Police BMW engine issues

[Ted H]

I’ve noticed an increase in the amount of police Volvos on the road recently, notably XC90 and V90 both marked and unmarked.

I didn’t think much of this until I read today on that 130 Police Scotland Road Policing BMWs are off the road due to safety fears, related to the same issue which caused a fire and subsequent crash of a BMW 330 on the M6 in Cumbria last year.

Are forces starting to shift away from the BMWs?

Source for initial article HERE

[Ted H]

agent006 said:

Like said above, it's likely that Volvo UK have decided that offering good pricing and support to the police forces is a good marketing move, much in the same way that BMW realised 15 years ago that having a police X5 snort past you at full chat will open a lot of eyes to their capabilities and it would be well worth making a lot of deals that are hard to refuse.

Volvo are also a step ahead on the hybrid front, I suspect most of them will be running the T8 powertrain, so around 400BHP.

I’d also thought the same regarding the hybrids, however I entered the licence plate for one of the unmarked XC90s I spotted into DVLA vehicle check, it says “DIESEL” with 162 g/kg CO2, which I understand means D4 or D5.

[Ted H]

ED209 said:

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-ne...

I didn’t even know about this until I read the newspaper article

Maybe someone in the know can tell me what is stopping the force’s procurement team going down to Stratstone and buying whatever XC90 or X5 nearly new cars are in stock, and spending the next couple of weeks getting them kitted out for emergency use?

I’m sure this goes against standard procurement policy, but every policy has a workaround in exceptional circumstances. Surely this approach is less of an impact or risk than specialist teams rolling around in Vauxhall vans and Peugeot’s.

[Ted H]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-5965...

Another 330 with an engine fire? The news article says BMW and it looks like a 3 series, but can’t be sure on the model

[Ted H]

surveyor_101 said:

In Somerset you still see some RM Corsa combos on an 04 plate and the fact they generally look ok is mega impressive!

They must get some abuse however blue light vehicles get it as well. My experience of the nhs is they waste half the cash they get and clinical care is no longer the primary goal of the organisation!

There is a ambulance officer senior guy who has a fully loaded vrs petrol with the pano roof bigger wheels it might even be a premium challenge edition and he likes showing it off on YouTube, not sure what trust thought a car with 3k options. Was value for money , whilst I appreciate they get discount I can’t imagine a standard spec car would have been more, also for an unmarked car with a glass roof has made his temp light bar and issue and having one myself the 18s are much cheaper and more compliant for daily duties

Edited by surveyor_101 on Tuesday 28th June 13:36

I’ve seen this guy, pretty sure he shows as a “Consultant Paramedic” which is banded as a senior manager.

I’m not clued up on NHS job benefits but at senior manager grade, there’s a chance he gets a “company car” of sorts which would allow him to spec a work/personal use car, and then throw some blue lights on it. This was a big thing a few years ago, as this would have created a BIK tax exemption.

A local fire service guy lives in the next street over from me and he has a similar setup in a Q5 s-line 45 TFSi.

Tax rules changed several years ago to include these cars in the BIK rules from HMRC.

If it’s utilised - or even just available - to the driver outside of working hours, the driver is getting taxed. BIK would be a sizeable chunk of change for a Q5. Less so for a Skoda if this was a company car, but still personal expense, but possibly explains why a higher spec car is used in such a way.

[Ted H]

airbusA346 said:

focusxr5 said:

Something to do with iron filings in the engine blocking the oil vanes and causing overheating and subsequently engine fire.

As far as I'm aware, neither Mercedes nor JLR offer anything type approved for the overt Police market

Mercedes do in Germany. I wonder if they've ever tried to enter their cars into the UK police market.

I just had a quick Google and couldn't see anything about the German Police having similar problems with their BMW's either.

There were Mercedes Roads Policing cars in Scotland, this one was a 2004 C270. There were also some marked C320’s and ML’s doing the rounds.

I believe someone else has said the Merc window was 2002-2004, which suggests that they entered the market followed by a swift exit…