[MelvinJ]

The key will be the price. They have a car with a lot of Mercedes pieces underneath competing with a basically 25 year old car that's got a simple design and long-paid-for tooling. I know which car officers would prefer, but it's the department budget people that buy the cars. If they can get 5 Ford Interceptors for the same price as 4 Magnums, the choice may not be so clear.

 

[MelvinJ]

I just saw where the Interceptor goes for $24K. Figure with fleet discounts and options, the cars are probably being sold for $23-24K.

The cheapest Hemi Magnum goes for what, $30K? Add in the cost of extra police equipment and take away the fleet discount, and I still see at least a $5-6k difference. They'll sell a few, maybe like the old Z28/Mustang 5.0 pursuit cars, but I don't see it becoming too popular when most municipal budgets are stretched to the limit.

 

[MelvinJ]

Originally posted by AJR@Jun 26 2004, 11:46 PM
I will weigh in on this. I could be wrong, but it is best not to underestimate anything from DCX - Mercedes through Jeep. Juergen Schrempp said "Expect the unexpected" from DCX. Meaning, the Hemi Magnum may price at $29,000 to $30,000, but don't be surprised to see them selling a police version in the neighborhood of the Crown Victoria police car. It will probably be a little higher in price, but then, the DCX sales staff will promote the Hemi, more room, better safety, better quality, and a host of other items to get police forces to switch. Meanwhile, Ford will sit on its hands and falsely believe the Crown Vic will always stay the number 1 cruiser and GM will sit on the sidelines looking in. Never underestimate the Germans' abilities to make the American execs look stupid. The Japanese have been doing it over a decade, and now the Germans have entered the arena.

Well, if they want to give them away, that's certainly one way to get police departments to accept them. I just don't know their motivation for going after them that hard. What's the plant capacity on these cars? Aren't they selling beyond projections now? Why would they take up plant capacity for slim-margin fleet sales when they could be selling retail units?