26 replies to this topic

[JDS]

Looking at getting a daily driver and done a bit of research into ex police vehicles as they seem to be quite cheap. Anyone got any experience with this? Pros? Cons? I'm guessing high mileage and driven hard but well maintained and cheap.

[2.2_na]

You after one of these?

[ChrisS1]

Holes in roof and dash for lights and equipment

[ChrisS1]

Oh and soiled by crims

[JDS]

You after one of these?

No! Also that must be a publicity stunt, can't imagine a speedster makes a good police car...

Holes in roof and dash for lights and equipment

Dash doesn't bother me, the vx dash has holes in it!

Roof would surely be repaired, doesn't leak etc.

Oh and soiled by crims

Nice

Although don't really care, I wont be sitting in the back!

[theotherjonnymac]

Massive mileage on ex Police cars but serviced routinely. The Vaux dealer in Hemel does all the local Police cars and the VX mechanic there told me it was commonplace for the motorway cars to have 200,000 on the clock but they were still serviced at the correct intervals. After all, they are not paying for it - we are as taxpayers

[GeorgeBC]

Looking at getting a daily driver and done a bit of research into ex police vehicles as they seem to be quite cheap.

Anyone got any experience with this? Pros? Cons?

I'm guessing high mileage and driven hard but well maintained and cheap.

My mate bought a T5 ex police car which was all in good condition with only 125000 miles. Handled really well for a heavy front wheel drive car. It either had no warranty or a very short one because not long after he bought it the gearbox fecked up and cost £2500 to sort out. He bought it to tow his track car but started to spend all his money on the T5 rather than his toy so he sold it.

Im sure loads of people have owned them and had trouble free motoring just luck of the draw.

[Mangham54]

My best mate has had a couple. All had hidden damage where the exterior panels had been replaced, but sturural damage remained. Buyer beware really

[ghand]

If you drop on one my mate has used then forget it If you save enough to pay for any problems and none turn up your on a winner.Its a gamble.I think i would go for one older and "one lady owner" for the same cash.

[Bargi]

It's got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks...

[Defcon5]

Massive mileage on ex Police cars but serviced routinely. The Vaux dealer in Hemel does all the local Police cars and the VX mechanic there told me it was commonplace for the motorway cars to have 200,000 on the clock but they were still serviced at the correct intervals.

After all, they are not paying for it - we are as taxpayers

Whats with the rolleyes? Would you rather they didnt service them at all? Would be great if they broke down on the way to every other job.


As to the original topic, no, dont buy one.

It has been maintained on a budget
It has been hammered from cold on a regular basis
It will have been sat idling for hours and hours and hours
It will have a poverty spec interior, complete with missing trim and various holes
Someone will have definately pissed in the rear seats
The suspension will be knackered
Probably filled with the wrong fuel at some point
The paint will be shagged from the stickers and being cleaned with a garden brush
The only reason they are getting rid of it is because its not cost effective to keep it
It will have had a card operated starter, and the ECU wired up to a black box, so plenty of potential future electrical issues
It has had a shed load of kit in the back, akin to towing a small elephant around constantly

[theotherjonnymac]

Massive mileage on ex Police cars but serviced routinely. The Vaux dealer in Hemel does all the local Police cars and the VX mechanic there told me it was commonplace for the motorway cars to have 200,000 on the clock but they were still serviced at the correct intervals.

After all, they are not paying for it - we are as taxpayers

Whats with the rolleyes? Would you rather they didnt service them at all? Would be great if they broke down on the way to every other job.


As to the original topic, no, dont buy one.

It has been maintained on a budget
It has been hammered from cold on a regular basis
It will have been sat idling for hours and hours and hours
It will have a poverty spec interior, complete with missing trim and various holes
Someone will have definately pissed in the rear seats
The suspension will be knackered
Probably filled with the wrong fuel at some point
The paint will be shagged from the stickers and being cleaned with a garden brush
The only reason they are getting rid of it is because its not cost effective to keep it
It will have had a card operated starter, and the ECU wired up to a black box, so plenty of potential future electrical issues
It has had a shed load of kit in the back, akin to towing a small elephant around constantly

Like most company cars then

[VIX]

No! Also that must be a publicity stunt, can't imagine a speedster makes a good police car...

The Royal Dutch Police have two Speedsters that they apparently use as a vanguard for the Royal motorcade.

So now you know! The joy of Search etc ...

[ghand]

Massive mileage on ex Police cars but serviced routinely. The Vaux dealer in Hemel does all the local Police cars and the VX mechanic there told me it was commonplace for the motorway cars to have 200,000 on the clock but they were still serviced at the correct intervals.

After all, they are not paying for it - we are as taxpayers

Whats with the rolleyes? Would you rather they didnt service them at all? Would be great if they broke down on the way to every other job.


As to the original topic, no, dont buy one.

It has been maintained on a budget
It has been hammered from cold on a regular basis
It will have been sat idling for hours and hours and hours
It will have a poverty spec interior, complete with missing trim and various holes
Someone will have definately pissed in the rear seats
The suspension will be knackered
Probably filled with the wrong fuel at some point
The paint will be shagged from the stickers and being cleaned with a garden brush
The only reason they are getting rid of it is because its not cost effective to keep it
It will have had a card operated starter, and the ECU wired up to a black box, so plenty of potential future electrical issues
It has had a shed load of kit in the back, akin to towing a small elephant around constantly

Yes but apart from that a good buy
Also can you sell it on later with even more miles on.

[Ric218]

It's got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks...

[slindborg]

Massive mileage on ex Police cars but serviced routinely. The Vaux dealer in Hemel does all the local Police cars and the VX mechanic there told me it was commonplace for the motorway cars to have 200,000 on the clock but they were still serviced at the correct intervals.

After all, they are not paying for it - we are as taxpayers

Whats with the rolleyes? Would you rather they didnt service them at all? Would be great if they broke down on the way to every other job.


As to the original topic, no, dont buy one.

It has been maintained on a budget
It has been hammered from cold on a regular basis
It will have been sat idling for hours and hours and hours
It will have a poverty spec interior, complete with missing trim and various holes
Someone will have definately pissed in the rear seats
The suspension will be knackered
Probably filled with the wrong fuel at some point
The paint will be shagged from the stickers and being cleaned with a garden brush
The only reason they are getting rid of it is because its not cost effective to keep it
It will have had a card operated starter, and the ECU wired up to a black box, so plenty of potential future electrical issues
It has had a shed load of kit in the back, akin to towing a small elephant around constantly

Hammered from cold isnt necessarily a 'bad' thing, I mean if some can get to 200K without huge issues then getting oil pressure up immediately is great (Ford found that the Pinto in Sierras failed where as the same engine in the Tranists didnt... the answer was hammering from cold )

But the budget maintenance and gyppo interior should be enough to put you off wanting to own one. I looked briefly at ex plod cars and frankly they were never great value compared to normal equivalents

[ianrm]

Cheap for a reason.

[insanojackson]

I wouldnt touch one personally not unless i had an insight into that individual cars life. I have spent 14 years as both driver and passenger of these cars and honestly they get abused something rotten and most have been crashed at some point.

[Andrew aka Stuwy]

when the plod sell on a car do they return the engine management to standard or is it still remaped?

[tink]

No experience of ex-UK police cars, but a mate wanted a cheap car when at college in New Mexico. He ended up with an old (70's) ex cop car which still had enough features and panel colours to make him regularly get pulled over by the cops. By all accounts it was dangerous!