Buying an ex Police car :-O

[CIS121]

I know it sounds crazy. Seen a nice second car that's cheap and good condition - the only drawback is it was owned by the Police for the first 80k of it's life.

So, it will have been thrashed from cold, driven hard and not generally cared for apart from being well serviced.

Should I walk away or is this not a complete non starter?

It's a TD with 180k on the clock, so getting on a bit anyway.

[Dick_Phallus]

How is it priced compared to similar vehicles?

[anonymous-user]

CIS121 said:

it will have been thrashed from cold, driven hard and not generally cared for apart from being well serviced.

Exactly this.

[wagon and horses]

Run.

It will have been maintained on a budget and thrashed every day, every single day!

Edited by wagon and horses on Thursday 20th May 23:47

[bmw2002]

It's the 100k after the police had it for I'd be worried about, at least they will have serviced it.

[The Hitman]

As far as I'm aware they are good cars to have! Always kept in good nick by the plod and should come with lots of history and assurance it was maintained properly.

Also, I believe them to be slighly uprated over "normal" cars of the like spec, to keep up with trouble makers. Or would they get rid of the tweeks when seeling on? Shirley that would make seeling it less cost effective?

ETA: Hmmm, seems I might have been told porkies from the comments above?

Edited by The Hitman on Thursday 20th May 23:50

[anonymous-user]

They are well maintained, but you've got to weigh that up with the fact that they will more likely than not been absoultely hammered everytime somebody turned the key.

To give you an idea of how hard they are used, I've heard stories of cars going through a sets of pads and discs in 5,000 miles from a mate that used to do service/repair work on met police cars.

[M5Tom]

Run away very fast.

Honestly, it will have been completely thrashed.

[bigfatnick]

surely it depends on the type of ex police car? If it was a astra panda car the above will be true, but if its a motorway car it'll have spend 50% of its time ticking over, 25% crusing at 60mph and 25% with the pedal mashed through the floor. Which i'd be fine with buying...

[Forum Ninja]

Got to agree with all those above. Unless it's an absolute bargain, I'd avoid it. My mate bought an ex police Range Rover thinking it'd have been well looked after and would be a sound investment. Went like stink but turned into an absolute money pit.

[bmw2002]

And I've had 2 ex plod Omegas and both were fine...

[KieronGSi]

I ran an ex police Vectra 3.2 with 102,000 miles on it for two years and mechanically it never let me let me down.

I suppose it depends on what the car was actually used for.

[Stedman]

Simps said:

CIS121 said:

it will have been thrashed from cold, driven hard and not generally cared for apart from being well serviced.

Exactly this.

+1.

Forget the, "it's been chipped to 1 billion HP" shyte. They haven't. They have uprated alternators, wiring looms, sometimes wishbones +suspension bits, and maybe different brakes.

Other than that, they are standard cars...that have been thrashed from cold AND USED AS TOOLS, NOT PRIDE AND JOYS[/rant]

[Glassman]

I've always known Police cars to be well serviced and mechanically sound (from mates that have always bought them) never heard about a bad one.

[Elroy Blue]

I drive the things...and they're knackered when they go to auction. Don't!

[fathomfive]

I agree with many of the points above but it has gone on to do 100k miles after Police ownership so surely that says something about it's reliability?

[Mr_annie_vxr]

Depends on what it was used for and by who?

It will have been thrashed however...

We will be off loading a Volvo s60 un-marked car. 180,000 on the clock.

- New engine from volvo 60,000 miles ago as they were keeping it.
- new brakes (full system) and suspension bushes and everything else less than 20,000 ago
-new fuel tank less than 5000 miles ago
-new set of keys less than 5000

Its rarely driven at high speed. Had a few minor dings.

It goes like stink good for, well lets just say if you had a race track it would probably hit 160 (calibrated). It handles well.

It will go to auction. Probably only a few thousand.

I'd buy it. If it lasts 2 years its paid for itself.

[Hugo a Gogo]

doesn't the "Run away! It will be knackered!" theory kinda fall down on the indisputable fact that it's already done another 100,000 miles, presumably without falling to bits, since the cops had it?

[KenBlocksPants]

If its a decent price i cant see a reason why not.

As usual buy on condition and value for money

[sleep envy]

Stedman said:

Simps said:

CIS121 said:

it will have been thrashed from cold, driven hard and not generally cared for apart from being well serviced.

Exactly this.

+1.

Forget the, "it's been chipped to 1 billion HP" shyte. They haven't. They have uprated alternators, wiring looms, sometimes wishbones +suspension bits, and maybe different brakes.

Other than that, they are standard cars...that have been thrashed from cold AND USED AS TOOLS, NOT PRIDE AND JOYS[/rant]

I'd be surprised if the engine on a traffic car was given the opportunity to get cold often