Funny, seems the two cars of choice for police departments today are the crown Vic and the charger, I find the charger to be the most badass looking cop car in my lifetime.
My retired Marine friend, that's a Texas DPS Trooper, said the Charger was a POS! He wanted his Crown back after a month. It was quicker, but handled like ass. It REALLY handled like ass when it's stability program failed.It caused many wrecks because of that. He said the room in it was crap too. The engine, along with a lot of other things, couldn't stand up to the abuse of day to day patrol work.
Ya see, Ford had the cop car nailed. Durability was it's many strong suits. Ford kept the same 2 valve head set up in the Crown Vic, until 2011, when they ended production. It was the ONLY vehicle that got the 2V 4.6l engine, after Ford switched to the 3valve in 2005 in all their other vehicles. That 2V engine ran virtually unchanged from '99 to '11. Not much changed in the car itself from the frame and front suspension redesign with the 2003 model year. That vastly changed the handling and strength of the car.
I love my old Crown Vic LS Sport. It has the air ride rear suspension, but it's been converted to regular springs when that system went out for some reason. It does handle better with the air in varied situations with weight changes, but it can be a pain to keep in working order. Aftermarket pumps are not really that expensive and work better, but it handles great now. I just need to rebuild the front and rear suspension.....just old rubber bushings wore and cracked.
It basically has the cop car suspension, spring rates and roll bar thickness at a slightly lower stance. It has leather bolstered bucket seats with a center console with a shifter in the console. It's not a mushy ride. It's very smooth and very predictable when pushed with surprisingly little body roll. I do need to take it to a muffler shop though. It has a true dual exhaust stock, but it's waaaaay too quiet. I'm just used to being able to hear what my engine is doing at all times.
It's a simple and easy car to work on. I might get another ride of some sort this year. I don't like not having more than one vehicle. ........DRIVEABLE vehicles.
My boy got me into Crown Vics, the Panther platform. He's had quite a few of them. The LS Sport is a rare Crown Vic. I gave him the Sport wheels that came with the car, when I swapped 2015 Mustang GT wheels. They fit like they were made for the Crown. He put them on a Supervisor/Detective version of the Cop Crown Vic that he was gonna flip. It was a very nice car, but the rare wheels bumped up the price a grand on that car. He probably could have got more from that guy with how quickly he agreed to the price. LOL!
Yeah, I'm high and I know too much about Crown Vics!
