I think the grumbling by police departments over the demise of the Impala and Crown Vic is probably winding down. It's been 15-20 years or so since they were discontinued and, in that time, most veteran officers who missed them have retired.

 

2011 is when the Crown Vic was discontinued so 13 years ago and the Charger has just been discontinued. Which is what Memphis PD has bought since 2008. Now they’re switching to Explorers. No more police sedans for sale now.

 

I still see some officers grumbling today....although, as you say, many have retired.

Even though the Crown Vic, being RWD, was not very space-efficient inside, it had a huge trunk for carrying all that police-gear, and its frame could take a lot more punishment from abuse and high-speed chases than the newer unibody vehicles.

 

How many police officers grumble to you and how do you come to interact with them?

 

I see a number of them regularly in my daily shopping rounds....and in some of the eating-places I use (and, of course, in the donut shops LOL) In fact, some of them like the fact that I point out scofflaws that park in handicapped spaces without passes, use the private parking lots as commuter cut-throughs to avoid traffic lights (this is illegal in VA), and regularly break other traffic laws. I also live very near a State Trooper. I often, but not always, talk about vehicles with them. The biggest single complaint, hands-down, even after some 15 years or so, is the loss of the Crown Vic.

Fortunately, I have never had to interact with them while wearing these.........

 

most people get 'sad' about change, and nostalgia for things past which they now see through rose colored glasses and miss the 'good old days'.

when they put a decent sized piece of furniture in an suv, they forget that was/is impossible in a sedan. or when they go to costco and fill the suv with giant boxes of stuff.

great post. change happens.

i doubt that's their 'biggest single complaint' vs. things like how people they catch are released the same day and some of the people they have to deal with these days.

 

Yes, all the police officers I know have much deeper complaints than the loss of a car over 15 years ago. You know, like the fact that they could be killed any given day, that they are underpaid and incredibly overworked, that they are maligned and hated by the very public they risk their lives to protect...you know those kinds of things lol

In fact, I doubt many of them give a crap about what kind of police car they drive.

 

that's almost 30 years ago now; it's not relevant today

 

I've heard from some that a few agencies that still have a few old crown vics on hand assign them to officers who pissed off management. I think most officers would prefer an Explorer today.

 

Granted, the Explorer does have a lot of space inside, particularly in the cargo area, but it now lacks something it once had that police like......body-on-frame construction. And the quality control on newer Explorers, by today's standards, has been atrocious.

 

We're getting off-topic a little, but I agree they are probably underpaid, considering that they have potentially dangerous work and could end up as a casualty on any given day of the week. All the more, IMHO, to respect their opinions.

 

Why does a police officer care about a vehicle being body on frame? Again, a police car is a tool to a police officer. You're giving it more thought than they do.

Quality control of Crown Vics was atrocious...

 

Police officers sometimes have to do things with vehicles that boggle the imagination. I once lived across street from a Virginia State Trooper....he later was transferred to Richmond as part of the Governor's official security-guard unit. He had one of the old body-on-frame Chevy Impala/Caprice police cruisers before GM converted the Arlington, TX plant to truck/SUV production. He brought it home one night covered in mud, with dirt packed up all inside the fenders. I asked him what the **** did he did to it. He said he had to chase a suspect in a van, off-road, across a plowed field....but he got the guy, and was later given an award for a drug-bust. I helped him clean it up with a couple of hoses and a bunch of labor.....it was too much for a regular car wash. In appreciation, he gave me a State Police-cap.

Try something like that in a unibody Taurus, Charger, or other similar vehicle and you could turn the frame onto a pretzel.

 

But a unibody Explorer is going to be much better at that than a BOF Crown Vic. The vehicle being body on frame doesn’t make a RWD sedan capable of blasting through fields and mud.

Police departments also have Tahoes and such that are even more capable than an Explorer.

Tauruses haven’t been made for 5 years, so nobody is talking about a Taurus.

 

Nobody was talking about them when they were still in production either, which is exactly why they're not. Kind of like the Legacy, the subject of this thread.