Officer Opinions on Current Cruisers

[CNTLOSE]

Well yesterday I met with the Chevy rep who brought us a Caprice.

WOW is all I can say. That car was fast, handled great, plenty of room, and could stop on a dime. Really shows how outdated the CV has become in 30+ years of the Panther platform.

Dodge is outfitting a car with a cage for us as I type. (That is customer service!) We should have it in a week or so. Still waiting to hear if the 2012/13 model year has addressed the brake and trans issues.

Ford customer service has been in the trash. No one can get us a demo or get me to someone who can...or at least the ones who write or call me back can not.

**But now that GSPI has provided me with another contact I will hopefully have some better luck.**

[FHP0665]

Originally Posted by CNTLOSE

Dodge is outfitting a car with a cage for us as I type. (That is customer service!) We should have it in a week or so. Still waiting to hear if the 2012/13 model year has addressed the brake and trans issues.

I just got into a brand new one this week (after only being on the trade list for a year with my CV that ended up with 187k!). I doubt I will have any issues to report before you need to make your decision but we did have one last year that the fuel tank expanded and almost ruptured on due to not venting properly. I think it was an isolated incident though. Other than the normal service bulletins that I have seen from Dodge itself for various things, it seems to be a solid car.

[CNTLOSE]

Originally Posted by FHP0665

I just got into a brand new one this week (after only being on the trade list for a year with my CV that ended up with 187k!). I doubt I will have any issues to report before you need to make your decision but we did have one last year that the fuel tank expanded and almost ruptured on due to not venting properly. I think it was an isolated incident though. Other than the normal service bulletins that I have seen from Dodge itself for various things, it seems to be a solid car.

Any issues with brakes or transmissions with any of your co-workers? That seems to be what all the agencies around here complain about. Brakes lasting 3k miles and trans going at 20k miles.

[ImEvil1]

I don't think they ever fixed the problem where they get stuck in park?

[FHP0665]

Originally Posted by CNTLOSE

Any issues with brakes or transmissions with any of your co-workers? That seems to be what all the agencies around here complain about. Brakes lasting 3k miles and trans going at 20k miles.

Funny you mention brakes because my zone partner stated that his brakes were starting squeal yesterday but he has a 2011 model with almost 30k miles on it. I should have 3k on mine by this time next month so I try to update the status on that.

We have been getting them sporadically since 2008 and I have yet to hear anyone that had a Tranny go out in one but I'm quite sure some where in the State it has happen. This year was the biggest order we had of them (because they finally got funding for it) so I'm sure there may be more Charger related issues as we get more in the field. Right now though most of the older CV's we have are the maintenance headache's!

[CNTLOSE]

Great, thank you for all that information. Hopefully Dodge will have a Charger to us by the end of next week so we can start the demo process. Our admin has our garage doing some research on maint costs of all three. If your partner made it 30k miles on a set that is pretty good. We seem to only get at max 16k on the CV's brakes.

Thanks again!

[Mustang Kid]

Well, my city PD bought one new Taurus N/A. With 500 miles on the clock and less than a week in service the motor developed a knock and the Ford dealer here is currently having to replace the entire motor. I get the feeling the PD is not going to buy any more Taurus's.
They've had V6 chargers since 06. Pieces of crap you might say. Door wiring harness's fraying and causing mayhem, timing belts failing, brakes, visibility, and the list goes on. They bought a new 2011 Charger a few months ago. Looks really cool all white with the black grille and the body lines fit the graphics nicely. It's been in the shop more than it's been on the road. Visibility was fixed, but they've had countless problems with the car, mainly electrical I think. It was a V6 too(and the timing belt is now a chain on the new motors).
CHP says the Chargers go through brakes like crazy and new brakes are pretty expensive.

Oregon State police hasn't gotten any new Chargers. Don't know what the officers really think of them or what problems they've had.

Only reason CHP is going with the SUV (when ever the govn'r approves funds ) is that it's the only one that can handle the weight load and still be in the manufacturer's limits. Why not Chevy tahoes? Ford is cheaper.
EVOC loved the Caprice. The Taurus was basically a match to the Crown Victoria. Ford might re-configure the suspension on the Taurus so it can handle the CHP's payload.
Room inside of the taurus? No leg room behind the drivers seat, little room on the passenger side. Front is probably comparable to the CV.

The Caprice will do circles around the Crown Vics all day long (V8). My dad drove one already. It will handle sharp curves at twice the posted speed limit, brake fast and responsively, and acceleration is considerably better than a CV.
I'll put it this way, if you thought the Crown Vics were fast, the Caprice is a Demon. My dad scared the sales rep a few times (or the entire time ) when he would go around blind corners at excessive speeds, but the car hugged the road firmly.
Room? Plenty. The over 6ft tall sales rep had plenty of foot room even with a partition installed, I think there was still room to move the seat back. The console shift was no inconvenience for my dad, actually it might be better than the column shift. It's right there, easy and fast to shift out of park. Rouge River PD here outside of Grants Pass bought some new Caprices. I got to look at one of them. Equipment setup inside looked good and easy to get to switches even with a lap top mount.
Another thing the Caprice has going for it is that it will look like an Impala to most people, thus it's essentially a sleeper.

If you want to look into SUV's, the Ford Expedition is superb. My dad has one as his patrol vehicle. It'll throw you back in your seat and handle the curves like a car. Lots of room too.

Just try and get some promo cars to test drive like it looks like you are doing with the Charger. Don't just test one and be done with it. You really need to get a feel of all 3 of them.


(PS, I know most of this since my dad is in charge of the sheriff vehicle fleet )

[CNTLOSE]

I agree the Chevy is very impressive. I have been at the OSP academy all week and had a chance to talk with several Troopers. OSP went to Chargers this year due to a two year price deal...which is cheaper than the last CV they purchased. The brake issues are reported to have been fixed with the 2012 model year.

Still waiting for Dodge to deliver our Charger with a cage. Chevy has been nothing but great to us. Ford has been nothing but jackasses and after some more terrible reviews and complaints I think I will not even waste my time with them.