chronopassion

. . . cars like the C230K? I was reading an article in USAToday on a trip which mentioned that basically all police cars are RWD. I guess the point escaped me on the actual advantage. Just curious.

CP

TimmyC230boy

well for one, you dont have the torque steer like you do with a fwd car. I guess another advantage would be the fact that you can easily modify the driveline componets. I'm sure there are others but i cant think of them.

mdp c230k

In a FWD car there is a limit to the amount of power that can be safely used before the tires break traction. If a FWD breaks traction you can no longer steer the car! In a RWD car the drive wheels are not used to steer. You might notice how almost all high power cars are RWD for this reason. There are other advantages like controlling under/oversteer with the throttle and front to back weight distribution...etc..

KJ-TypeR

To put it simply:

In a FWD car, the front tires have to accelerate AND steer the car.

When pushed to the extremes, the tires are often overwhelmed and the car understeers.

In a RWD car, the front tires ONLY steer and the rear tires ONLY accelerate. Thus spreading out the work load over the four tires instead of making the front two do everything.

Spyke

And the most important thing, RWD just plain FEELS better! (Though all the electronic traction control/stability enhancer gizmos can take the fun right out of it...)

mdp c230k

Yeah, traction control is for grandmas! If you want to go fast you must turn it off or suffer the wrath of ESP.

vadim

When a car accelerates, it squats, that is, the weight of the car gets transfered to the rear axle. Which results in increased force pressing the rear wheels to the ground, hence, better traction. Reverse picture with the front wheels, which is one of the reasons why a RWD car can handle much more power than a FWD one.

BTW, staggered wheel setup makes perfect sence in a RWD car for the reason above, but is totally meaningless in a FWD car.

Accord

I imagine that the next generation of police cruisers will be AWD, the Crown Victoria is getting dated, the Palm Beach Sherrffs Office is doing tests on all different types of cars to be their next generation police car, and last I heard on the local news, the Subaru Impreza WRX was one of their top choices, due to the AWD and high performance in a small price package. The Florida Highway Patrol just added 30 new Camaros.

I doubt the PBSO will choose the WRX, though, just due to the fact that it is not an American car.

Fuzzo

I think this statement is true for all law enforcement depts and not just the PBSO... i am yet to see a non american car marked or unmarked be used by law enforcement....

BlackC230Coupe

where i live they use 3 types of police cars for crown vic, chevy caprice, and they also use the new dodge intrepid which i believe is FWD

Spyke

Kawasakis are used as police bikes in many areas, and I beleive Colorado(?) uses or in the past used Saabs as police cars??? Japanese SUVs are being used as police vehicles in a lot of locales also.

Accord

They also use Harley Davidsons as Police Motorcycles.

mdp c230k

Here in L.A. they used Motoguzzi's until they were shipped a bunch without any piston rings! Now they use HD or Suzukis.

Mike T.

News flash!

The Ford Crown Victoria is not an American car. It's Canadian. All Crown Victorias are built in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada.

I find the xenophobia of public agencies when it comes to foreign vehicles to be humerous. These days, why shouldn't the cops be driving M-Classes? Or Nissans? They're all built over here...well except for a few, like the WRX.

I remember over 20 years ago, the cops in La Conner WA bought Renault 5 GTLs as police cars. Those were the days...

a1phanumrc

Funny you should say that one of my good friends lives up in beverly hills and all the police cars there are m-classes haha good place to get a job i guess

KJ-TypeR

In the Toronto area, there are some Civic's with Engine Swaps and some modded Integra's used as under cover cars by police departments to help stop street racing.

BlackC230Coupe

whats the point of having engine swaps? its not like anyone will see. thats unless the cops try to have fun and actually race.

shkeller55

I remember there used to be a VW Rabbit Diesel television ad where they showed one in use as a police car somewhere in North Carolina.

Silver_Lana

Addison Police in Dallas use M Class cars for a lot of police work....

sdcaclint

the CHP is using bmw motorcycles on a lease program, you can buy them used at a local dealer with 60,000 miles on them. i think bmw got the bid due to the fact that the kawasaki's they were using were getting dated, and it was time for a change. i can't think of an american made motorcycle made that would fit the needs of law enforcement.
i also saw at a fair in northern california that the CHP was considering using volvo's. the officers staffing the booth, said they were going to be putting them into service, but i have yet to see one, and that was 2 years ago. they had one all painted up and equiped on display. it looked better than a crown vic, it was a larger sedan, i don't know what model it was, but aren't all volvos fwd?

Mike T.

LAPD Lieutenant Columbo and his 1960 Peugeot 403 Cabriolet

Accord

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, the PBSO also just bought 12 of those new Honda Hybrid cars that get like 75mpg or something, lol. They will only be using them for parking enforcement though .

FrankW

if it is the larger sedan it is the S80. the S60/S70 series have the AWD option. the S80 and S40/V40 are front drive cars. the S90/960 was RWD.

i think that the POS Crown Vic that highway patrol uses are using the SVT cobra engines specially made for the Crown Vic, but IMO they are still POS.

the Walnut police dept actually have a Aerostar Police Van....lol...more POS than the POS Crown Vic.

Accord

LOL yeah! The PBSO has this thing called "Community Patrol" and they ride around in minivans, not sure what kind though, lol .

Some of the FHP troopers ride around on Harley Davidsons, although I rarely see them.

avlis

The small town in NH I grew up in had Volvo police cars in the 80's. They only had them for a short time. I think they wrecked most of them within the first couple years.