Wednesday 28th April 2010

Jaguar Joins The Thin Blue Line

Jag XF enters Her Majesty's service on Midlands motorways

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Thanks to John Prescott Jaguar may be more closely associated with Fat Cat culture than The Thin Blue Line (geddit?) but that wasn't always the case.

In days of old, when PHers were bold and the Gatso hadn't been invented, motorists 'pressing on' would not have been surprised to see a Jaguar jam sandwich filling up the rear view mirror.

Now traffic offenders in the Midlands will once again be able to feel their hearts swelling with national pride as they're busted by the latest addition to the Central Motorway Police Group fleet. (Even if the ugly Battenberg livery in use today means their new XF Diesel S doesn't look half as good as it could have with classic red-on-white racing stripes.) Nonetheless, hats off to the boys in blue for their improving taste, although Jaguar tell us it's really a combination of class-leading economy and excellent residuals that has seen the XF get onto police fleet wish-lists.

As well as the 275PS 3.0-litre Diesel S engine, the Police-spec XF gets a roof mounted light bar (with 3600 blue flashing lights) and integrated side-alley lights, blue and white flashing LED lights inside the front grille, side-mounted blue flashing LED lights, blue and red flashing LED lights integrated in the rear light clusters and a Home Office-specification electronics 'Police pack' that powers a full suite of electronic equipment. (That's a lot of lights!)

Wouldn't it be nice if this was the first of many new Jaguar patrol cars to be seen on our roads? What could be a surer sign of a return to the 'intelligent policing' we're all crying out for, instead of the 'dumb enforcement' imposed on us by the Highways Agency and so-called 'Safety Partnerships'. Ooh, don't get us started...

[theJT]

Nice. Now fit them out with some XFR's as persuit specials and I might actually start to feel good about seeing a patrol car again.

[zorba_the_greek]

Range Rovers, Lexus, Merc's, BMW's and now Jags.

What next!?

[va1o]

Looks excellent, great choice in police car IMO

[dwilkie]

How much do they cost though

[Blayney]

There was an article on 'Top Gear' s website a few weeks back asking what cars the police should be using. This is one I suggested (although I suggested an R, but I suppose that's a bit too much to expect).

[soad]

zorba_the_greek said:

Range Rovers, Lexus, Merc's, BMW's and now Jags.

What next!?

Fezzas and Lambos perhaps?

[bob1179]

Nice looking police car. It's nice to see plod buying/leasing/renting British.#

Though haven't the motorway police in the Midlands always had Jags? I remember back in the early nineties being very impressed by Police Sovereign at some motorway services. I remember it looked very cool in white with the jam stripe down the middle.

[adycav]

Should be an XFR really.

[wab172uk]

Nice way to spend tax payers money.

[StinkyBoy]

This is old hat. I saw a XF on the M6 all fuzzed up six months ago. Have also seen an impreza turbo in their line up.

My wife is CID, she drives round in a POS fiesta which needs its trunk popping from the inside..go figure!

Edited by StinkyBoy on Wednesday 28th April 12:39

[teen_cerbera]

soad said:

zorba_the_greek said:

Range Rovers, Lexus, Merc's, BMW's and now Jags.

What next!?

Fezzas and Lambos perhaps?

Bit ordinary if you ask me...

[va1o]

wab172uk said:

Nice way to spend tax payers money.

What would you suggest then?

Its not just the list price of the car that matters, its also how much it will cost to run, is it reliable, what will the residuals be like etc etc. The Jag XF does all those things very well.

You can't deny the police need decent size quick cars for motorway patrol work.

[Moosh]

va1o said:

wab172uk said:

Nice way to spend tax payers money.

What would you suggest then?

Its not just the list price of the car that matters, its also how much it will cost to run, is it reliable, what will the residuals be like etc etc. The Jag XF does all those things very well.

You can't deny the police need decent size quick cars for motorway patrol work.

what's wrong with their old cars?

Waste of tax payers money IMO

Edited by Moosh on Wednesday 28th April 12:45

[E21_Ross]

and who fking pays for this? why can't they have cheap korean cars with long warranties?

[StinkyBoy]

va1o said:

wab172uk said:

Nice way to spend tax payers money.

What would you suggest then?

Its not just the list price of the car that matters, its also how much it will cost to run, is it reliable, what will the residuals be like etc etc. The Jag XF does all those things very well.

You can't deny the police need decent size quick cars for motorway patrol work.

Motorway Patrol work? I never see them...

You can get much cheaper cars that perform just aswell. Then again maybe ferrying prisoners in luxury is the way of the future.

Go on dole, get your mortgage paid for, claim benefits. When caught thieving or stealing you get ferried in luxury to your local nick!!

fkin madness. Public Organisations cant even kerb back spending in a recession...we have no hope

Edited by StinkyBoy on Wednesday 28th April 12:48

[Si_steve]

Moosh said:

va1o said:

wab172uk said:

Nice way to spend tax payers money.

What would you suggest then?

Its not just the list price of the car that matters, its also how much it will cost to run, is it reliable, what will the residuals be like etc etc. The Jag XF does all those things very well.

You can't deny the police need decent size quick cars for motorway patrol work.

what's wrong with their old cars?

Wait of tax payers money IMO

Perhaps reached the end of their service life?

[HellDiver]

Nice. PSNI just got their new fleet of 1.6TDCI Focus Estates. The ecoflex version. 90PS. Awesome.

[Chr1sch]

I think this is rediculous - when they ran v6 omega's it made sense, fast enough in reality, big, comfy etc, i cant see why a 2.0 turbo Insignia or a load more VRS Skoda's wont do the job?!

[jay140285]

The poilce get a massive discount on the cars, hense every now and then you will see a swamp of BMW's about, then Volvo's etc etc.

As previously mentioned, it about the deal they get offered from the manufactures as well as cost per mile on reliabality etc.

Subarus are great, powerful and fairly cheap power per £ but servicing is something like every 6k miles.

[vrdhir]

Think Jag are now Indian