it. Basically, the enhancements can be summarized by quoting The Blues Brothers, which I won’t do because I’m sure all of you can recite it from memory.
For the second generation police Taurus, Ford was able to get more air to the engine by one horizontal slot underneath the Ford oval in a blink-and-you’d-miss-it style that was more tasteful than their previous solution.
Our featured car sports what I think is Electric Red Clearcoat Metallic, but if you follow this link, what you see above doesn’t really gel with the picture. In any event, I’ve never seen this color on any civilian second gen Taurus. Regardless of the color, I’d say the paint is in pretty good shape for being 20 years old. All this bull really needs is the crystalline headlights that were standard on the upper level LX models to make it look like new.
Since this Taurus isn’t in a typical squad car white, I’m inclined to believe the seller that this was a detective’s car. Aside from the spotlight (which seems to actually be integrated with the side mirror rather than drilled into the A-pillar) and the dog dish hubcaps, this looks like your standard GL or SE sedan.
Further strengthening the case that this was a detective’s car is the extremely clean interior. No evidence of a rear partition anywhere. Then again, were they even made for the Taurus back then?
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the police version of the Taurus was the engine. Ford managed to coax 225 lbs of torque from the optional 3.8 Essex V6 in this iteration, which is at least 30 pounds more than any standard engine available on a mid-sizer currently in production. Since the Taurus was some 600 pounds lighter than the Crown Vic, its possible their 0-60 figures are similar, or at the very least not very different. I’ll believe the seller that the car “pulls like a freight train to 131+ mph.”
Did the police modifications negate the headgasket issues associated with this engine or the issues with the AX4S automatic transmission? The Taurus Car Club of America lists a transmission cooler as one of the upgrades for police spec versions, which could conceivably assuage concerns over its reliability.
Perhaps the best case for buying this car is looking at its maintenance history as written on the engine bay. Its clear this car is well loved by the owner, and has recently received new calipers, pads, and a battery.
Now this picture is interesting for two reasons. The first is the obvious Crown Victoria sitting to the left of the Taurus. Is it a former detective’s car as well? Perhaps the seller drove these vehicles before he actually owned them, or simply snatched them up before they went to auction. The “Police Special” is also interesting, because a Google Image search did not show other second generation Taurus police cars with the same badge. I’m thinking there was a separate detective version, which likely makes this more rare than the ones decked out for patrol duty.
Regardless of what you think about this generation being used for police use, this is a pretty uncommon piece of machinery that is even more of a sleeper than an SHO of similar vintage. I’m just not sure it justifies its $1800 asking price, but at the same time I don’t think that dollar amount is far off from what I’d be willing to pay. And by willing to pay, I mean I would actually purchase this car if I had the extra cash and garage space to store it properly.
Apparently, the Taurus has the distinction of being the first front wheel drive car to be offered with a police package in the United States, at least according to this website, which also looks like it was made in 1995.
mr. chopper wikipedia commons
Twenty years later, Ford once again has a Taurus-based police car, only this time there is no Crown Victoria version that is more popular. Instead, the Taurus based Police Interceptor is outsold by the Police Interceptor Utility; A.K.A. the police variant of the Ford Explorer. I’d imagine the first Taurus optimized for police duty lacked a business case because the Crown Victoria was bigger and based on a platform much more familiar to police department mechanics. Today’s version is also competing, and losing, the sales crown against a bigger vehicle, making things come pretty much full circle for the storied police sedan.
Check out the ad here. You’ve got less than a day to buy it, either for yourself or for me. I’d obviously very much appreciate it if you handed me the keys.
Related reading:
COAL: 1993 Ford Taurus GL by Ben Dinger
Curbside Classic: 1992 Mercury Sable GS by Brendan Saur
I suppose it depends on the region, but I wouldn’t call the current Taurus police interceptor unpopular at all. They’re common enough versus the retail versions that I get instantly nervous when I spot those headlights in my rearview mirror driving at night. Certainly not a feeling I ever got with the 1992-1995 model (I forget they even sold a police version)
The Taurus is by far the most popular sedan police cruiser around here, followed by the Charger. Hardly see any Caprices at all, and I don’t know why. It seems like the Chevy is most naturally suited to police duty, but who knows what their priorities really are. There are definitely a lot of Explorers and Tahoes selling now that the Crown Vic is discontinued.
Cops generally hated the Taurus police interceptor of the 80s.
I probably should have been more clear in the post, as my point was that the Taurus isn’t very popular when compared to the other police offering made by Ford, just like twenty years ago. If you go to the link I provided, the Explorer PI has been handily outselling the the Taurus PI for quite a while.
You’re right though, I’m assuming the Taurus outsells or at least is competitive with the police sedans from the other guys, so calling it unpopular may be inaccurate.
In PA, the State Police are switching over to Taurus. In my town, they run a mix Crown Victorias, Taurus, and one explorer – there is a Ford dealership that shares a parking lot with the police station. No need to have their own mechanics. The one Explorer, is used less, probably due to fuel costs.. But they need one for winters here.
I suspect that most small towns purchase according to where they can get their cars serviced at.
I was the seller of this Taurus. It came from Cohkee, Georgia. Current red. Was a detective unit. Never painted, no rust. Was a beautiful running car. The Police Special emblem was a ebay add on.. Pulled all the way to 131mph (Slicktop). The transmission was a factory beefed up unit with a lower 1st. gear for off the line grunt. Sold it to a collector in Fla. The Crown vic you saw was its replacement with 67k miles. Took 9 months to find, was the Baltimore City Deputy Mayors car. I still have it. Just turned over 200k no problems at all. Keeping it until the wheels fall off. Lol.
This makes sense; the Sanow/Belah books (Ford Police Cars, 1932-1997), stated the 3.8L Tauruses from ’91-’95 ran 129. The first ’90 ran 114 but only had 140 hp; they went to 155 or more hp in ’91 for the PI models. The MT article in ’91 (High Speed Heat II), had that Taurus going 129.
The Chrysler people put a 3.8L prototype Dynasty together, per Chrysler Police Cars 1979-1994 and claimed it would run 129 mph but I don’t believe it. I do believe their 3.5L LH squad went 125-126 though and was a competitor to the 3.8L Taurus.
130 mph seems accurate for an ungoverned 3.8L Essex. I had a 3.0L Vulcan and C&D said it went 117 mph in 1990. The SHOs, of course, were in the 140 mph bracket.
Around me, it’s mixed – Baltimore City bought a bunch of Caprices, but Baltimore County bought a bunch of Tauruses.
Chrysler doesn’t break out the sales of the Charger but the Interceptor Sedan has been outselling the Impala and Caprice pretty handily, but has been behind the Tahoe. The Caprice is at the bottom of the list by far, the Sedan Interceptor has been outselling it by a margin long shot.
http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2011/01/chevrolet-caprice-sales-figures.html http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2012/01/ford-taurus-police-interceptor-sales.html
2012
Caprice 3734
IS 8309 (partial year)
2013
Caprice 3899
IS 10,897
2014
Caprice 3727
IS 10,234
2015 (through April)
Caprice 520
IS 3373
The data I found for 2013 showed even the Impala police package was out selling the Caprice. Not sure why but the Caprice is not finding many buyers because its specs look pretty good on paper.
Around here the state patrol and one local city have gone for the Caprice. The Charger has all but disappeared around here. The state patrol bought one batch soon after they were introduced and didn’t purchase any more. A couple of cities purchased a batch or two and that was that for them.
For 2013 the Sedan was actually the 3rd best selling police vehicle, since then the Utility has picked up at least around here with a number of depts buying them instead of the Tahoes that they were purchasing so by now the Sedan may actually be the #2 selling police vehicle though still far behind the Utility.
I would guess that LE agencies are passing on the Caprice for the same reason my Dad passed on buying a G8 (after driving one and really liking it) back in 2008 – concern over the cost and long-term availability of parts for an Aussie-built car. Now GM is pulling the plug on “real” Holdens after 2017.
I can’t find any info on who Chevy’s biggest PPV customer is, but I strongly suspect it’s the Illinois State Police. They bought a ton of them in 2013 and new ones from that batch are still hitting the road. Many of them sat on a lot in Springfield for a year or more because the state was too broke to buy equipment for them or have enough radio techs on the payroll to do the work. It wouldn’t surprise me if the state is banned from farming that work out to a vendor due to union contract rules.
The 1974 Dodge Monaco would eat this Taurus for breakfast:-):
thank you for this video. it brightened up my day.
Your welcome. I didn’t have anything constructive to say about the Taurus; as I had a 1990 model, and the transmission went out at 60,000 miles. Had a “factory improved rebuilt” put in by the local Ford shop, Tower Ford of Coos Bay, Or. It started leaking trans fluid onto the exhaust within a month; traded it for a 2000 model Century, a much better car. When the Ford ran good, the 3.0 L V6 was a good engine; altho the electric steering was twitchy and down right scary when meeting a semi on a narrow country road at night; couldn’t tell where the bull was; on the road,
I’ve always thought the Flex would be the ideal current vehicle for law enforcement duty.
Plenty of interior room. Good head room. Good visibility. Lower ride height, therefore easier entry and exit. AWD availability. Available EcoBoost engine.
Exceptional rear seat (second seat) legroom.
Lots of space for police gear in the wayback.
Do you suppose that the Flex costs Ford that much more to build than the Explorer?
Challenger,
You’re definitely right; the Flex would be a much better choice for police departments, but my guess is that the lower ride height would be viewed as a negative, at least when compared to the Explorer.
As for price, starting MSRP for the Flex is $29,100, while the Explorer is $30,700. I have a feeling that since they’re on the same platform, the difference in production cost between the two is negligible, and the price discrepancy you’re seeing is the result of market demand, which is far greater for the Explorer than the Flex.
I could see the Explorer’s greater ground clearance over the flex or taurus as a positive if you need to jump a curb (or a pothole). Having a view over other vehicles is probably a plus, too.
The front-wheel drive Taurus was the first front-wheel drive car defined as having a police package – or what met Ford’s definition. The prior Plymouth Reliant / Dodge Aries and Chevrolet Celebrity had some beefing up for police use, but weren’t defined as police package cars, which apparently is what makes them worthy for patrol use.
These met with pretty decent success and had performance that beat the 5.8 liter Crown Victoria and nearly equalled the 5.7 liter Caprice. The Achilles Heel in these was the transaxle. Top speed was 129 mph in 1994, 123 in 1993, and 128 in 1992 according to testing by the Michigan State Police.
In 1992, the City of Baltimore purchased 170 Taurii for police use. They would end up being 42% of their fleet and experience 63% of the fleet’s downtime as the transaxle did not withstand 24 hour usage. The problem Baltimore found, as did other agencies, was the rougher urban environment also created pronounced alignment issues, sometimes wearing out tires in 3,000 miles. Also, front end collisions – typical of their use – would often damage the transaxle and straightening out the unibody was more difficult than making comparable repairs on a body-on-frame, rear-drive car.
Several agencies recommended limiting the Taurus to detective use given the problems experienced in harsher uses.
I’ve pulled the above information from “Ford Police Cars, 1932 to 1997” by Edwin Sanow. Looking at the two chapters that discuss the Taurus, it states the Taurus was used by Salt Lake City, Utah Highway Patrol, Pierce County Washington, North Carolina Highway Patrol, San Diego County California, and Wayne County Michigan among others.
This is one of the cars on my bucket list to find, the other being a Mustang special service package.
As far as the current Taurus, I’m seeing quite a few, but they are still outnumbered by Chargers and Tahoes. The City of Jefferson City has a few Explorers / Whatever Ford is calling it, but that’s about it.
You have hit upon a cloaked interest of mine. Police package cars have always intrigued me – I suppose the combination of sedan and heavy duty hits my buttons.
Jason,
Thanks for that great info! It seems my fatal flaw when doing research was to google “Ford Taurus Police cars.”
Everything about Baltimore’s experience with the Taurus makes sense; it seems back then FWD cars couldn’t take as much punishment as the body-on-frame RWD sedans.
I’m glad I could help enhance this. This information was only available to me as I own the book. Last I looked it was long out of print and an order of magnitude more expensive than what I paid long ago.
A minor nit, but not of you…weren’t the door handles body colored in 1994 and 1995? These are black, similar to the 1992 and 1993 models. Of course, I’ve been around fleet cars for years and they can have all sorts of creative repairs made, so I suppose I should not fault the car for that!
According to Ford -Taurus.org under the 1994 list of changes:
“All models (except police packages) now had body color door handles.”
http://www.ford-taurus.org/taurusinfo/G2/
So it seems that the police package kept the black plastic door handles of years past.
Thanks for the info
A friend of one of my coworkers was a Baltimore City cop when they had the Tauruses. He was not a fan of them.
Great find — I’ve always had an odd interest in the unusual police car variants (possibly because I own a Crown Victoria), and the Taurus is high on the list.
I find it interesting that this car has a regular bench seat, rather than buckets. I was pretty sure that bucket seats came as part of the Taurus police package (with no console between the seats, just an open space). Maybe like you suggested, this was a special-order detective car.
1990 brought a slightly updated interior and a few other tweaks, but the newer sheet metal (hood, fenders, quarter panels, trunk lid, and bumper covers) wasn’t available until the 1992 model year.
I swear that this color is Ford’s oddball Medium Cranberry Metallic, but your link does not show that color available for 1995. It seems to have been a 1992-93 color. I wonder if the owner has taken some liberties with the car?
I had forgotten about these, and don’t recall seeing them back when. I wonder if this is the car that gave fwd a bad name in law enforcement circles.
If it is a police package vehicle it could have been ordered in absolutely any color wanted by that dept. Not only colors available on other Ford company models or years but literally any color the dept could provide the specifications for. The city of Seattle for example has their own specific blue color and it has been on all their patrol cars for many years whether it was the old B-boxes or the newest Utility Interceptors. There was an issue many years ago where the dealer that made the sale messed up entering the color code and a bunch of Crown Vics came through in a different shade of blue. Ultimately the dept decided to keep them and not insist that they be repainted.
For some years with the Vics, if it was a special order color the bumpers would be either black or silver; factory “taxi yellow” cars had the silver ones, Vermont State Police (nonmetallic dark green) had black ones.
I’m betting that they ordered them that way, I’ve never seen a P71 with bumpers that didn’t match the rest of the vehicle and there are a number of police forces around here that have their own specific color.
Raleigh, NC police cars were like this. They ran a blue/white/blue color scheme with a very specific electric blue, and due to Ford’s reluctance to paint the bumpers the custom order color (I presume due to having to mix it differently with the flexible primer?) the bumpers were silver. It kind of made sense–previous RPD cruisers had chrome bumpers before the aero ‘Vics.
They ordered a few Caprices after the CV went out of production and those had silver bumpers too, for continuity with the old design. However, the Chargers and Utility Interceptors that were purchased afterward finally did away with the silver bumpers.
Ford will paint a car any color in the universe as long as you purchase at least five of them. I almost bought a brand new CVPI in fire engine red that had been ordered by a large police department for their chiefs – apparently they needed four but had to buy five to get the custom paint, and decided to sell the extra on eBay.
I’m not big on Panther Love but a brand new CV in bright red for about $18k was appealing.
Squeaky clean after 20 years, no divider and red has me thinking fire department staff car/chief’s car is at least as much a possibility as a detective.
Under cover cop hence the deck lid “police special” badge and Appleton search light!
I’d disagree for north of the border; I think the Taurus is far more common then the Explorer version. There are still plenty of Crown Vics on the road, but it seems every RCMP detachment has at least one Taurus. I’ve seen an Explorer on occasion in a nearby(ish) city, but not in smaller towns. If you’re going to find a cruiser other then a Crown Vic or Taurus though, you’re probably looking at an F150 or F250.
Here in Hamilton the Explorers are just used by supervisors. Mostly new Taurus’s AWD and Chargers.
I don’t think I’ve seen any Chargers out here. Ford dominates the lot at the detachments.
I saw Chargers when the Vic was still being produced, seemed like some municipalities wanted to find suitable replacements in advance before they lost the Crown Vics forever. Now that a few years have passed though I almost never see Charger cop cars anymore, save for a few older ones that haven’t been retired yet. Explorers dominate around here, the Charger and Caprice only seem to be embraced by the state police.
Yeah I don’t see them around here anymore. The state patrol bought a batch when they first came out and they retired them at ~60K. They put in a big order of Crown Vics and stock piled them to hold them over. The stored some of them for up to a year before putting them in service. They also switched to keeping them until 120-150K before retiring them. I still see the occasional 2000-02 up for auction and fresh out of service.
A friend of mine is the director of public works for a local city and he bought a bunch of Chargers not too long after they came out, he then started buying Tahoes. He told me how the Dodge salesman said they would save the city money because they got better MPG. Fact was they got way worse MPG than the CV they had higher out of service rates, more repairs ect. He figured out that they cost him more than the CV despite the fact that the Charger was about $4000 less to purchase. He told me the Tahoe costs them much less to operate than the Chargers.
One of the problems was that every officer really liked the Hemi and was constantly flooring it. They also were really good at getting in one vehicle accidents (putting them in ditches, hitting stationary objects) with them and also for some reason running into each other with them.
My local law-enforcement professionals hooned the snot out of their Charger police cars when they first got them – I live near a busy intersection and sometimes late at night I would walk over to it, and they would be essentially drag-racing them, then pulling a u-turn and doing it over again.
I think the gen 1s with the ventelated nose looked cool, I actually came across a wagon with that package once. The gen 2s with the cut bumper are much more subtle. The engine is actually the same as the one the FWD Continental used, which has a different combustion chamber design and various other improvements over the standard 3.8. They still ate head gaskets though.
I saw the current police Tauruses when they first came out with the police packages but that was just after the Crown Vic ended production, now that a few years have passed the Explorers have clearly ousted them, to the point I can discern them from a mile away as I could a Crown Vic. Tauruses are once again rent-a-cop cars.
I think the first ’90 had the 140 hp Civilian 3.8 Essex, but the ’91s went to the 160 hp motor used in the Continental (actually, the Continental itself didn’t go to 160 hp until ’94 I think?).
I’ve always loved the first and second generation Taurus. I also like police cars and taxi cabs. I like the beefed up suspension and components of the police cars.
I remember seeing these back in the ’90s. The campus police at my college had a couple of them probably the 1st gen since they looked old to me at the time. I am dubious as to the “Pulls like a freight train” bit, though it may technically be true since freight trains are neither fast off the line nor do they boast a high top speed. The HO 3.8 may have decent torque but the transmission will swallow it all and ask for seconds. These cars have the slushiest, slowest shifting auto transmission I have ever had the displeasure to drive.
The bit about police departments going thu tires is accurate. The tie rods are a weak point on these cars and even with regular use they eat tie rods…and tires if you don’t stay on top of it.
That said they aren’t terrible cars, just a bit flawed compared to the Camcords that stole their lunch money. An ex girlfriend had one of the rare good ones that didn’t need a head gasket. They are roomy, comfortable to drive in that soft floppy old fashioned American way, and cheap to buy and fix. I’m kind of surprised the guy had no bids yet, $1800 is certainly a fair price.
here in new york city that don’t seem to have any standard model. there are probably dozens of overlapping departments and i suspect there is an enormous garage in the outer boroughs that keeps them all running. they don’t seem to automatically retire anything here. if they keep it running, they use it. few high speed chases but lots of potholes. yet i still see plenty of ten year + government vehicles. in recent years, they have been running a lot of hybrid and electric vehicles. not sure how that’s going to work out in the long run.
$1,800 is a good price to start on this vehicle and I would try whittling that down to $1,500. Nice looking car and hope it is not too rusty, but I rather have the 2015 Explorer Police Interceptor that is currently on Ebay.
I was a little kid when the first Robocop came out and I remember how futuristic the Taurus looked. When I saw them on the street they were almost alien looking compared to all their boxy contemporaries. I think they still look good too, their design has really aged well.
Being a resident of NYC I tend to notice the various emergency vehicles. The Highway Patrol units six years ago were exclusively Crown Vics. A Few Chargers emerged but I think they are now mostly using the Taurus. The Dodges I see them running now mostly have the older taillight setup (pre 2011).
Eric mentions the Caprice being the poorest seller among law enforcement but the Port Authority uses them. If you ever leave the city in the afternoon and exit through one of the tunnels you’ll see those Holdens watching over everything. Have to say they look very tired. Conversely, the new Ford’s look great.
My main issue with the 1995 Taurus is that it just isn’t intimidating enough. It’s not menacing like a Charger or a loaded Vic with the brush guards and light bar. Reminds me of something parking enforcement would use.
That’s a feature not a bug. Modern copcars try too hard to look badass.
IMO Ford ought to give the Explorer interceptor (for instance) the base civilian model’s silver grille along with silver rather than black steelies and bodycolor instead of blacked-out pillars. Combine that with all-matte-black bumpers and deletion of the fender flares and rocker panel/lower door moldings. Think less “movie dystopian future” and more “prices-starting-at base model of an ’80s econobox, but bigger”
The Washington State Patrol has a lot of the Caprices at least in my area. When I’ve traveled to E. WA it was almost exclusively Tahoes that I’ve seen in WSP livery.
And apparently the WSP has decided that the Caprice isn’t that good after all. I was out on the freeways today and saw 2 Interceptor Utilities in addition to the Caprice I saw. Funny thing is that the Crown Vics are still coming up for sale quite frequently, some quite old, on the Public Surplus auction site.
Here in SoCal, most departments are making the Crown Vic’s last as long as possible. Chargers are the great majority of newer squads, except for the new CHP Exploders.
The only new Chevy’s Ive seen belong to the Los Angeles Airport Police. With the exception of the last generations of Crown Vics and the new CHP contract, Ford has historically been weak in police car sales out here. I have not seen a single new Taurus.
Costa Mesa PD is mostly Explorers at this point.
Culver City has at least one new Chevy, as does Inglewood. They’re still hanging on to their Crown Vics for the most part.
My neighbor/buddy had one as his FBI G-Ride in L.A. for a few years. There was no badge on the rear. Taurus owners usually knew it didn’t come off a dealer’s lot. Some mentioned the dual exhausts, others noticed the wheels. For the most part, it went unnoticed, which of course was the idea.
I live in West Central Minnesota, and the state troopers went from Crown Vics to the new Taurus Interceptors. They seem to be slowly adding more Explorer Utility Vehicles. And my town had been using Impalas for several years, but they just announced a few weeks ago they are now going to be using the Explorers around town.
The 3.8 in these cop spec Taurus’s was the same basic 3.8 as used in the FWD Continental and upgraded power and torque from 140/215 to 155-160/225 which meant stump pulling torque ready down low but sadly it’s head gasket eating ability and weak bottom end was carried over intact. So was the AX4S transaxle which provided some of the slowest sloppiest shifts imaginable and suffered a failure rate akin to the HT 4100!
The factory springs were a major weak point in these cars in you live in any salt belts, tie rod ends and premature tire wear is a well known issue and these cars suffered a nightmare barrage of squeaks and rattles in the dash, door and door hinges that drove us crazy whenever one was handed to us for a rental or to sell at our used car dealership. They just didn’t seem to hold up to abuse nearly as well as the older RWD cars. We always looked for the Vulcan 3 liter V6 cars to actually sell as the 3.8’s were a ticking time bomb.
With that said I wouldn’t say no to this rare example. It obviously had better than average care and all the heavy duty components should help things live longer. Doing a head gasket on one of these and upgrading the worn suspension wouldn’t bother me much as these parts are often cheap today but the trans axles on these are a pain.
In Indiana the State Police still have a lot of Crown Vics in service but are changing over mainly to Chargers.
Our town has a mix of both and just bought several new Chargers. The Sherriff has a mix of Vics, Chargers, Explorers and pickups.
Sherriff depts. throughout the state used to have all two tone brown vehicles. A couple of years ago the state legislature allowed them to buy white vehicles. I was told by our police chief that it saved about $1200.00 per vehicle.
Nobody bid on it.
If I lived in the area or if it were convenient to pick it up (I’m traveling to an adjoining area in a couple of weeks) I’d have considered it BUT it comes from a region where Rust is King and cars come in second.
Plus, we already have a 1994 civilian Taurus GL in about the same cosmetic and mechanical condition, with substantially fewer miles…and being a California car all its life, it has no rust.
I’m still leery about the 3.8L engine, though a beefed-up transmission might hold up better to it than the civilian-version of the AXOD-E (AX4S) did. I never considered anything other than the 3.0L Vulcan in Tauri.
UPDATE:
Relisted. Now $1500. But the seller hasn’t yet uploaded the photos to the new listing.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281709441129?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2661&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT