Preliminary Police Vehicle Test Report Has a Bit of a Surprse.

"AkursedX" (akursedx) 10/04/2018 at 09:35 • Filed to: None

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Every year the Michigan State Police conducts thorough and extensive testing of all available police vehicles on the market. Tests include top speed, braking, and Grattan Raceway lap times among many other parameters .

The new top-performer among Police fleet-vehicles

The 2019 preliminary test results have been released and it is rather interesting that the quickest and fastest of the group is an SUV.

Quotes are taken from   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! :

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I’d say that Ford has hit it out of the park with their new Police Interceptor Utility. This vehicle will almost certainly keep Ford at the top of the profitable Police Fleet-Vehicle sales.

The full Michigan State Police Preliminary Report (Motorcycle numbers are included too) can be found here:

https://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,4643,7-123—16274—,00.html

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > AkursedX 10/04/2018 at 09:41

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Can ford stop making the Explorer good so the police departments stop buying the same car as many moms and then not putting any police markers on it... Unmarked cars should be illegal.

Ash78, voting early and often > AkursedX 10/04/2018 at 09:45

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I’m still fortunate to live in a place where the cops are in marked Tahoes (or blacked out ones), but most of the adjacent municipalities are using Explorers. The county sheriff is using older Crown Vics . A couple nearby towns have Chargers.

I’ve never been so scared of half the cars on the road at once. I miss the days when they all had a Caprice or Crown Vic. Made life a lot easier.

Zaxbys > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 10/04/2018 at 09:46

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There’s an electronics repair place in my town that has an Explorer with a push bar on the front, a black and white paint scheme on it, and in big bold letters “ PHONE ” on the side. It makes me not want to deal with them just because of the stupid company car.

CalzoneGolem > AkursedX 10/04/2018 at 09:47

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I know a couple Maine state troopers and they are all going Explorer and no one is looking back. 

facw > AkursedX 10/04/2018 at 09:48

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Being extremely fast seems like its really not especially important in most if not all police vehicles. Almost all modern cars are going to be fast enough. If you need 150mph to chase someone, you probably shouldn’t be chasing them in the first place, you are just creating a risk to the public (and the officers ). Just use the radio to get ahead of them.

Things like officer comfort, ability to safely hold/transport people who have been arrested, storage capacity, reliability, maintenance costs, fuel economy, and total vehicle cost all strike me as being more important than track performance.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 10/04/2018 at 09:49

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it’s true it used to be you could see a cope from a mile away. now you have white Explorers with no roof lights, or very low profile ones. So now every time you see a silver or white (the two highest selling colors) Explorer you’re faced with a moment of panic and the question “was that a cop or a mom?”

The only real give away is the black trim rather than chrome, but then there’s the Explorer Sport with it’s black trim. 

punkgoose17 > AkursedX 10/04/2018 at 09:51

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TIL the 2019 Ford Police Responder Hybrid Sedan is a Fusion. The Taurus and Taurus I nterceptor are dead.

bob and john > AkursedX 10/04/2018 at 10:11

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oh christ, they are testing FJR for cop duty? those are actually fast ass bikes. 

Maxima Speed > Zaxbys 10/04/2018 at 10:17

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That’s awesome I would totally deal with them.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > AkursedX 10/04/2018 at 10:40

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That does sound pretty fast for an SUV.

Meanwhile in the Netherlands the police glued the shift paddles on the new Mercedes-Benz B-class cop cars stuck, since they ‘don’t want to distract the cops with having to shift’. Which is funny as they used to have manual cars before these, so certainly paddle shifting should already be less distracting, but faster/more predictable than fully automatic in a chase situation

TorqueToYield > AkursedX 10/04/2018 at 10:51

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90% of the new police cars I see are the Explorers.

Pain in the ass to tell them apart from normal cars. Except the wheels/tires are normally a good give away. And the little antenna thing is normally a cylinder instead of the shark fin XM radio antenna. And I think the police ones never have the roof rack side bars.

shop-teacher > AkursedX 10/04/2018 at 11:03

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Nothing makes me arse pucker like a black or white Explorer anymore.  Pretty much every town around me has Explorers for their regular cops, and Tahoes for the watch commanders.

KnowsAboutCars > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 10/04/2018 at 11:27

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I wonder what was the thought process that lead to choosing these. Seems like a weird choice for cop cars.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > KnowsAboutCars 10/04/2018 at 12:18

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They are replacing VW Tourans so it’s not really weird anymore , but yeah MPV cop cars are not a really logical choice from a speed perspective. I think the main reasons behind them are that they can easily fit criminals in the back, have more cargo capacity (they have a drawer system in the back with everything ranging from traffic cones to first aid supplies and teddy bears to comfort kids), and are easy to get in and out of quickly while being fully equipped.

Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! > Zaxbys 10/04/2018 at 12:21

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Do you  live in Rochester, MN because I see one like that everyday.

KnowsAboutCars > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 10/04/2018 at 12:57

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I get Tourans but isn’t the B-class quite small mpv ? Police has been using vans for decades here. Transits at first and then moving on to T4 and onwards Transporters.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > KnowsAboutCars 10/04/2018 at 13:04

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Yeah the B-class is a bit smaller, but from what I’ve heard the Touran wasn’t agile enough in some situations. They also use Transporters here, depends on the application.

Takuro Spirit > AkursedX 10/04/2018 at 13:08

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Not surprising that a still-in-camo pre-production vehicle bested a bunch of older civilian-based vehicles.

Ford built it just to be the best cop car, of COURSE it won.

Zaxbys > Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! 10/04/2018 at 13:34

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Nope, but it’s the same “chain” (I was looking for a pic earlier, and found the website showing their three locations)

AkursedX > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 10/04/2018 at 14:08

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!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

If you see on in your rear view, look to see if it has a roof rack, that’s the main giveaway . From the rear, the pot-metal exhaust tips, and the flat black hatch trim (The sports have a gloss black one) are the two other main giveaways.

Sweet Trav > AkursedX 10/04/2018 at 14:13

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Also the Old Taurus SHO based PI kicked everything else’s ass.

Look up the 2017 results.

It was faster by almost a full second around Grattan Raceway.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 10/04/2018 at 14:24

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I still do not understand why people are so incredibly infatuated with being able to spot cop cars. The obvious solution is to just not speed more than the generally accepted safe margin.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > punkgoose17 10/04/2018 at 14:33

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ORLY? That’s interesting. I was  curious how the 3.5EB Taurus would stack up against the new Explorer.

punkgoose17 > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/04/2018 at 14:42

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The Ecoboost Taurus was still available in 2018. It was 0.7 tenths quicker 0-60 mph.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/04/2018 at 14:50

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https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/oh-cuyahoga/police-offer-tips-on-what-to-do-if-you-are-pulled-over-by-an-unmarked-car

Because we should not have to worry about who is actually pulling us over. When the police have to put out warnings, it’s not right. I have had Police officers tell me that it is fine to call 911 if pulled over by an unmarked car.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > punkgoose17 10/04/2018 at 15:06

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ah thanks for doing the leg-work! Haha. I’m thinking this new Explorer has the 400hp/tq 3.0?

And holy shit! The Fusion Hybrid model takes 9.2 seconds.

The Taurus SHO or Interceptor is a bargain these days by the way. How do I know? I own one and my trade-in value is below $10k, mine has 88k miles.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 10/04/2018 at 15:06

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But this is a factor regardless of you having recognized the car.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/04/2018 at 15:09

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Because cops are supposed to be public servants, not intimidating  assholes. Seriously, we should paint our cop cars like the brits. If I need to flag down a cop, or a cop needs to block traffic, I don’t want to have to guess which of the 35 black Explorers in my vision is actually a cop.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/04/2018 at 15:12

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Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 10/04/2018 at 15:26

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Okay, so you want unmarked cars to be disallowed? Honestly proceeding to a well-lit area and/or calling 911 in the process is great advice during a dubious traffic stop. Whether or not the police is or is not allowed to have unmarked cars is NOT going to stop private individuals from acting like they have one.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/04/2018 at 15:28

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If the car is marked, then the story is a bit different . In fact, the S tate of Washington bans unmarked cars for any reason but undercover work or by the State Troopers(to deal with  trucks I assume) for this reason.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) 10/04/2018 at 15:30

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I’m 31 years old and live in a downtown area, a few weeks ago was the first time I’ve ever had to flag a cop car down. How often do you actually need to flag a cop car down + how often are you hindered by that car possibly being unmarked? Very often?

If he needs to block traffic, they still have super-flashy-lights.

I do however agree that MOST cop cars should be easily recognizable, but I don’t want to entirely remove the option for cops to have unmarked cars, I bet in some cases it comes in handy. But again, I’m all for minimizing it. One good reason would be that a more obvious police presence such as your picture would probably increase safety.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 10/04/2018 at 15:35

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Yeah, I think that’s fair. I certainly agree that an unmarked police car should be for special use cases.

- stake outs

- undercover work

- police officials that aren’t in the business of regularly pulling people over

I’m sure there are several other cases. But I would certainly agree that a rule such as “no police shall drive unmarked vehicles after dark for the purpose of making traffic stops” would make a lot of sense, given cases like the article you linked.

So yeah, I’m changing my tune a little bit. I just tend to get a little up-in-arms whenever I see people complaining about not being able recognize cop cars because they look like mom’s grocery getter. Most of the time these are people, I assume, that complain it hinders their ability to 10+ over the speed limit.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/04/2018 at 15:45

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I only go 9 over  the limit so HA. But really, it is just more of a safety thing to me. 

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 10/04/2018 at 15:49

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yeah, that seems to be the sweet spot in Michi... I mean Mexico. I saw the stats on it some years ago and the odds are pretty darn good, haha.

UnknownPerson2 > Sweet Trav 10/04/2018 at 16:03

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COG FTW!

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/04/2018 at 16:32

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Unmarked cars should never be making traffic stops. If you want your detectives in beige Camrys, go for it. But general patrol/traffic cops should be highly visible.

Shift24 > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 10/04/2018 at 17:14

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In Ohio though its similar to Washington. The cars have to be marked with lights outside the vehicle. So even in a state that has basically banned unmarked cars since the 70s people are still susceptible to being pulled over because they are following order.

They need separate vehicles but that cost to much, just ask Carbon motors .