What are the Police driving these days?
Discussion
Not Sting and co. but HM's Police force. I'm planning a small bank robbery in the next few weeks and was just wondering what I need to be able to outrun (I must point out here that I'm just joking before I get arrested).
I remember a time when if you could outrun a big Ford/Vauxhall/Rover or possibly a Range Rover you were laughing. Police endorsement was usually a good indication of reliability and durability though.
I can't say I see a lot of Mondeos/Insignias being used by the Police now though, although I'm guessing the Panda cars are still mainly Corsas/Astras/Fiestas/Focuses?
So what is the Police car of choice these days? Volvo V70? 5-Series? I have even seen Skoda and Kia Police cars. Never anything French though!
This IMHO, was probably the coolest car that the British Police ever used
although not the coolest Police car ever!
On a not really that related note, what do junior cabinet ministers use these days since the demise of these? (if they're not important enough to have a Jag)
I remember a time when if you could outrun a big Ford/Vauxhall/Rover or possibly a Range Rover you were laughing. Police endorsement was usually a good indication of reliability and durability though.
I can't say I see a lot of Mondeos/Insignias being used by the Police now though, although I'm guessing the Panda cars are still mainly Corsas/Astras/Fiestas/Focuses?
So what is the Police car of choice these days? Volvo V70? 5-Series? I have even seen Skoda and Kia Police cars. Never anything French though!
This IMHO, was probably the coolest car that the British Police ever used
although not the coolest Police car ever!
On a not really that related note, what do junior cabinet ministers use these days since the demise of these? (if they're not important enough to have a Jag)
Edited by white_goodman on Friday 22 May 16:37
My local force has just had a shakeup of the vehicles.
The 1.3 CDTi Astra is almost gone now, and I'm sure it won't be missed as it's probably the worst police car ever made. They've been replaced with new Astra 1.7CDTi estates, though there are a couple of 1.6 CDTi hatchbacks there too. The standard car is now the Astra Estate. The small van is going to be the Vivaro, replacing the Transit Connect (which was a better van, I thought). Traffic cars are a mix of BMW 530d Tourers and A4 3.0 CDTi. Firearms is the utterly dreadful XC70. There are a couple of Land Rovers dotted around too. The old bits and pieces of the fleet (things like Antaras/Focii/) will be phased out. Neighbourhoods are getting 1.3 Corsas since they don't need any sort of performance.
The new Astra is certainly better than the old one. The steering rack is too slow, but they're considerably faster than the old 1.3's. The Astra H was absolute rubbish, at least Vauxhall have upped their game with this one.
All the cool, interesting cars of yore are long gone.
The 1.3 CDTi Astra is almost gone now, and I'm sure it won't be missed as it's probably the worst police car ever made. They've been replaced with new Astra 1.7CDTi estates, though there are a couple of 1.6 CDTi hatchbacks there too. The standard car is now the Astra Estate. The small van is going to be the Vivaro, replacing the Transit Connect (which was a better van, I thought). Traffic cars are a mix of BMW 530d Tourers and A4 3.0 CDTi. Firearms is the utterly dreadful XC70. There are a couple of Land Rovers dotted around too. The old bits and pieces of the fleet (things like Antaras/Focii/) will be phased out. Neighbourhoods are getting 1.3 Corsas since they don't need any sort of performance.
The new Astra is certainly better than the old one. The steering rack is too slow, but they're considerably faster than the old 1.3's. The Astra H was absolute rubbish, at least Vauxhall have upped their game with this one.
All the cool, interesting cars of yore are long gone.
In Lancashire the Vauxhall Astras have been replaced with Hyundai i30 Estates, though Vauxhall Vivaros are still used. They trialed a current model Astra but went with Hyundai. They also have a couple of Ford Kugas and a last generation Mitsubishi Outlander. Traffic police cars are BMW 3 and 5 Series and X5.
My dad recalls driving a Rover 800 Turbo traffic car in the 90's, IIRC it was the first one with a polycarbonate windscreen (pretty much all police cars have them now). His recollection was the screen having so many imperfections it strained your eyes to drive with it. Glad to know some things never change! I've seen many a polycarbonate windscreen with woeful imperfections, some people complain of getting headaches or feeling sick whilst driving them, particularly at night as the imperfections diffract lights at odd angles.
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