SW17LS

They’re not stockpiled. Those are pictures from when they bought them, if you read the article they are using them.

AJT123

Ahh they’re on the road because they were stockpiled.

I think police get rid of cars around 60-80k miles which is insane to me. Whatever the actual number it is not high.

IDK what they’re talking about re: hard to get parts for a Panther car. They’re plentiful. And cheap.

FrankReynoldsCPA

Because a fleet manager running a fleet of hundreds/thousands of vehicles doesn't have time to shop pick-a-part for parts to keep his fleet running.

Also mileage isn't the only part of the story. These things get insane idle hours.

I think smaller departments, such as my rural hometown PD, lease their vehicles because they don't have the resources to own and maintain a fleet.

Striker223

The idle hours are insanity, for an 100k mile car they are like 7000 hours sometimes.

patgilm

I agree, the first gen looks the best and a person in my neighborhood has one in silver and I always turn my head when I drive by their house. To me it’s one of the best looking older Benz out there. When they first came out I loved them.

geko29

Because they idle all day. Best estimates are that one hour of idling is equal to travelling 31 miles. So when a police cruiser gets to 100,000 miles indicated, it's more like your car hitting 300-500k miles. They're tired and can no longer be depended on.

mmarshall

Can't really make a blanket statement like that. It depends on how those 31 miles are driven. Police vehicles are driven under all kinds of conditions, in all kinds of weather.....from very gently to extreme-stress in high-speed pursuits.

jrmckinley

I had a buddy who had one of these in the early 2000's when I lived in Atlanta. It was a coupe (not convertible) - dark blue with this extremely light interior, almost white. Drove and rode great and he always kept it very clean. It was a very good looking car - and I agree these have aged so well. When you see one in good condition it's a head turner.

geko29

Well take it up with Ford and Chevy then. Because that's the metric they use for their own vehicles.

Toys4RJill

depends though. A police car in the City of Toronto in a small downtown block full of high density… doesn’t travel long distances … but highway patrol covering long distances would. So all kinda relevant. The city police car likely has less life in the car than the highway version.

Stroock639

i picked mine up with 139,000 miles, but it was also a spare car so i guess they figured it's lifespan could be stretched a bit further... also in 2006 the gauges were updated so mine actually had an idle hours clock, think it had something like 4000 idle hours which is actually on the lower side lol... and the spotlight still worked!


(buddy's car on the right)

everything became worth it when we pulled up to 7-11 one night and then the actual nassau county cops pulled up right after lmao

jrmckinley

OK, now I'm randomly looking at CLK's.... why are these so reasonably priced? I'm seeing 2001's with reasonable miles in good shape for under $10k. And I swear my buddy had the 430 with the AMG appearance package. But the only 430's I see are all convertibles and his was not.

KennyFSU

Maybe they become ticking time bombs after a certain number of years/miles.

AJT123

CV PIs are tanks. I wish the cops would stretch my tax dollars a little more and not get rid of the cars too early. After police duty most turned into cabs to drive 200,000+ more miles. We've all been in plenty.

Eh I'm not sure I agree. I don't think they're truly ready to be retired, they probably just have a protocol at certain miles. These were relatively inexpensive too, compared to now. Police departments pay $70k for their Tahoes all day long. My buddy used to sell them at Chevy and screenshot me window stickers of KPD bought Tahoes. They were all 70 grand or more.

AJT123

I don't know much about them like I do other MBs, but like I said I notice quite a few out on the roads a lot.