Ex Police T5 for little over shed money
Discussion
I suppose its time to stop lurking and post a bit about my new purchase...
I've not had too many cars previously, I started out with a 1.0 12V Corsa with no TC, ABS, PAS, Radio or even a clock... it taught me a lot about driving, mainly that Corsas will understeer in the dry and fail to turn corners at all in the wet. But, for 700 quid it did me for a couple of years:
From there I moved up to a Focus; Ebony spec with heated screens, leather heated seats, traction control, air con, the works. Found all the loom for cruise control taped everywhere which swiftly got retrofitted! Fantastic little car, sadly it had to go as my job description changed and I had to start going off road...
So, I had a budget of about £2500 to find something capable of 1000 miles a week, go anywhere, be comfortable and not cost the earth to run. Most importantly, it had to be reliable...
...2001 Range Rover P38, 4.0V8 on LPG. Famed for it's reliability and excellent fuel economy! And it was over budget, a smidge over £3k. But it was a hell of a beast, acres of leather, built in sat nav, Harman Kardon stereo, and that V8 roar
. In the end it managed to return about 16-17mpg on a run, and about 13mpg round town on LPG. Considering LPG is 60-70p a litre, after a bit of man maths it wasn't too bad.
It got me to some fantastic places though, surveying some of the most remote mobile phone masts in the country. I then started university, and intended to keep it as long as I could... not even a month later the thing starts overheating. After diagnosing and replacing half the cooling system, it was getting obvious that either the head gasket had gone (again) or the cylinder liner had cracked. So I sold the Range Rover for spares, and went looking for something small, sensible and economical to last me through university.
Oops.
A 2003/53 ex police V70 T5 - It was owned by Merseyside police for 7 years, before being sold on to it's previous owner who did 2k miles a year until trading it in.
Police spec upgrades from factory including:
Reinforced chassis
Stiffer rear shock absorbers
Thicker anti roll bars
Bigger brakes
Police wiring loom ("Expertly" removed by cutting back any loose wires and tucking them away!)
It seems the general opinion is the police never remapped or tweaked them, which in this case I'd agree with.
Depending on who you ask buying ex police is either a fantastic idea, or the quick way to financial ruin. I've got no problem buying a car that has been driven hard as long as it has the paperwork to show it has been looked after, and a quick flick through the history shows it did about 15k a year, only going through tyres and bulbs every 4k. Regularly serviced too, and a new clutch 30,000 miles ago is a nice thing to have.
I bought it with 12 months MOT, fairly new tyres all round, AC works, cruise works and the interior is in decent condition considering the abuse it has taken. I paid £1095, which is probably a bit over the odds for one of these, but I needed a car ASAP.
I admit it was a bit of an impulse buy, I had a test drive and quickly fell in love with the speed and the growl from the T5... I decided I could live with 25mpg, rang the insurance up, and drove it away.
It needs a service, possibly a new timing belt (unless the police did it quite late on as part of a service), and a new radio. After that I might start looking into getting a remap, I'm hearing numbers of 290-300bhp which is very tempting!
Lets see how long it lasts!
I've not had too many cars previously, I started out with a 1.0 12V Corsa with no TC, ABS, PAS, Radio or even a clock... it taught me a lot about driving, mainly that Corsas will understeer in the dry and fail to turn corners at all in the wet. But, for 700 quid it did me for a couple of years:
From there I moved up to a Focus; Ebony spec with heated screens, leather heated seats, traction control, air con, the works. Found all the loom for cruise control taped everywhere which swiftly got retrofitted! Fantastic little car, sadly it had to go as my job description changed and I had to start going off road...
So, I had a budget of about £2500 to find something capable of 1000 miles a week, go anywhere, be comfortable and not cost the earth to run. Most importantly, it had to be reliable...
...2001 Range Rover P38, 4.0V8 on LPG. Famed for it's reliability and excellent fuel economy! And it was over budget, a smidge over £3k. But it was a hell of a beast, acres of leather, built in sat nav, Harman Kardon stereo, and that V8 roar
. In the end it managed to return about 16-17mpg on a run, and about 13mpg round town on LPG. Considering LPG is 60-70p a litre, after a bit of man maths it wasn't too bad. It got me to some fantastic places though, surveying some of the most remote mobile phone masts in the country. I then started university, and intended to keep it as long as I could... not even a month later the thing starts overheating. After diagnosing and replacing half the cooling system, it was getting obvious that either the head gasket had gone (again) or the cylinder liner had cracked. So I sold the Range Rover for spares, and went looking for something small, sensible and economical to last me through university.
Oops.
A 2003/53 ex police V70 T5 - It was owned by Merseyside police for 7 years, before being sold on to it's previous owner who did 2k miles a year until trading it in.
Police spec upgrades from factory including:
Reinforced chassis
Stiffer rear shock absorbers
Thicker anti roll bars
Bigger brakes
Police wiring loom ("Expertly" removed by cutting back any loose wires and tucking them away!)
It seems the general opinion is the police never remapped or tweaked them, which in this case I'd agree with.
Depending on who you ask buying ex police is either a fantastic idea, or the quick way to financial ruin. I've got no problem buying a car that has been driven hard as long as it has the paperwork to show it has been looked after, and a quick flick through the history shows it did about 15k a year, only going through tyres and bulbs every 4k. Regularly serviced too, and a new clutch 30,000 miles ago is a nice thing to have.
I bought it with 12 months MOT, fairly new tyres all round, AC works, cruise works and the interior is in decent condition considering the abuse it has taken. I paid £1095, which is probably a bit over the odds for one of these, but I needed a car ASAP.
I admit it was a bit of an impulse buy, I had a test drive and quickly fell in love with the speed and the growl from the T5... I decided I could live with 25mpg, rang the insurance up, and drove it away.
It needs a service, possibly a new timing belt (unless the police did it quite late on as part of a service), and a new radio. After that I might start looking into getting a remap, I'm hearing numbers of 290-300bhp which is very tempting!
Lets see how long it lasts!
ben5732 said:
Got an ex merpol myself and its been absolutely spot on. Your timing belt will of been changed when due so don't worry about that. If you want the full service history from them fire them off an email under the freedom of information act and they'll send it off to you. Great cars and very reliable if looked after. I've had mine 3 years in January and it owes me just over £100 in repairs.
Edit: in case you're curious... https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/ricey_999/3539151292...
That's promising, if yours hasn't gone bang, hopefully this one won't either! The history I've got is 3 pages long; Date, Mileage and Work Done. Is that all they keep or are the police likely to have even more info? Edit: in case you're curious... https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/ricey_999/3539151292...
Edited by ben5732 on Sunday 2nd November 22:03
That flickr picture is great, how did you find it? I've been searching for the reg on google and didn't spot it!
CB2152 said:
I do like these. Here's a friend's, turns out we both quite like Swedish turbocharged things
His is remapped and is just over 300hp we think. Sounds good as well!
That's a beaut, I might get round to cleaning it and taking some proper photos someday. Over 300hp from a remap sounds fantastic though, any idea who did it?His is remapped and is just over 300hp we think. Sounds good as well!
CB2152 said:
A company called South West In Car Tech, not far from Bristol.
We think it's just over 300hp but the alignment/tracking on the car wasn't great when it went on the dyno afterwards, and apparently it slipped (or something), but 306hp appeared on the graph before it went funny
It's certainly a lot of car for the money. Obviously the interior is base spec, but it's very quick, and incredibly practical. It may as well be a van with the back seats down!
Edit: Regarding the photos, we had the same thought. Went out, camera and torches in hand, and it was only when we got back that we realised the car hadn't been cleaned in weeks!
I'm quite enjoying the back to basics interior, especially after the range rover - cloth seats are a lot warmer on winter mornings (heated seats always seem to break for me We think it's just over 300hp but the alignment/tracking on the car wasn't great when it went on the dyno afterwards, and apparently it slipped (or something), but 306hp appeared on the graph before it went funny
It's certainly a lot of car for the money. Obviously the interior is base spec, but it's very quick, and incredibly practical. It may as well be a van with the back seats down!
Edit: Regarding the photos, we had the same thought. Went out, camera and torches in hand, and it was only when we got back that we realised the car hadn't been cleaned in weeks!
Edited by CB2152 on Sunday 2nd November 22:47
) and I'm not afraid to rip the dashboard apart to stick a decent radio in it!ben5732 said:
That will be the history for it then :P To be fair the traffic cars are well looked after, if you keep on top of maintenance it will still be going for years to come. Just be warned when it comes to pads and discs however the pads are different to a standard pad that will show if you give the reg on a motorfactor website and may look like they fit perfectly but they don't. You don't actually need police pads but a different size regardless Keep an eye on your power steering fluid as well as they tend to turn into a sieve when they start to get on a bit as well as the heater matrix
Yeah, I thought as much. Any idea how to decipher the codes? It's had many services, some are "service Z03", some "service 333" etc, I'm guessing it's some kind of code for work done, but can't find out what! Keep an eye on your power steering fluid as well as they tend to turn into a sieve when they start to get on a bit as well as the heater matrix Rear brakes were an advisory on the MOT, and the handbrake only really holds the car on a slope on the highest notch, so that will need looking at sooner rather than later.
I'm finding more and more multi plugs knocking about around the car, for example one is taped in a plastic bag on top of the radiator. Ex police equipment or someone unplugging something to hide an EML light..? Who knows! Found a couple more behind the radio too, again absolutely no idea what they are meant to do. I can see myself having to spend a weekend with a multimeter to see what's going on.
Edit: Just had a look through Flickr, there's some great pics on there. 7 years seems a long time to keep hold of a traffic car though, (it was decommissioned about 09/2010 with about 136K) is there any reason why some get sold off after 3 or 4 years and some don't?
Edited by bjh345 on Sunday 2nd November 23:29
ben5732 said:
Also rear brakes are the same as civi spec I believe.
Happy days, I'll look into it. I know the handbrake on these things are ticking time bombs, so hopefully it'll be sorted sooner rather than later. MarkOmni said:
Are you considering LPG on this one?
Nah, I'd only have lpg on something this price if it was already fitted. If it's another grand to get a kit, I'd have to do about 15k miles before it paid for itself, plus pay out if the gas is set up wrong and damages the engine... More hassle than its worth! Poisson96 said:
Enjoy the ex-batten wagon Nice to see you put the thread up after a prompting :P
Yeah, it was about time! Nice to see you put the thread up after a prompting :PJakg said:
If you don't mind me asking, what job did you do that required surveying mobile phone masts?
I worked for a Comms company who took on all sorts of work from the big mobile phone companies, builds, installs, decoms, etc. They had a few contracts to do surveys for some upgrades, so I suppose I was in the right place at the right time. It was on a self employed basis though, as good as the job sounds, it was too sporadic to keep as a career. It's ideal now though because I can still do it around uni studies, otherwise I think I'd struggle to run one of these off a student loan! Edited by bjh345 on Monday 3rd November 10:58
Quick update, 600 miles on and its been treated to a full service and cam belt at my local indy.
Fuel wise, its costing the same as the range rover did to run, 27mpg on Tesco 99/ V-Power compared to 13-15mpg on LPG. Got my tax refund from the Range Rover through too, so that has effectively not cost me anything -happy days!
Its still a hell of a lot of fun to drive, a car this size shouldn't move like it does! I'm finding myself praying for traffic on the M62 as an excuse to take the B roads home
Still holding out on washing the beast yet!
Fuel wise, its costing the same as the range rover did to run, 27mpg on Tesco 99/ V-Power compared to 13-15mpg on LPG. Got my tax refund from the Range Rover through too, so that has effectively not cost me anything -happy days!
Its still a hell of a lot of fun to drive, a car this size shouldn't move like it does! I'm finding myself praying for traffic on the M62 as an excuse to take the B roads home
Still holding out on washing the beast yet!
So, about 1000 miles into ownership (at a rough guess, I forgot how many miles were on when I got it) and I've had my first minor breakdown/headache.
Had a return trip up to Selby down the m62 and everything was going swimmingly, (I even broke the holy grail mpg barrier and averaged 32!) I got stuck in some traffic tonight and the temperature gauge kept climbing...
Had a closer look under the bonnet, what I previously thought was just yet another surplus plug was in fact the 12v feed to the fan-taped up with a bag over it! Cut it out, plugged it in, problem solved....
Almost. The fan now stays on constantly, the general opinion on google is that the AC is low, which somehow affects when the fan comes on. It still gets me how I've done so many miles without any issues before.
Got a couple of snaps today, clean as ever note the half assed attempt at tinting the rearmost windows... Few air bubbles here and there, but not bad for a cheap tenner roll off ebay!
Had a return trip up to Selby down the m62 and everything was going swimmingly, (I even broke the holy grail mpg barrier and averaged 32!) I got stuck in some traffic tonight and the temperature gauge kept climbing...
Had a closer look under the bonnet, what I previously thought was just yet another surplus plug was in fact the 12v feed to the fan-taped up with a bag over it! Cut it out, plugged it in, problem solved....
Almost. The fan now stays on constantly, the general opinion on google is that the AC is low, which somehow affects when the fan comes on. It still gets me how I've done so many miles without any issues before.
Got a couple of snaps today, clean as ever
note the half assed attempt at tinting the rearmost windows... Few air bubbles here and there, but not bad for a cheap tenner roll off ebay! I had forgotten about this thread... The volvo is now on 164,000 strong!
Just before Christmas my girlfriend's neighbour reversed into it, whilst it was parked up.
She owned up straight away and sorted me out a new door, so no hard feelings there.
I'd been saying I'd change the top engine mount for a couple of months, and finally got pushed to doing it over the weekend when the exhaust fell off just behind the turbo...
Great noise, but way too loud for normal driving.
Link
The video doesn't really capture the volume, anything over 2k and you're struggling to chat to the passenger!
I jumped on eBay and got myself a polybush kit for the top engine mount and a strut bar tensioning kit. There seems to be a bit of debate over fitting a polybush to the top engine mount, as it can cause massive cabin vibrations, but personally I've not really noticed a difference.
Before:
Old vs New bush:
All fitted:
Not bad for 10 minutes work. It's only 3 bolts too.
I had the NSF lower suspension arm replaced too, as it was clunking with a fair bit of play.
I've had it long enough now to notice a few annoyances, namely the seats - everyone raves how fantastically comfortable they are, but I'm getting backache after 3 or 4 hours driving. Maybe I should treat myself to a leather interior...
The clocks are also worrying me a bit- they have the silver surrounds indicating they are the uprated set, but a few times I have started the car up and the rev counter has been a bit slow to respond and jump up. The trip computer is useless too, if the car has been on for 4 or 5 hours it just resets itself the next time you start the car. I'm not sure if they are going to get worse or just keep being a bit inconvenient... we'll see.
Just before Christmas my girlfriend's neighbour reversed into it, whilst it was parked up.
She owned up straight away and sorted me out a new door, so no hard feelings there.
I'd been saying I'd change the top engine mount for a couple of months, and finally got pushed to doing it over the weekend when the exhaust fell off just behind the turbo...
Great noise, but way too loud for normal driving.
Link
The video doesn't really capture the volume, anything over 2k and you're struggling to chat to the passenger!
I jumped on eBay and got myself a polybush kit for the top engine mount and a strut bar tensioning kit. There seems to be a bit of debate over fitting a polybush to the top engine mount, as it can cause massive cabin vibrations, but personally I've not really noticed a difference.
Before:
Old vs New bush:
All fitted:
Not bad for 10 minutes work. It's only 3 bolts too.
I had the NSF lower suspension arm replaced too, as it was clunking with a fair bit of play.
I've had it long enough now to notice a few annoyances, namely the seats - everyone raves how fantastically comfortable they are, but I'm getting backache after 3 or 4 hours driving. Maybe I should treat myself to a leather interior...
The clocks are also worrying me a bit- they have the silver surrounds indicating they are the uprated set, but a few times I have started the car up and the rev counter has been a bit slow to respond and jump up. The trip computer is useless too, if the car has been on for 4 or 5 hours it just resets itself the next time you start the car. I'm not sure if they are going to get worse or just keep being a bit inconvenient... we'll see.
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