While the Ford Crown Vic can easily be considered an “old man’s” car, I have given serious thought to buying one of the used Crown Victoria Police Interceptor models.
Before buying my Scion tC, I had done quite a bit of research on the Police Interceptor (PI) as a possibility. There are quite a few police departments that replace all of their cruisers when they reach a specific mileage, usually in the neighborhood of 50,000 to 80,000 miles.
The Crown Vic has a pretty good track record for being a workhorse of a vehicle, particularly when you consider that the Crown Vic is also a popular choice among taxi drivers. But I would be lying to you if I said that I was considering a PI because of the reliability.
Think about the last time you were driving along on the highway in the left lane and you looked in the rear view mirror and saw what looked like an unmarked police cruiser closing in behind you. Chances are you quickly looked for the first opportunity to move over to the next lane to let the officer cruise right by you.
That is why I want one of these cars, preferably with the crash bar installed up front and the spotlight on the driver’s side window. With all of the highway driving that I do on my commute to and from work, I am sure this car would make that drive much more enjoyable and would likely reduce the number of people that crawl along in front of me.
While I am happy with my Scion tC and do not regret making that purchase, I still think it would be fun to own a Police Interceptor that is pimped out with as much equipment as would be street legal for a civilian vehicle.
Would you move over if you saw one of these closing in behind you?
Photo credit: CHEYKA Motors, Inc.
{ 93 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice, when the Ford Special Vehicle Team came out with the Mercury Marauder I was really tempted to get my hands on it.
It’s basically a suped up PI made for civilian use. It only comes in black
It’s always a dangerous game to look too much like a cop. There are lots of haters out there (according to Digg and Reddit
) and one is never quite sure of what some might do.
You bet I would. I however think that you would get into a whole lot of grief if you installed the spot light! The crash bar in the front would not really matter as it would be invisible for someone behind you.
Its not a crash bar its a push bumper or bumper guard.
I love this car! If I were you, I would buy it immediately
)
I think it should be illegal for the public to buy a crown vic lol. I hate when you slow down, move lanes, just to see some 80 year old guy driving a crown vic.
It’s a love hate thing!
If I would see you in this car, I would give you all my money, because I would be afraid of cops
))
LOL. I was most amused to read why you wanted to buy this car. Why not go the whole hog and get a police siren and blinking light thingie too
!
Because if he did put red& blues on it he’d be arrested
HOMO
@Leo :: Yeah, I liked the Marauder as well. To really make the car look like a cop though, I think you need the blacked out rims with the silver hub.
@Jason :: That is actually a great point and something I had never really considered.
@HRS :: I think the spotlight would be a must. I’d love to throw in the alternating headlights and maybe a few LEDs in the grill as well but that would likely push the legal limits for a civilian vehicle.
@Ina :: I came very close to buying one before getting the Scion tC. Right now I’m not really looking for a new car but it is tempting.
@Dave :: Lol, I know exactly what you mean but think of the satisfaction of being that guy in the Crown Vic and watching everyone around you get nervous. Throw a little tint on the windows and they will never even know.
@Franklin :: Where do you live? I could use a little extra money.
Great imagination. Just imagine what would happen if it just so happened that you were taking on an off duty cop!
This is a good looking car. this will not be a general user
car. For security it is more safety.
A buddy of mine was a Ford dealership last yeah and noticed this F-150 with an Interceptor emblem on it. Turns out the local Sherrif’s office ordered four and canceled one of them. The dealership converted the interior back into civilian mode and left the suspension and engine upgrades intact! This truck is amazing!
Those old police Crown Vics are very comfortable and can usually be purchased for almost nothing.
If I had a whole lot more garage space, I would have purchased one by now.
Great minds think alike! I would also have a CB radio with the a megaphone attached so I could yell at people lol. I know myself I’ll see one and slow down…..and then as I drive by it’s just an old couple lol. But, I see a lot of people getting away with things they shouldn’t so, even to just to scare them a little for a second while they think I’m a cop would be both fun, and safe!
Sorry, forget something. I’ve been thinking about getting one for my next car, or just for fun. My manager at work is married to a guy who is a mechanic for the police cars….he says they are the most well kept and if anything is wrong it’s replaced with the best and newest stuff. Around here though the ones I see for sale are the ones that are in rough shape, and they want too much money for them lol.
My friend bought one of these cars from the VT State Police when they were done with it. It was nice, people got out of the way, but it was a gas guzzler.
At first I thought you were nuts, then reading on I realized you had quite a few good points. After reading that post, now I suddenly feel like getting my self an old Crown Vic. If only I had the extra garage space and cash for gas.. LOL!
You need to do a search on the safety of these vehicles. Ford placed the gas tank in the crush zone, behind the rear axle. Over 20 police officers and hundreds of civilians have been killed in rear end collisions. They survived the accident but died in the fire. There is a shield available that helps to eliminate this problem. I believe the cost is around $300. Just something to keep in mind.
I bot a P71 a week ago for my wife after she totaled a Mitsu Lancer. Do you know where can I get the “shield”?
Thanks a lot.
The Crown Vic is a cool interceptor car with its big tires and strong suspension. I’ve gotten fooled a few times by people who pulled up behind me with their off the used car lot rides!
Crown vic is indeed a reliable car. Ford did a great job on this car.
I bought one last year! The ride is oh so smooth!
Cop cars get beat on everday. I mean, how would you drive if you didn’t pay for the car, didn’t pay for gas, and knew you wouldn’t get a ticket???
Plus, while the car’s mileage might not be all that high, they’ve got a god awful amount of hours from sitting and idling. They run the engine to keep the lights running and the battery charged, to keep warm or cool while waiting for speeders, and on and on and on.
That said, I still want one!
“That is why I want one of these cars, preferably with the crash bar installed up front and the spotlight on the driver’s side window. With all of the highway driving that I do on my commute to and from work, I am sure this car would make that drive much more enjoyable and would likely reduce the number of people that crawl along in front of me.” – TOO Funny!!
Not only more enjoyable, but more entertaining! I think that car enthusiasts around the country have fantasized about owning a Police Interceptor at some stage, I know I have!
I have a 1997 Ford Crown Vic it does not have the PI in it but it has the Mustang GT engine I also have a Unity Spotlight the the drivers side as well as 6 LED lights and for my job I am aloud to have them I love this car yea its old school but by all means it is in Damn fine shape not a scratch not a dent and not a paint chip when I am driving down the road people always get out of my way and slow was down if I pass them or if I am behind them I recommand you get you a crown vic! you would love it!
I had a chance to buy a police Crown Vic from Cheyka Motors once, it was a 1997 black & white with the cage still in it. But when your credit isn’t the best the banks won’t work with you and I unfortunatly wasn’t able to buy the car. My credit now is A1 and I could easily get one. I’m a licensed ham and would like to put a Motorola police radio converted to 2 meters amateur band in it with a police antenna tuned to 2 meters so it looks original. Also the cage in it would look cool too, as well as Green Bay Packers plates with my callsign on them and the car painted Packers dark green & gold with an amber lightbar and Green Bay Packers lettering on the sides and Packers on the trunk lid. An awesome show car for sure.
I was with you until you got all crazy with that talk about the Green Bay Packers!
I know very little about American football, so tell me, what is wrong with Green Bay?
I’m off to Wembley to watch the NFL later in the year though, costs just a cool Ł80 ($160) !
As a Chicago Bears fan, everything is wrong with Green Bay.
The Bears/Packers is one of the most storied rivalries in the NFL. Many Bears fans cheer for two teams, the Bears and whoever is playing the Packers.
That should be a fun experience to see the NFL in Wembley, give a holler if you snap any pictures!
That’s just a cool idea. I’m originally from Cape Cod so I’m a Patriots fan by birth, but watch the Packers since moving here in ‘87 when I was 15. The amateur radio in it though would be cool. How about a Crown Vic painted in Bears blue and orange with amber LED lightbar wig wag headlights and all, or whatever anyone’s team colors are. That would be awesome to see at the World of Wheels.
Lol, just giving you a hard time!
It would be pretty cool to see a Crown Vic like that though.
I own a 2007 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. It’s black…has appx. 23,000 miles…two (2) working spotlights. I also outfitted mine with a GPS Navigation System, Sirius Satellite Radio capable, 10-Disc CD Changer, Rear Back-up Camera, Fire Extinguisher. The wheels are not the kind with hubcaps…just the badass blackwalls. I love the car, but it’s out of my system, and now I want to go in a completely different direction. So I’m putting this car up for sale. If anyone is in the market, e-mail me at michaelajthomas@aol.com and I’ll e-mail you pictures.
This is an old car but definitely a good one. I would love to change my ride to this beauty. Good choice you made Derek!
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Of course I’d move over, it’s just an amazing car you’re talking about, and all thinks you say about it it such amaze me. Well nice choice and good information you posted.
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That would be a sweet purchase. And being from the Detroit area I got to knock you for not buying American.
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Lol, we have a Chevy Trailblazer right now and the experience with that truck has been enough to persuade me to never buy an American vehicle again!
Yea they’re fun to drive, i just test drove a white police interceptor this morning. unbelievable let me tell you! the look alone sold me. but the silence, power and feel on the inside was the icing on the cake.
I’m picking it up this Saturday! =p
Congrats on your purchase! I continue to look at them myself and if I had the extra garage space would consider buying one right now.
I have owned 2 “Retired” Police Vehicles and they are great!
Not for speed,showing off but only because I look at the Maintenance they have been through.The one and only time I really had a problem with one was on a trip to Conn. I had a flat tire and of course the tire was a police equip tire. I could not get a replacement so I had to replace 2 tires instead. The tires of a police cruiser have thicker sidewalls for reasons such as rubbing up against curbing other then that the car was the best I have own.
don’t forget your HID kits. they are very handy in dark places especially in fog.
i work at a ford dealership and work on cop car all the time. they kick ass. ther have a 4.6l V8 with rear wheel drive. i can keep up to an f150 easily in one. they are reliable and do have lots of power. the only down side is that cops usually beat the hell out of them so check it over really well.
As a matter of fact, one of my buddies just bought a CVPI so I’ll get some first-hand feedback on it soon. I’ll see if I can convince him to write a guest post about it here.
Finally did you buy your pimped police car Derek?
That should be cool to own one, people believe you are a cop
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No, I haven’t bought one but a good friend of mine recently did and he is enjoying it so far.
Nice buy!
take his car and post this here
I’ve been trying to convince him to let me borrow the car for a week so I can drive it on my daily commute, which covers about 130 highway miles per day.
So far he hasn’t agreed, lol.
i agree with all of you i really want to buy a crown vic but founding one is HARD! even more so with spot light! its aslo hard to found any one that would install one, worse sell one. and instead of a CB i would have a scanner
and i would have put in red and blue LCD lights and when i see a reall policer officer i would push a botton and the LCD lights would fold into the dash board and behind the speakers in the back. so all they can get me on is the scanner. but like i said its hard just to found a crown vic with just a spot light and evern harder to have all the extra’s on. but if you see one one with a spot light or know’s anyone that sell’s or installs them let me know.
Anyone looking for cop cars SWPS.com reconditions them so their basically brand new you can buy them with packages meaning you can get lights and other stuff installed. They ship anywhere in the US check them out you pay a little extra but you get basically a brand new cop car.
I bought a 1998 Crown Vic (Interceptor) for my son last fall. 1998 for $1300 (115,000 miles) & used for administrative duties…so hopefully no high speed chases and the normal wear and tear associated with a police car.
We are both very happy with the purchase. They have 150 Crown Vics up for sale right now on Govdeals.com
That is where we found ours.
Good Luck in your search
zirg thanks for the tip. I went to govdeals.com and finally got one (the dealers are wicked and buy up a lot of the P71’s in the last 2 minutes).
Just got a black and white 99 with 120k for $1400 and I am sooo excited! Yeah it has a small crack in the radiator but thats a $300 fix and I can’t wait to get that car.
Best place to buy one is http://www.martelautos.com. They find the good ones and recondition them. Most of the time departments sell them with low miles because many minor things break from the rough usage, like switches. Martel’s fixes and replaces all of that and changes spark plugs, belts, oil, and more. You can’t buy direct or you will be disappointed, trust me, I’ve been there a couple times. I only drive interceptors and they made the experience fantastic. They can also advise you on what equipment you can get legally and install that for you too.
I have just passed my driving test and am looking for a new car
The Police Crown Vic can really open up on the highway…but they smell like bacon! (or is that a good thing?)
im gonna buy a nasty black 04 PI, i cant wait. Imma prolly throw in a nice lt1 engine and put a supercharger on it. its gonna be sick
Nice, I have been told by people that drive those kinda cars that cops don’t mess with them!
Nixon wrote: Nice, I have been told by people that drive those kinda cars that cops don’t mess with them!
I drive a 99 crown vic (black and white retired squad car) and yeah, some cops have saluted the car.
I do feel nearly immune to being pulled over, they are psychologically programmed to see these cars as non-targets! I love that car!
I took a chance buying a 99 CVPI at auction. Fell in love with this thing on the 700 mile drive home.
These have to be the best deal that’s ever been.
Let’s review: burns 87 octane, around 22 mpg hiway, up rated everything, runs like a bat out of hell, and doddling weenies clear out of the passing lane when you cruise up. Pure motoring pleasure.
Yeah I know what all of you are talking about I own one of these cars and I love it. It is great to go down the highway and see people reaching for their belts and getting over just for me. But I am now thinking about selling it. I need a bigger vehicle. I now have a pre made brady bunch family with 3 kids one on the way and 2 HUGE dogs lol the PI just isn’t working.
Hmmm…what are the details on your PI? Any pictures to share? How much are you going to be selling for?
Feel free to advertise it here as I, or someone else here, might be interested.
Here in the UK the police have a wide range of cars and 4×4s.
The best i’ve seen locally has been their BMW 330 diesel or their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. Very nice indeed.
I love this car! If I were you, I would buy it immediately
i no what you mean bro people moving over as soon as they see your grill in front and a car coming at them quick. im a 17 year old and i got my hands on a florida state highway car. i reapinted it the state trooper color and it has tints so sometimes im on the highway and like people five cars in front of you move quickly and its funny and fun, but i dont intend on being a fake cop.. dont need that title.
It is great to go down the highway and see people reaching for their belts and getting over just for me. But I am now thinking about selling it. I need a bigger vehicle.
About 6 months ago I purchased a super clean ‘07 P71 from a man that collects Police cars as well as restores them. I picked it up for an awesome price and the milage with below 80,000. Completely blacked out from the window tint to the push bars up front to the bubble spotlight,everything. The only other light besides the bubble spot is a row of extremely bright Amber LED’s accross the entire rear dash.
I do quite a bit of driving on I-95 here in Florida and I come accross 2 types of drivers. Ones that move right out of my way and then I get the ones that freeze up and don’t know what to do for reasons unknown to me.
As for marked patrol cars I’m almost always getting waves from the officers. At times when I should have been pulled over for driving to fast the marked cars just drive on by. That took a little getting used to.
Now here’s the one problem that I’ve experienced and only once so far. One night I stopped at a closed service station to put air in my front tires. While filling my front tires with air a patrol car pulled in and a uniform got out walked around my car and said hello and said to me that “it’s sure a pretty departmental car that you drive” So my reply was “thank you but it’s not a departmental car.” “It’s my POV”(personal owned vehical) and the uniform went back to his car and I guess radioed for back up, I don’t know? As I’m still filling my other tire with air 2 more marked units pull in on all three sides of me and 2 of the 3 uniiforms started to do their thing and I was more than happy to oblige. I even said please feel free to do what you have to do, Your job is tough enough. I was asked if I had any weapons and being Florida of course I did and I informed the 2 uniforms of everything that I had on my person including a CWP (concealed weapons permit) One patted me down,secured my SIG P226 .357 and my SureFire Delta Folder and from there asked me to stay at the front of my car while he gave my CWP, DL and my 2 weapons to the uniform in the 3rd patrol car. From there it was question upon question and why was I driving a P71, why such a nice P71 and why was I out at 01:30 hours putting air in my tires? As I knew all my documents and CWP permit would check out as well as my DL and there would be nothing these uniforms could detain me on and I’d be on my way to the 24 hour Walgreens in the next town over I told them everything that I thought they needed to hear. Well, I was wrong. The 3rd uniform a big fat man got out of his car and put my weapon in the trunk of my P71 and my magazine and knife in my rear seat then came over to me and handed me my licence and CWP and started to grill me on all the same questions as what the other officer had asked. I again started answering this officers questions and I guess he didn’t like me. He started to tell me that my weapon had just been fired with-in the past week (when it had not been fired but cleaned) then we went back and forth knowing that all this 3rd officer wanted to do was catch me up on a possible lie. He could not because I was telling the truth then the real truth came out to why he was so upset twords me and the way he said this reminded me of my days when I was on the grammer school play ground. The officers exact words to me were “Do you know that your equipment that you carry is allot nicer than what I’m issued?” “Do you know you drive a nicer car than I do?” Anyways a few more words were exchanged and this 3rd officer was getting no-where with me and it was obvious he was loosing his patience with me when he blurted out his comment on me having nicer equipment and a nicer car than he. Anyways I allowed the 3rd uniform to run his mouth and act like a total jerk when the 1st 2 uniforms who were complete respectful gentlemen looked at each other then at me then to the 3rd fat officer. Finally when the 3rd uniform could see he was getting no where with the conversation and I was’nt getting upset about any of what was happening then the 3rd uniform told me that I could secure my weapon once they were out of the parking lot. And all said good night.
So thats my only one experience with my P71 and any law enforcement. When it comes to driving a super clean P71 one needs to be careful especially not to impersonate a police officer in any way what so ever. So there’s two sides to driving a real clean P71, I get away with allot of fast but safe driving but that 1 time real early one Monday morning wasn’t so much fun. Anyways have fun people and Peace!
I own a company dealing with these cars. My POV is an 03′ P71. It is blacked out like you described yours is Alex Inglis. I have tinted windows, black paint, black rims with center caps, and lots of equipment. I used to have a push bumper but removed for the reason that you just explained. I live in GA. I traveled to Tampa, FL one week last winter and one day I went to the beach. My car was parked in a nearby parking lot. As I began to walk back to my car about to leave there was a marked vehicle circling the parking lot. There were two officers in the one car. Once they got to my car they drove past it and went to the next line to get another angle. They saw my GA tag and my mobile vision camera in the window. I got to the car and they pulled up behind me blocking me in. They too grilled the heck out of me with questions. What’s this? Why do you have that? Can I look inside? Can I open this? How old are you? Where are you from? etc. etc. etc. etc. They also asked for all of my credentials which I gave them. They eventually backed off, gave me my paperwork, and I left. ONLY two days later I was pulled over by an awesome looking blacked out unmarked Sheriff’s Charger. He followed me onto the interstate, saw my GA tag, flew out in front of me to get a look at my push bumper and camera, then shot back behind me and lit me up. I pulled over and he told me that I cannot have some fog lights that I had mounted onto my push bumper. I told he that they were clear and don’t flash. He too took my license and came back letting me go. He was nice and did his job. He did not hassle me at all, but he still wasted my time. Currently my vehicle is considered a company demo car and will be marked as a demo unit next month. It is equipped with a Havis Shields equipment console customized with a folding arm rest, cigarette auxiliary outlets, and red back lit switches. I also have a mobile vision camera system, 6 strobe hide away kit, Federal signal smart siren and lighting control system, signalmaster directional bar, headlight flashers, and red rear window LEDs.
WOW that was long, but I just added to this highly successful forum and I encourage anyone who needs anything for their P71 or who needs one at all to please to check out my website.