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Old 09-15-2012, 05:55 PM
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Mustang Kid Mustang Kid is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Grants Pass, OR
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Well, my city PD bought one new Taurus N/A. With 500 miles on the clock and less than a week in service the motor developed a knock and the Ford dealer here is currently having to replace the entire motor. I get the feeling the PD is not going to buy any more Taurus's.
They've had V6 chargers since 06. Pieces of crap you might say. Door wiring harness's fraying and causing mayhem, timing belts failing, brakes, visibility, and the list goes on. They bought a new 2011 Charger a few months ago. Looks really cool all white with the black grille and the body lines fit the graphics nicely. It's been in the shop more than it's been on the road. Visibility was fixed, but they've had countless problems with the car, mainly electrical I think. It was a V6 too(and the timing belt is now a chain on the new motors).
CHP says the Chargers go through brakes like crazy and new brakes are pretty expensive.

Oregon State police hasn't gotten any new Chargers. Don't know what the officers really think of them or what problems they've had.

Only reason CHP is going with the SUV (when ever the govn'r approves funds ) is that it's the only one that can handle the weight load and still be in the manufacturer's limits. Why not Chevy tahoes? Ford is cheaper.
EVOC loved the Caprice. The Taurus was basically a match to the Crown Victoria. Ford might re-configure the suspension on the Taurus so it can handle the CHP's payload.
Room inside of the taurus? No leg room behind the drivers seat, little room on the passenger side. Front is probably comparable to the CV.

The Caprice will do circles around the Crown Vics all day long (V8). My dad drove one already. It will handle sharp curves at twice the posted speed limit, brake fast and responsively, and acceleration is considerably better than a CV.
I'll put it this way, if you thought the Crown Vics were fast, the Caprice is a Demon. My dad scared the sales rep a few times (or the entire time ) when he would go around blind corners at excessive speeds, but the car hugged the road firmly.
Room? Plenty. The over 6ft tall sales rep had plenty of foot room even with a partition installed, I think there was still room to move the seat back. The console shift was no inconvenience for my dad, actually it might be better than the column shift. It's right there, easy and fast to shift out of park. Rouge River PD here outside of Grants Pass bought some new Caprices. I got to look at one of them. Equipment setup inside looked good and easy to get to switches even with a lap top mount.
Another thing the Caprice has going for it is that it will look like an Impala to most people, thus it's essentially a sleeper.

If you want to look into SUV's, the Ford Expedition is superb. My dad has one as his patrol vehicle. It'll throw you back in your seat and handle the curves like a car. Lots of room too.

Just try and get some promo cars to test drive like it looks like you are doing with the Charger. Don't just test one and be done with it. You really need to get a feel of all 3 of them.


(PS, I know most of this since my dad is in charge of the sheriff vehicle fleet )
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1985 CHP #8337
CHP Motor Transport Mustangs
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