Older cars in service?

[michiganDT]

I notice there was an old thread on this, hoping to revive it. Are there any depts out there that use the older body style (before 99) or even older Crown Vic? I thought it wasn't possible until I was driving through backwoods West Virginia and saw what appeared to be a mid 80s police van


One thing that irritates me in movies (superbad for example, also Hancock) where they use the pre 1999 crown vic for police chase scenes.... I understand its probably a lot cheaper to beat up a 1998 crown vic than a 2001 for a police chase scene but its about as distracting to me as the blatant disregard for officer safety in other hollywood law enforcement scenes.


Whats the oldest car youve seen in service(in the last year), does your dept use any crown vics from before 99?


Also, how do you guys keep your squads in fairly decent body shape? I do similar driving with my car for work and no matter what precautions I take I always get stuck behind a gravel truck on the freeway (salt and peppered hood) or get new scratches every time I park in a parking lot. Do police cars use better paint?

[School Cop]

Also, how do you guys keep your squads in fairly decent body shape?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Good one!

Look closer, we're just distracting you with the pretty lights!

[StudChris]

Really? When you're watching a movie what matters to you is the year of the vehicle they're doing chases with?

[ArkansasFan24]

I'm driving a 1998 Jeep Cherokee 4x4 police package with about 82,000 miles on it. If others before me had driven it more then I'd probably have something newer.

[Fordfreak]

We still have a lot of 99 CV'S in service on our department. They are SLOWLEY replacing them with newer ones. I was one of the unfortunate guys to get a 2000 Impala with 97,000 miles on it. I'll probably have that car for a long time before I get a new one!

[L223]

My first car (issued in 2006 and since replaced) was a 1996 Chevy Lumina issued to me with 168,000 miles on the clock.

[JI603]

Ooooof.. well we don't have any luminas, but there are a few 1997 CV's around here, with a dashboard like the Starship Enterprise.

[IrocGuy]

I'm driving a 1998 Jeep Cherokee 4x4 police package with about 82,000 miles on it. If others before me had driven it more then I'd probably have something newer.

Whats different on the Police Package Jeeps, I thought that they were the same as the civilian Jeeps.

[CruiserClass]

There's at least one 1997 CV that's a pool car, but I don't think anyone has an assigned car that's older than 1999.

[2k4dr]

We have a 1997 C.V. still in service with 198k miles. It's going this year though. For some reason the night shift Sgt. doesn't want to see it go....

[Nonsequitur]

We still have 1997 CV's as well. Heck we have some 1998 MY cars with close to 120K on the clock and they (fleet) are dumb enough to put the new computer system in them. What a waste... While we have a whole lot full of newer cars waiting to be outfitted...

[ZGXtreme]

When I first started a few years ago we had a '97 Crown Vic. We have gotten rid of it and I believe the oldest patrol car we have now is an '02 or '03 Impala. With the purchase of our Chargers we are going to a fleet plan which will automatically retire a car once it hits it's third "birthday" regardless of the mileage on the car.

[SmallCityCop]

Shoot, we will never have Chargers...until the Vics go up. lol

[TGM]

Wyoming Highway Patrol cars "mile out" at 75k miles, which gets you a new car about every two years. The oldest car in our division right now is a 2007, as half of us just cycled into new rides at the start of this year.