Police Vehicles
Author
Discussion

SimonHarrod911

Original Poster:

6,792 posts

261 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
Does anyone know who makes decisions about police vehicles. Leicestershire police must be absolutely minted, in Leicester city centre recently I saw two BMW X5s in full police colours. What's wrong with cheap Mitsis that would do the same job.

Tax payers money being spent on luxury vehicles rather than crime detection.

SimonHarrod911

Original Poster:

6,792 posts

261 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
Yes they were!!

Pickled Piper

6,452 posts

264 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
They often get offered them by the manufacturers at large discounts (sometimes free many years ago, not sure if this still happens). It presents the vehicle to the public and most MOP assume "if it's good enough for plod then it must be bloody good". Also, The car manufactures often use them to collect durability data, as they can cover a high mileage in a short space of time and are regularly inspected.

I know because I used to be one of the Engineers that inspected the vehicles many years ago.

pp

SimonHarrod911

Original Poster:

6,792 posts

261 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
Pickled Piper said:
It presents the vehicle to the public
pp


They've only recently bought them, and personally I've seen a couple of X5s here and there already.

silverback mike

11,293 posts

282 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
Pickled Piper said:
They often get offered them by the manufacturers at large discounts (sometimes free many years ago, not sure if this still happens). It presents the vehicle to the public and most MOP assume "if it's good enough for plod then it must be bloody good". Also, The car manufactures often use them to collect durability data, as they can cover a high mileage in a short space of time and are regularly inspected.

I know because I used to be one of the Engineers that inspected the vehicles many years ago.

pp


Absolutely right. I was speaking to our fleet manager - we lease all our cars, well motorway ones, not sure about the general purpose cars.

Each manufacturer is invited to offer costs to lease say 50 cars. Each contract is considered and the best ones win.

We have gone from Volvos To vauxhaul's and now to Mercs The mercs are no more expensive to lease than the vauxhalls. So no, taxpayers money is not wasted on 'flash cars'

So far, the favourite's were volvo's.

Zod

35,295 posts

287 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
Pickled Piper said:
They often get offered them by the manufacturers at large discounts (sometimes free many years ago, not sure if this still happens). It presents the vehicle to the public and most MOP assume "if it's good enough for plod then it must be bloody good".
Didn't work for the Omega.

StressedDave

844 posts

291 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
The phrase that springs to mind is "you can't put a shine on sht".

Still, you could be lucky and be in the Met. They were looking at a single manufacturer deal (It makes sense as you don't need a lot of extra ancillary kit if you have a single manufacturer fleet). There are a lot of BMWs in use around London. ISTR Traffic ended up with 530ds and the ARV were using 530is. I think they got a bit stuck after that as the 1 series wasn't available for use as a basic panda.

rustybin

1,769 posts

267 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
It makes sense I have always had a bit of a hankering for SD1 Rovers and the classic Range Rover purely because as a kid that was what used to be belting past my dads VW beetle on the motor way in full jam sandwich mode. They just had to be brilliant because they were the fastest car you saw. First time I drove a Range Rover I was really dissapointed but did gain some admiration for anyone that was prepared to belt one down a motorway with half a ton of cones etc. in the back.

Streetcop

5,907 posts

267 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
Nice to be able to drive around in a powerful new car...anywhere in the county....able to lawfully exceed the speed limit etc....
and get paid for it..
I have to pinch myself at times.. (not too hard, I might add... )

>> Edited by Streetcop on Tuesday 1st February 16:36

minimax

11,985 posts

285 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
Streetcop said:
Nice to be able to drive around in a powerful new car...anywhere in the county....able to lawfully exceed the speed limit etc....
and get paid for it..
I have to pinch myself at times.. (not too hard, I might add... )

>> Edited by Streetcop on Tuesday 1st February 16:36


how to win over the hearts of PHers...

Streetcop

5,907 posts

267 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
minimax said:

how to win over the hearts of PHers...


Absolutely....I didn't join the department to wash the cars..

rustybin

1,769 posts

267 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
[redacted]

SimonHarrod911

Original Poster:

6,792 posts

261 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
Streetcop said:
Nice to be able to drive around in a powerful new car...anywhere in the county....able to lawfully exceed the speed limit etc....
and get paid for it..
I have to pinch myself at times.. (not too hard, I might add... )

>> Edited by Streetcop on Tuesday 1st February 16:36


Sounds a fantastic way to live, the only downside is you all keep killing people because you're sh drivers who are literally above the law.

StressedDave

844 posts

291 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
SimonHarrod911 said:

Sounds a fantastic way to live, the only downside is you all keep killing people because you're sh drivers who are literally above the law.

Might I suggest you read the thread on increasing Police RTC fatalities. I think you'll find that the death rate due to Police drivers is actually very small, but any accident where the Police happen to be gets classified as a Police fatality. Most of them are where a pursued car (which is often way out of sight of the Police driver) wraps itself around something hard and unyielding.

As for Police drivers being above the law - I've yet to see it happen, except in the eyes of sensationalist journalists sulking because the pubs haven't open yet

JoolzB

3,549 posts

278 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
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StressedDave said:

Might I suggest you read the thread on increasing Police RTC fatalities.

Eh? Ways of increasing police rtc fatalities?

gone

6,649 posts

292 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
SimonHarrod911 said:


Sounds a fantastic way to live, the only downside is you all keep killing people because you're sh drivers who are literally above the law.





Thats a well researched comment !

>> Edited by gone on Tuesday 1st February 17:35

JoolzB

3,549 posts

278 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
gone said:

SimonHarrod911 said:


Sounds a fantastic way to live, the only downside is you all keep killing people because you're sh drivers who are literally above the law.






Thats a well researched comment !

>> Edited by gone on Tuesday 1st February 17:35

I'm sure Simon can defend the comment but when you get comments like the one posted by SC it is going to wind people up somewhat.

silverback mike

11,293 posts

282 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
True, but in relation to making sweeping generalisation about the standards of drivers, without research well,we have all been there, like generalising that all porsche drivers are tw@ts.




I give it the contempt it deserves


Are porsche drivers tw@ts?

JoolzB

3,549 posts

278 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all
silverback mike said:
True, but in relation to making sweeping generalisation about the standards of drivers, without research well,we have all been there, like generalising that all porsche drivers are tw@ts.




Are porsche drivers tw@ts?

No not at all...







they're tossers

silverback mike

11,293 posts

282 months

Tuesday 1st February 2005
quotequote all