For more than a decade following the demise of the old rear-wheel-drive Chevrolet Caprice Ford absolutely dominated the American market for police vehicles with the Crown Victoria. Despite its already advanced age by the time the 21st century arrived, the Crown Vic's size, performance, reliability and relatively low cost made it the default choice until it was finally discontinued in 2011. The old stalwart was actually replaced by two different vehicles that at first were nowhere near as popular but continuous improvement has seen them slowly claw back market share from the Dodge and Chevrolet usurpers.
At its peak, the Crown Vic accounted for more than 70 percent of all police vehicle sales in the U.S. but the debut of new Police Interceptor models based on the Taurus and Explorer saw their combined share drop to just 38 percent. Unlike the old rear-drive, V8-powered, body-on-frame Crown Vic, the successors were unibody vehicles powered primarily by smaller turbocharged engines. In addition to the base model sedan and utility with a normally aspirated 3.7-liter V6, the modern Ford Police Interceptors were offered with a choice of a 2.0-liter turbocharged four cylinder or a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 with all-wheel-drive.
The high-performance variants of the Dodge Charger and Chevrolet Caprice are motivated by 5.7-liter and 6.0-liter V8 engines with rear-wheel-drive. Rather than conducting their own back-to-back testing, most police forces rely on performance data collected annually by the Michigan State Police (MSP) and Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD). Like all new vehicles, current police cars are equipped with traction and stability control systems.
Expert drivers can often meet or exceed the performance of the electronic systems when driven at the absolute limit on the track. However in the real world where things tend to be much more variable, even the best trained police officers are probably better off and certainly safer with these assistance systems active. Until this year however, Chrysler and GM sent their test vehicles to the LASD and MSP test sessions with a sticker on the dash, recommending that the traction and stability control be switched off. In the hands of the test drivers, this allowed the Charger and Caprice to frequently outrun the Fords which always ran with all assist systems active.
During the latest round of LASD testing, the all-wheel-drive, 3.5-liter Ford police sedan repeated as the quickest accelerating of the current breed of cop cars, hitting 0-60 mph in just 5.8 seconds compared to the 6.7 seconds for the Chevrolet and 6.8 for the Dodge. The 2.0-liter Ford also beat the last 0-60 and 0-100 mph runs of the last V8-powered Crown Vic in 2011.
Police pursuit is about more than just raw acceleration though. Just as the overall handling and braking performance of all vehicles has improved over the years, cop cars need to be able to keep up as well so LASD does testing at Fontana Speedway while the MSP take the competitors to Grattan Raceway in western Michigan. With the Dodge and Chevrolet now forced to run with stability control enabled, their lap times increased by 0.5 to 2.0 seconds, handing the victory to the Fords.
Until now, the 2.0-liter-powered Fords have only been rated for special service use such as detectives and community policing. After evaluating the collective test results this year, both the LASD and MSP have now decided that the four-cylinder Ford sedan and utility are fast enough to earn a pursuit rating, giving police forces a more affordable and fuel efficient option for their fleets.
Back in the days of the Crown Vic, police forces often preferred it over the competition in part because its enormous trunk with its large opening could easily accommodate all of the communications and emergency gear they had to haul around. Like the automotive market as a whole, in recent years, police have been migrating to utility vehicles to carry their gear and the Ford Explorer-based Interceptor utility now outsells the Taurus-based sedan by a wide margin (20,618 vs 8,291 through October 2015). Combined, the utility and sedan now account for 61 percent market share with the utility leading the Dodge Charger and the Ford sedan in third place.
Like the overall market, police vehicles are evolving and are no longer just the basic workhorses they once were. Law enforcement has to account for total performance capabilities, utility, efficiency and the latest in technology. Ford seems to be on a roll again in this market, no doubt spurred on by increased competition.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/samabuelsamid/2015/11/30/improved-performance-helps-ford-claw-back-police-vehicle-market-share/
2015-11-30T16:37:00+00:00