[MelvinJ]

Originally posted by IMPALAon20s+May 27 2004, 01:10 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (IMPALAon20s @ May 27 2004, 01:10 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-stewacide@May 26 2004, 10:36 PM
If CV safety was really an issue it would cost Ford a fraction to re-engineer it compared to what it would cost GM to bring out a whole-new car.

Also, why would police departments care about a car being RWD or not? It's the size and reliability they're after.

same reasons most people state for wanting a RWD v8. more power, more durable, less torq steer. sure someone will mention other reasons too. [/b][/quote]
I agree that most departments still want RWD for some of the same reasons that a lot of GMI people want RWD.

But a lot of it has to do with the FWD models that have put out there for police duty. They simply weren't durable enough (Taurus, Lumina, Intrepid) for police work, nor were they powerful enough.

I wonder if the Impala is changing at least some of that perception. I see a lot of departments using them, and I haven't heard any complaints of durability. That makes sense since the Impala was designed from the start for police duty.

A cop I talked to still much preferred the Caprices (I was riding in the back of one at the time) over the Impalas because of the power and room. Cops, wearing bullet-proof vests, gun belts, radios, cuffs, and all the other stuff need a lot of room in a car.

With the 5.3 V8 in the Impala, it should easily pull away from the Crown Vic, so that may be one less complaint they have about FWD cruisers.

 

[MelvinJ]

Originally posted by stewacide@May 27 2004, 03:01 PM
The Impala has done a fine job as a police cruiser, and more and more departments are switching over. RWD/FWD is NOT an issue. These aren't sports cars!

True, they aren't sports cars, but they probably get driven at their limits a lot more than the vast majority of sports cars out there.

 

[MelvinJ]

Originally posted by LakeMichigan@May 27 2004, 04:02 PM
this is off topic....the only complaints I've heard about the Impala FWD in police cruiser use has been that the car is too narrow in the dash area for 2 people and all the computer equipment that they now carry, and a concern as far as servicing, because of "off highway" manuevers, most body & frame cars can handle a jolt such as curb jumping, rather than a unibody FWD....I too though have heard all good otherwise, despite the 2 "issues" I brought up...such as much better fuel economy, better acceleration, better brakes, better handling sterring....

The narrowness is definitely an issue with them since they carry so much equipment with them these days, and there's nothing the Impala can do about that. When the Impala came out I remember Chevrolet said that the undercarriage was designed so that if the whole front end dragged on a curb, nothing but the subframe would touch. Everything else was tucked up underneath.

I would imagine that police in snowy states like mine would appreciate the FWD in the winter. With RWD, it's easy to get into embarassing situations, like simply pulling into a downsloping driveway and not being able to back out.

 

[MelvinJ]

Originally posted by vfr_mike@May 27 2004, 06:45 PM
Sorry, but the current Impala 9C1/9C3 comes nowhere near out performing the Caprice 9C1. And contrary to what some of you may have been hearing, the general consensus is that the Impala 9C1/9C3 isn't holding up very well. It's all over the internet on any board that specifically deals with police duty vehicles. It's a shame, but they just don't hold up under the pounding that they get in street patrols. When it comes to severe duty, it's really tough to beat body-on-frame construction and overbuilt V8s (even ford loses out to chevy on this one).

I definitely knew that the Impala didn't didn't perform nearly as well as the Caprice, but I hadn't heard they were breaking up any more than the Crown Vics. That's a shame.

I wonder how much Dodge will be able to sell their Charger police specials for. Crown Vics and Impalas are pretty cheap to build, and these fleets are pretty sensitive to price. Mercedes IRS is bound to drive up the price.

 

[MelvinJ]

Originally posted by Ming@May 27 2004, 07:02 PM
Please save us from the day when cops give up and decide to drive around in Camrys....

GM needs something good and solid out there to stop this from happening.

When I moved to Rapid City, SD in the early 80's, their entire police fleet was Volvo sedans. It was a very odd sight having the full police light bar and stripes on these Swedish sedans running around cowboy country.

In '84, the city awarded the contract to Ford, and the Volvos disappeared.