Things to consider when buying a police cruiser?

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PerfectFinish1

New member
There was a thread a while back talking about people that have purchased police cruisers... I know there were a few very knowledgable members, but I can not find the thread. So... just thought I'd post and ask a few questions.



I'm looking at buying a 2000 police cruiser tomorrow. It is black and white, and has half of the decals removed. The half that are removed weren't hacked off (which i was surprised about) and the half that remain I can easily take off. It has a huge ram bar in front, search light, lights on the inside of the car still, and I'm guessing still has strobes in the headlights. The car is actually extremely clean inside and out, and only has 42,000 miles. It was a K-9 cop car, and from what I've seen I guess that means nobody gets put in the back of it. The dog was definatley very clean lol.



I'm bidding on it at an auction to resell and can't figure out what the car is worth. I would just clean it up and throw it on eBay for a quick sale. It seems to maybe be worth about $6000, but then there is an occasional cop car that looks fine and has similar miles, that just sells for thousands less for some unknown reason. Are the cars with only the police intercepter package different than actual p71 cop cars? The cars that were used in duty seem to sell for a lot more... but then again the cars that are black and white surprisingly look like they're worth more than the solid color cop cars.



Guess I'm just a bit confused about what I can get out of this car... if I can actually get $6,000 out of it I think I can buy it and make some good money. Besides, it will be fun to pack up the car with friends and mess with people for a few weeks, haha



The other cars I'm looking at tomorrow include a 98 Mustang GT w/ cobra bumper and hood, another Talon, and some Jeeps... so hopefully I can come home with something either way.
 
This thread has Accumulator written all over it. :up



From what I understand (from a few of his posts) he has quite a fondness for the ex-cruisers. If he doesn't respond to this thread send him a PM.
 
I'm a lot more knowledgeable about the Chevy 9C1's but I know a little about the Crown Vics. The P-71 package (IIRC) *is* the copcar, AKA the "police interceptor", they just didn't always call it that until recently (by putting the PI badge on the trunklid). Check for dual exhausts, it's one of the give-away differences between "real" cop cars and the very similar taxi package, which some departments bought to save money. I don't think the 2000 models have the desirable engine, but I don't remember this stuff...



If it's a K9 car, make sure it doesn't smell "doggy". Make sure it doesn't have a K9 cage in place of the back seat and rear door panels. I'd be more than just a little suspicious here. No dog cage but a K9 unit? Out of service with only 42K miles? I'd be looking for accident damage or other "story car" problems. Many departments will keep using a decent, older car with such low miles for *something*, or pass it on to another public service department (or at least that's what they do in my neck of the woods). I can't help but think there's something wrong with this picture.



The "wig-wags" for the head/tail lights will be disconnected and probably removed from the car before you get it.



For market value, I'd check some of the internet sites that sell decommissioned Crown Vics. The cars with spotlights, lightbar holes, and the push bumper are worth a lot less than unmarked cars, and there are plenty of unmarked P-71s out there (I had one ;) ). Just a FWIW, *I* wouldn't pay $6K for a marked, black/white, lights/pushbar 2000 P-71 from Ohio even *with* the low miles and I've been known to spend stupid-money on used copcars ;) But again, I think there's something wrong with it. Sorry to be such a pessimist, but you don't want to buy trouble.
 
Thanks for the posts, I wish I could have taken pictures... it was strange that it doesn't have a cage... the only thing I saw was a K9 decal on the side of the car... the inside already had leather seats, and all door panels if I remember right.



42k miles and out of service does sound suspicious... I'm half expecting the engine to be blown when i'm alloud to start it tomorrow at the auction. If it's not, however, it may be a good buy. There are a lot of departments up here that are out of money, so possibly it's a financial issue.. car was never used so auctioning it.



I'll check into the forums above for more info on value, and be very careful when looking at the car. I don't trust cops, anyway, haha.



Edit: You seem to know more about price then most of the websites I can find... what do you think the car is worth if it does happen to in fact be a legit buy? Do you know of any other websites not mentioned above?



Thanks!
 
PerfectFinish1- When I got rid of my CV and went back to Caprices I deleted all my PI-related websites :o



Do an internet search on "police car sales" or "used police vehicles" or something like that. There are a bunch of places that sell these things and you can see what they're asking. I just can't think of any of the names at present, it's been a few years since I've thought about these cars. Buzz Bowling comes to mind (love that name, huh?), he's in the Carolinas. There's something like "Emergency Vechicle Marketing" out in maybe California. Craig at Key Motors in NY specializes in Caprices, but he has a P-71 with over 100K miles that he's gonna get more than $6K for, but IIRC it's a newer one and that can matter more than the mileage..





The whole $6K price thing isn't really out of line, well, except maybe for all the "not unmarked car" issues (a black & white will need paint to resell for a decent price), but I'd sure be very careful buying that one. No matter what the finances of the department, that 42k miles is suspicious. I'd expect a dedicated K9 unit to have more miles on it than that, at least given the model year, or else I'd expect them to keep it and sell a different car :nixweiss



But who knows, it might be a real bargain you can make some money on.



Heh heh, if you *do* buy it, resist the temptation to mess with the dummies of the world. Anything even *remotely* resembling impersonating a LEO will change your life really fast ;) And it's often up to the LEO involved as to whether you're impersonating or not. I've heard of some guys being *very* unfairly picked on over driving these things.
 
The car went for like $3800... it seemed to be running perfectly and there were no signs of any type of accident damage... I didn't bid because I just got bad news on the Blazer I bought, and I didn't feel like I had money anymore lol
 
Heh heh, I don't blame you. The last thing you need is another vehicle with "mystery problems".



Add the cost of a paintjob to the $3,800 and I dunno how much profit would be left in there anyhow, at least not if it needed anything else. Now if it'd gone for $2,000 or something, that might've been different. Still, IMO it pays to avoid the ones that seem "funny" ;)
 
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