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Piston Slap: What Does It Take To Sell Cars to Police Fleets?
Jay writes:
Sajeev,
My question has to do with police fleets, and law enforcement vehicles. Ford had a great run with the Crown Victoria patrol cars in the ’90s and ’00s. As a kid, I remember Dodge Diplomat cop cars everywhere. Will the typical police sedan be gone if the Dodge Charger goes away?
We really are in an SUV world now, huh?
Sajeev answers:
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Buy and sell classics with confidence
Yep! This is the world we live in, but sedans aren’t completely extinct.
I still see 15-plus-year-old Crown Vics piloted by Houston police, presumably because they are good backup vehicles when Explorers, Tahoes, Chargers, etc. are down for maintenance. No matter the reason, seeing them gives me joy for personal reasons.
The Charger is being rebooted for 2025, and will offer a sedan with the coupe that we’ve already seen out and about. If you ask me, a Chrysler Fury sedan on the same platform (sold at the same dealership) would have been the proper way to bring back a name (and revive a brand), but I digress. It’s not clear yet whether the new MOPARs are going to be headed into fleet service.
As this episode from the TV show Hunter proves, not only would a rejuvenated Fury dominate the police fleet scene, the brown ones would absolutely fly over city streets. But enough with the jokes, because police cars in America need to be made a certain way to succeed.
And “making” doesn’t just involve a conversion to column-shift transmissions and center console deletions; the body style in question is likely a red herring in any discussion. The biggest issue is making a good police vehicle for everyone who will interact with it from the cradle to the grave auction lot.
The basics of fleet management (police, or otherwise) are sprinkled across the internet, and here’s one example that tickled my fancy. For the automotive enthusiast, we need to remember that max performance is only one part of the equation. Taxpayers likely care about fuel economy and the cost to acquire. Fleet managers care about the cost of repair and the availability of parts. The end user cares about ergonomics and durability.
There’s a lot to balance, and we’ve barely scratched the surface. If a company does it wrong for one of these stakeholders, they make the news for all the wrong reasons. Both my earliest and most recent recollections unfortunately center around Chrysler/Stellantis, the first is credited to the Dodge Intrepid. That particular cruiser had a bad habit of its brakes catching on fire. Poke around social media and even more servicing issues surface.
The recent issue with Stellantis is more troubling, as their service after the sale (here, here) is lacking. Do the “fleet thing” wrong and the media will take the taxpayer/customer’s side.
But do it right and you are bulletproof in the long term: The Crown Victoria was embroiled in its own fire-related controversy after high-energy impacts, until it was not. These suits were quickly, loudly dropped when Ford squeezed the affected fleet managers out of the new car pipeline, some of whom didn’t even know they were suing Ford for product liability. I am not taking Ford’s side on this (I promise!), instead I’m suggesting they provided the best vehicle for law enforcement personnel at the time. (The loss of life was tragic, we can hope that new parking guidelines minimize risk in these high-energy impacts.)
Again, there is a lot to balance when it comes to Police fleets. I wouldn’t be surprised if law enforcement officers prefer a two-box SUV/Crossover design over a three-box for their duties outside of high-speed highway pursuits. And there’s little doubt that police departments are using other vehicles for lower stress operations, like how the NYPD uses the Toyota Camry for unmarked and traffic-management vehicle duties.
While we all would love to distill the police fleet discussion to the most macho of pursuit vehicles, they are but one cog in a complicated system. We may never know the extent of law enforcement’s souring to the Dodge Durango after what happened last year, but it’s clear that V-8 power won’t sway fleet managers from their love of the Ford Explorer. Or perhaps even the Toyota Camry?
Of course, the Piston Slap column never ends with my thoughts. You get the final say in the comments, and I now formally request your thoughts on what it takes to successfully sell police cars!
Have a question you’d like answered on Piston Slap? Send your queries to pistonslap@hagerty.com—give us as much detail as possible so we can help! Keep in mind this is a weekly column, so if you need an expedited answer, please tell me in your email.
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Here in Tn the choice seems to be Explorers & the Ford sedans. Don’t know the model name for the sedans but they seem to be used a lot by local PDs. Not a lot of Chargers in use except for duty where they’re just sitting a lot, like school resource officers, etc. More & more Explorers & a few Expeditions. Hard to find a department with Chevys anymore