Seeing a lot of super low mile Taurus cop cars, anyone know why?

"Egoods" (egoods) 11/19/2014 at 22:07 • Filed to: None

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So I put in my pre-order and down payment in for my Charger Hellcat this past week (hopefully get it before the summer, I know I won't get it in the first allotment), and I've been searching for a suitable daily driver since then. While I'd love to rock the Hellcat every day I live in Michigan and travel all over the state for work. My 2014 Charger R/T AWD Max has been a fantastic car but what kind of masochist drives a less-awesome version of a car he already owns (not to mention I'd like to cash out on some of my "automotive equity).

It wasn't long before I started to look at the Taurus (specifically the SHO), it meets all my must-have requirements (AWD, affordable, decently, and roomy enough for someone over 6' tall to drive long-distance comfortable). On pure chance I ended up stumbling on to a dealership's listing for a "Police Interceptor Sedan" or, as everyone outside of the Ford marketing department calls it, the Taurus cop car. The one in question peaked my interest almost instantly. It was a 2013 model with less then 2k miles on the clock... that's NOT a typo, the car had a hair over 1800 miles on it. It was also AWD with the same twin turbo ecoboost from the SHO. For all intents and purposes I was looking at a "poor man's SHO". A brief bit of searching later and it turns out this was surprisingly common to see in inventory on quite a few dealership lots.

Go ahead, just Google "For Police Interceptor For Sale", you'll see dozens of dealership's with obscenely low-mile cars in inventory. I'd say 80% have the 365hp SHO engine, while the rest have a N/A V6 out of the mustang good for 305hp (that's exclusive to the interceptor... fun fact!). Almost all of them are going for right around $20k. The other police-spec options from Chryco and GM are a good-bit more difficult to find, and involve auctions, and average milage well over 10k for sure.

I'm sleeping on the idea of buying something "unconventional" like this but I'm hard-pressed to find many downsides. My question to you Oppo is... what's the catch? Seriously, where are these cars coming from and why are they there!?!

Vicente Esteve > Egoods 11/19/2014 at 22:11

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Congratulations on the Hellcat, what color?

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > Egoods 11/19/2014 at 22:13

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TL;DR... but seriously, congrats on the Hellcat

Slant6 > Egoods 11/19/2014 at 22:15

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From my understanding they were pre-production test vehicles that were loaned to departments through the dealers then returned when the department was done testing and had placed an order. I'm seeing a ton of new Caprices (police SS) at my local dealer. AWD charger police cars are around too if you look hard enough.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > Egoods 11/19/2014 at 22:15

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Surplus cars, maybe?

Haimatox > Egoods 11/19/2014 at 22:19

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Wait, repeat everything. I heard "Charger Hellcat" and stopped paying attention.

shop-teacher > Egoods 11/19/2014 at 22:23

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I can find no flaws in this idea. You should go for it.

blacktruck18 > Egoods 11/19/2014 at 22:23

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Congrats on the Hellcat.

PatBateman > Egoods 11/19/2014 at 22:24

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Time out.

Question: did the dealer charge a mark up for your new four door drag monster? If so, how much?

Egoods > PatBateman 11/19/2014 at 22:35

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No. But, I won't be getting it in the first allotment, and my parents are pretty close friends with the owner so that helped too! I'll hopefully have it before summer, but no guarantees. I refuse to pay over stick, since they're not limited production, I can't justify literally throwing money away.

Egoods > Slant6 11/19/2014 at 22:38

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AWD is a must-have so the Caprice is out, and the Charger is out too... the last 8 cars I've owned were AWD LX platform cars, it's time for me to branch out.

Egoods > Vicente Esteve 11/19/2014 at 22:41

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Thanks! I went with pitch black and black napa leather/alcantara on the interior. I'm going for low-key... Ha! No, seriously the reason I went for it is much more immature. To me, the car strikes me as "nefarious"... It gives me that "villain car" vibe, so, black was a no-brainer.

Egoods > 4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 11/19/2014 at 22:59

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Yeah... I blame the DayQuil, it always seems to make me ramble like I'm cocked up. And thank you, I'm pretty psyched. 10 years ago this would just be a car on a poster hanging on my wall, I've been fortunate enough to be in a position to actually buy the dream car this time. Not I just need to make sure I don't kill myself in it... and I'm rambling again.

Egoods > shop-teacher 11/19/2014 at 23:14

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There's a reason why I didn't post a link to the exact car I was looking at :). I sent an email and to my amazement I actually got a response just now to the few minor concerns I had. Basically I wanted to know if any of the consumable/wearable items were specific to the Interceptor, I don't want to be locked in to sourcing from the dealer only for things like rotors/pads/filters. But I was just informed that the only Interceptor specific consumable is the engine air filter, because it has a modified airbox design. So... there's a good chance by this time tomorrow I'll be the proud owner of a dark blue 2013 Interceptor with 613 miles on the odometer.

Milky > Egoods 11/19/2014 at 23:16

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(jelly)

shop-teacher > Egoods 11/19/2014 at 23:18

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Sweeeeet. Make sure to post about it!

Vicente Esteve > Egoods 11/19/2014 at 23:53

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Oh man, black is the one color i'd get mine in. But with the red interior.

Still, amazing choice and would be amazingly impatient of it arriving.

Zoom > Egoods 11/20/2014 at 00:05

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Where do you live in MI?

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > Egoods 11/20/2014 at 03:25

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Full reason to ramble dear boy. Helluva machine :)