Police moving away from Volvo?
Discussion
After the national pivot of roads / armed response from BMW to Volvo a few years ago, I’ve noticed the Volvos seem to be rarer to see.
My local force still have at least one 2021 530D going around, and the XC90s, but I’m noticing an increasing number of new Skodas.
Specifically the Superb, and some Kodiaqs, all 2024/2025 plates. Not sure if the Kodiaqs are for roads policing or dogs though.
On recent episodes of both Traffic cops and Motorway cops, it looked like both forces featured were Skoda heavy, with Superb saloons and estates. I also spotted a few Focus ST’s.
Is Skoda (or VAG, as I’ve seen a few Audi A6 and Touaregs kicking around too) becoming the new national preferred supplier for the fast/heavy cars?
How are those of you who are moving away from the Volvos finding the alternatives?
My local force still have at least one 2021 530D going around, and the XC90s, but I’m noticing an increasing number of new Skodas.
Specifically the Superb, and some Kodiaqs, all 2024/2025 plates. Not sure if the Kodiaqs are for roads policing or dogs though.
On recent episodes of both Traffic cops and Motorway cops, it looked like both forces featured were Skoda heavy, with Superb saloons and estates. I also spotted a few Focus ST’s.
Is Skoda (or VAG, as I’ve seen a few Audi A6 and Touaregs kicking around too) becoming the new national preferred supplier for the fast/heavy cars?
How are those of you who are moving away from the Volvos finding the alternatives?
Nibbles_bits said:
My force are moving TOWARDS Volvo.
They're being issued to response teams
We have Volvos on RPU and ARV. They are sThey're being issued to response teams
te. Ours (RPU) are coming up to 70,000 miles and they are always in workshops. We had 80% of them in there at once recently.
Family cars? Fantastic. Police cars? s
te. Slow, under powered. Comfy though. We have a few BMWs still but they are getting older now and 120,000 miles plus. Ill always take one of them over a newer Volvo.
We've got a Skoda Superb. Whilst its not my favourite, its better than the Volvo.
We're looking at Audis now.
I thought that after BMW pulled their blue light sales forces just had to buy what they could and Volvos where popular, then Volvo killed off the v90 and v60 for a while and things shifted to VAG products?
I see allot of touregs around gwent and Avon police, still plenty of XC90s and then a mix of stuff mainly cupras, v60s and focus ST and supurbs
I imagine the massive cost increase of cars over the last few years doesn’t help either, I think we will see more Leon cupas as all the other popular stuff such as the v60, toureg, focus ST are all out of production now
I see allot of touregs around gwent and Avon police, still plenty of XC90s and then a mix of stuff mainly cupras, v60s and focus ST and supurbs
I imagine the massive cost increase of cars over the last few years doesn’t help either, I think we will see more Leon cupas as all the other popular stuff such as the v60, toureg, focus ST are all out of production now
LosingGrip said:
We have Volvos on RPU and ARV. They are ste.
Ours (RPU) are coming up to 70,000 miles and they are always in workshops. We had 80% of them in there at once recently.
Family cars? Fantastic. Police cars? ste. Slow, under powered. Comfy though.
We have a few BMWs still but they are getting older now and 120,000 miles plus. Ill always take one of them over a newer Volvo.
We've got a Skoda Superb. Whilst its not my favourite, its better than the Volvo.
We're looking at Audis now.
Am I incorrect in thinking in days of old, when Vauxhalls were on the fleet they were tuned with higher outputs for police forces?te. Ours (RPU) are coming up to 70,000 miles and they are always in workshops. We had 80% of them in there at once recently.
Family cars? Fantastic. Police cars? s
te. Slow, under powered. Comfy though. We have a few BMWs still but they are getting older now and 120,000 miles plus. Ill always take one of them over a newer Volvo.
We've got a Skoda Superb. Whilst its not my favourite, its better than the Volvo.
We're looking at Audis now.
Love my XC90 T8 ARVs.
Ideal for where I work and what we use them for. More than enough power for around town and blue light driving. The only thing I can fault them for is the driver assistance stuff which is never fully off, but you can drive through it.
I have driven the lower spec ones (B5?) and yes, those are ste.
We're getting petrol Touaregs next year though which will be interesting.
I do miss the X5s but compared to the T8 hybrids the 30d did feel a bit slow. Even if they were better at higher speeds.
I'm hoping one day BMW come back to the fleet market and I can snag some X5 40s but it'll never happen.
I don't think you'll see the police come away from Volvo any time soon. The list of options is short and won't be getting any longer really, even if the ICE ban doesn't happen.
Most interesting thing I've seen recently was an Audi Q6 which the guy driving seemed to like but he did say range suffered on a proper run... The future is going to be weird.
Ideal for where I work and what we use them for. More than enough power for around town and blue light driving. The only thing I can fault them for is the driver assistance stuff which is never fully off, but you can drive through it.
I have driven the lower spec ones (B5?) and yes, those are s
te. We're getting petrol Touaregs next year though which will be interesting.
I do miss the X5s but compared to the T8 hybrids the 30d did feel a bit slow. Even if they were better at higher speeds.
I'm hoping one day BMW come back to the fleet market and I can snag some X5 40s but it'll never happen.
I don't think you'll see the police come away from Volvo any time soon. The list of options is short and won't be getting any longer really, even if the ICE ban doesn't happen.
Most interesting thing I've seen recently was an Audi Q6 which the guy driving seemed to like but he did say range suffered on a proper run... The future is going to be weird.
Edited by Tom1312 on Sunday 14th December 22:06
A lot of forces moved away from Volvos years ago due to the fire issues.
I know Police Scotland have just once again moved away from Volvo due to extremely poor reliability and performance issues. Traffic Division's being equipped with Audi A6 s.
Same reason as other forces moving to other VAG products such as Skoda.
Interesting to read above that some have said Touregs are being procured: a model that is being discontinued!! (VW recently unveiled their Final send off Toureg model)
I know Police Scotland have just once again moved away from Volvo due to extremely poor reliability and performance issues. Traffic Division's being equipped with Audi A6 s.
Same reason as other forces moving to other VAG products such as Skoda.
Interesting to read above that some have said Touregs are being procured: a model that is being discontinued!! (VW recently unveiled their Final send off Toureg model)
Edited by UK_Scat_Pack on Sunday 14th December 22:51
UK_Scat_Pack said:
A lot of forces moved away from Volvos years ago due to the fire issues.
I know Police Scotland have just once again moved away from Volvo due to extremely poor reliability and performance issues. Traffic Division's being equipped with Audi A6 s.
Same reason as other forces moving to other VAG products such as Skoda.
Interesting to read above that some have said Touregs are being procured: a model that is being discontinued!! (VW recently unveiled their Final send off Toureg model)
If they think Volvo is bad wait until they get the vw group cars and have to start fixing them.I know Police Scotland have just once again moved away from Volvo due to extremely poor reliability and performance issues. Traffic Division's being equipped with Audi A6 s.
Same reason as other forces moving to other VAG products such as Skoda.
Interesting to read above that some have said Touregs are being procured: a model that is being discontinued!! (VW recently unveiled their Final send off Toureg model)
Edited by UK_Scat_Pack on Sunday 14th December 22:51
The company i used to work for ran the Volvo press and Demo fleet, they had the XC90s on fleet for police demos too, all kitted up and liveried, I remember them saying they had regular feedback that the autonomous braking was difficult when following closely and keep slamming the brakes on.
Mot sure if this is removed for operational cars as TPAC would be a right pain, they also ran different brake shims for the heat dissipation.
Mot sure if this is removed for operational cars as TPAC would be a right pain, they also ran different brake shims for the heat dissipation.
Local plod up north have just started taking delivery of A6 Avant for RPU and Q7 for FSU.
They have a mix of Volvo V60/V90/XC60/XC90, Skoda Superb, Focus ST and recently saw a couple for of Cupra Leon (unmarked). they did just ditch the unmarked Golf GTi and Hyundai i30N
Surely this mix is all due to BMW issues and causing a little bit of chaos so having a mixed fleet prevents this from happening
They have a mix of Volvo V60/V90/XC60/XC90, Skoda Superb, Focus ST and recently saw a couple for of Cupra Leon (unmarked). they did just ditch the unmarked Golf GTi and Hyundai i30N
Surely this mix is all due to BMW issues and causing a little bit of chaos so having a mixed fleet prevents this from happening
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