Curious re: SSPs being Leased

[MOstang]

Hello - I've had an opportunity to study the paperwork more thoroughly that accompanined my 1992 Michigan State Police SSP Mustang. I'm fortunate in that this SSP has a deep amount of documentation including quite a bit of paperwork from the MSP. One thing I've focused in on I believe is something that hadn't previously been identified as far as the history on this SSP goes.

From the documentation it appears this SSP was Leased by the Michigan State Police. Two of the documents EvocBruce obtained from the MSP Fleet Computer Records indicate Leased (as opposed to Owned), which can be seen in attachments I've included. Additionally the CarFax indicates "Lease Vehicle Sold Registerd as commercial fleet vehicle". Documentation with the SSP includes the auction sale paperwork. The paperwork indicates the auction company as Greater Kalamazoo Auction company of Schoolcraft, Michigan (has aka of Schoolcraft Auto Auction Inc. of Michigan). The CarFax has a listing of Fleet Management Company of Schoolcraft, Michigan. The auction paperwork indicates the Seller as Wheels, Inc. which is a company I'm already aware of being a fleet management services company. The next entry on CarFax indicates it being registered in Ashland, Kentucky. The purchaser at this auction was Blue Streak Motors of Ashland, Kentucky.

I'm curious whether anyone is aware of whether it is typical or not for the Michigan State Police to Lease police vehicles? Incidentally the CarFax reports I have for the 34 MSP SSPs from 1989 and 1992....half or so of the 1992 ones have the same type of entry as mine indicating Lease Vehicle and Fleet Management Company.

My assumption from the above is as follows and appreciate thoughts whether I'm interpretting this correctly or not? Michigan State Police contracted for fleet management services with Wheels, Inc. The MSP sends a vehicle lease order to Wheels, Inc. who goes out and purchases vehicles based upon the order - in this case it was for (or included) some SSP Mustangs. Having purchased these vehicles, Wheels, Inc. in turn Leases them to the Michigan State Police. At the end of the Lease or whenever the MSP took the SSP out of service it went back to Wheels, Inc. who in turn auctioned off the SSP. The MSP paperwork, auction paperwork, CarFax all have a 10/16/97 sale date. Am I on the right track with this thought process?

Do we know of how many Agencies ended up Leasing versus Buying their SSPs? Was it the Connecticut State Police who leased through GELCO and didn't they have GELCO on the Buck Tag? That leads me to my next question. The Buck Tags (see attached) have Michigan State Police on them so I'm curious why these would have had that while the CTSP ones had the Lease Company name on them? Is it because the Michigan SSPs required a Special Paint Color?

I understand the Marti Reports will soon be available for the later year SSPs so it should be interesting to see their information. Sorry for packing so much info above but I'd be interested in feedback/thoughts you might have. Thank you.

[28HopUp]

Mike, it sounds to me as though you're heading the right way, but it'll just be speculation 'til you uncover the facts. Have you posted your inquiry on CCdC yet? Some of those guys are quite sharp and may be able to help you.

[GSPI]

Leasing of vehicles was a budgetary item for any department out there and many departments have done that in their history depending on funding. CT was a special case too as the GELCO cars were not tagged as GELCO if put into the CSP service specifically and did not get titled until after the cars were returned back to GELCO. The cars had to go to a fleet organization if it was a tagged specifically for that government fleet regardless of who the "financing" actually went through.

The suggestion of posting the question on CCdC would be a good idea Mike as there is more historical knowledge there at times for this type of function as there are many PD admin people that frequent that site too.