All things must pass, a wise man once wrote. And, so it must pass with the venerable Ford Crown Victoria – both for everyday car buyers and for police officers.
After 15 years of dominating the police-cruiser market, the Crown Vic will retire in late 2011. That means police agencies all over the country will have some decisions to make, since about 85 percent of the 75,000 police cars currently sold in the U.S. are Crown Vics.
Indeed, the Crown Vic has “lorded it” over that market since 1996, when GM stopped building the Chevy Caprice, which for years was Ford’s main competitor in the police-car niche.
What's NewBut police agencies will have plenty of options as they look for replacements. In October and November, General Motors and Ford, respectively, announced their own plans for all-new police cars that will be “purpose-built” -- that is, specifically designed and built as police cruisers.
GM said it will start building a new Chevy Caprice Police Patrol Vehicle (PPV) in time for it to be hit the highways in early 2011, and Ford announced it will deliver the new Ford Police Interceptor in time to replace the Crown Vic cruiser when it goes away later that year.
And there’s also the new Carbon Motors, which has announced it will produce a new purpose-built police cruiser of its own -- which it is currently referring to as the “E7," or more potently as "The Machine" -- starting in 2012.
Ford actually has several models currently being used by police departments, including the Escape Hybrid, the Explorer XLT, the Expedition and the Fusion Hybrid. Presently, GM has two other models used by police agencies -- the Chevy Impala and Chevy Tahoe SUV.
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