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Police to dump Australian-made Holden Commodores in favour of American muscle cars

8K views 54 replies 27 participants last post by  chinamonty 
#1 ·
Police to dump Australian-made Holden Commodores in favour of American muscle cars with a top speed of 280 kilometres an hour
Daily Mail
By Fiona Connor
23 May 2017



  • An American-made Chrysler 300 SRT may be the next police squad vehicle
  • The V8-powered sedan has been tipped as the next highway patrol unit
  • The Chrysler can reach speeds up to 280 km/h and hit 100 km/h in five seconds
  • It is understood parent company FCA are vying for the police force contract


NSW Police could be trading in their regular Holden Commodore SS squad patrol cars following test drives of the Chrysler 300 SRT.
The V8-powered sedan has been tipped as the next highway patrol recruit.

Australia's remaining local car manufacturers Holden and Toyota will this year end local production, which means police are searching for an imported high-powered machine that can handle Australia's mixed terrain.
*Full Article at Link
 
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#11 ·
They have - Vic HP rejected them, according to a bike cop I spoke with. Terrible brakes, wallowy handling (with the factory 'cop shocks') too many visits to service dept for unspecified faults in DIC. Terrible economy, even on the 5.7 with AFM. Plus the 5.7s were barely quicker than a I6 Falcon or V6 Commodore.

The cops assigned to them hated them - poor ergonomics for extended sitting, strange controls, poor ingress/egress, poor packaging and the interiors started falling apart straight away. They got given back at the end of the eval period.

I think the cops are expecting more from the Kia Stinger - and Kia is reportedly keen to do a 'AusPol' special for handling.
 
#8 ·
How can you dump a car that's being discontinued?


Good to see the NSWPS still going with a V8 sedan for highway duties I guess. QLDPS has already gone Sonata for town duties.
 
#12 ·
Good, it serves GM and Ford right if Kia gets in there with a nice police contract.
That could be the best product placement campaign that company has ever had in Australia.

The only thing that sigh change cops' minds is a sporty SUV like the 2.7 V6 in that Edge, er..Equator or is it Enema (?)
that Ford was planning to sell in Australia...if only thye could ge the name right (just use Territory)
 
#15 ·
Isn't the title a little misleading, the police aren't really dumping the AUSTRALIAN made Commodore, it's more like GM is no longer producing, forcing the police to look elsewhere.

Is importing from the USA to Australia going to be any more cost effective than importing the SS from Australia to the USA? FCA must be cutting them a pretty good deal - I assume the Australian government isn't going to pay through the nose....
 
#19 ·
...

Is importing from the USA to Australia going to be any more cost effective than importing the SS from Australia to the USA? FCA must be cutting them a pretty good deal - I assume the Australian government isn't going to pay through the nose....
Yes, it importing from the USA to Australia is more cost effective than the other way around. It's called "economies of scale." It is how exports are done today--by just about everyone. You build cars close to big markets and sell them everywhere else.

You live in the USA. There is a lot of caterwauling in the USA about imports. However, most cars sold in the USA are built in the USA or in neighboring Canada or Mexico. BMW builds SUVs in South Carolina. It exports them around the World. Mercedes Benz builds builds cars in Alabama which it also exports around the World. It is not just the Germans. The Japanese have been building cars in the USA for decades. Even the Koreans build cars in the USA although they continue to import many.

That said, I agree with those who believe that it is a bad idea for Australian police departments to adopt Chrysler 300s. I also believe that it is a bad idea for FCA to sell the 300 as a police vehicle. I don't know the purchasing rules in Australia, but in the USA police vehicles must be purchased from the lowest bidder. Often cooperating departments will combine their forces and buying power to secure even lower prices that they would have otherwise. The result is that the "winning" seller earns minimal to no profit on the sale. It sounds like both buyer and seller will regret this decision.
 
#26 ·
Aus gets two V8 models both with the 5.4l hemi. SRT Core (stripped) & SRT (standard spec). The SRT Core didn't do so well with VicPol. NSWPol has had a historical Ford bias. Kia Stinger trials for VicPol before end of this year. Given paucity of options, they will make sure it works.
 
#29 ·
My read is Kia is keen to get cars on the road with the police stickers for cred, plus the Sorrentos for SUV duty (and they're considering Supercars, too) - they'll do whatever it takes. Given Kia's warranty and the local suspension tuning shop, I'd say the Stinger might get 'Aus-spec' suspension as a police option, as whatever works here will probably ace the UK A/B road network (and they already use Kias in a lot of local plod there) and the UK police would probably love to ditch the expensive Bimmers for pursuit.
 
#37 ·
There can be a lot of sense to that. Not every police car has to be a rolling warehouse of potentially useful law enforcement "stuff", with NASCAR, high-speed pursuit capabilities. Particularly within a tightly-packed metropolitan area like NYC, where backup is rarely more than a few blocks away, and high-speed pursuit almost being ridiculous. A small, cheap vehicle (doesn't have to be a Smart car) that can transport a couple of officers around should be plenty for a majority of the city's fleet.
 
#39 ·
With regards to the Chrysler 300 SRT as a police vehicle in Australia,
I heard it was eliminated a while back as being unsuitable, lots of issues but mostly basic ergonomics
with simply getting in and ut of the vehicle, placement of equipment, the cars are heavy and not really
that duel efficient compared to Falcon and Commodore.
 
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