Chevrolet Caprice PPV sold to the public in dealer loophole

Article
Gallery

By Tim Beissmann | July 08th, 2011

A small number of Australian-made Chevrolet Caprice Police Patrol Vehicles have found their way into public hands after a US dealer took advantage of a loophole in Chevrolet’s contract.

According to Jalopnik, Criswell Chevrolet in Maryland advertised 13 Chevrolet Caprice vehicles for sale to the public on its website last month.

From the outset, Chevrolet has made it clear that the Caprice was only to be sold to law enforcement agencies and not to members of the public. But a loophole in Chevrolet’s dealer sales contract failed to explicitly state this.

Harry Criswell, the owner of the Maryland dealership, told Automotive News he only sold one or two Chevrolet Caprice Detective models before he was contacted by General Motors and asked to stop.

GM has since plugged the legal loophole, and does not believe any other Caprice vehicles have been sold to the public.

The 13 Caprice Detective vehicles – the unmarked version of the police patrol car – were advertised on Criswell’s website for between $US31,870 and $US37,053 ($29,600 and $34,400). Criswell fitted the stripped-out sedans with a number of additional comfort features, including power windows and power seats.

The remaining vehicles in his yard will be sold to police forces as they were originally intended.

It’s easy to understand why the Americans are keen to get their hands on our Holden-designed and -manufactured Caprice. With a US-rated 265kW/521Nm 6.0-litre V8 on board, the Caprice is the first rear-wheel drive sedan from Chevrolet since the 1996 Chevrolet Impala.

The only other V8-powered rear-wheel drive sedan in GM’s US stable is the Cadillac CTS-V, which is priced from $US67,000 ($62,200).

One or two Americans now have their hands on the banned cop cars. The rest of the country’s enthusiasts will have to wait for the unmarked cars to head to the auction floor in a few years’ time.

Click here to read more about the Chevrolet Caprice PPV.

http://www.sillbeer.com/ Brendan

Not sure it makes sense to have ‘unmarked’ detective versions of this car considering they will only be sold to Police departments.

May as well sticker it up saying ‘Look, I’m a detective!’

undercover

generally the “detective” versions of a new release get driven by captains and department chiefs etc, not many detectives actually get them.
Thrillhouse

That’s the whole point. If they were doing undercover work they’d use an old jalopy.

Joof

Ca’t be any different to the current Model Ford Crown Victoria. If you saw a new one of them on the road, you’d have to suspect it was a police car too as only police forces can buy them now…

Besides, with the big MOFO A-Pillar mounted spot light, how many unmarked cars are actually mistaken for anything other than a police car???

Alex

I think some people are confusing ‘Detective’ with ‘Undercover’ these are not meant to be hidden, just be unmarked with no external lights or bright stickers.
Dave S

A unique car in the American market. I wonder how many other dealers will try something similar. I am sure that dealer is thinking maybe they should have charged more since are not many around yet.
Roadtard

And so it makes headlines… Sure GM isn’t behind all this…?
Martin

You’d think GM would actually try and sell them to the public. The public clearly want these types of cars.
vid_ghost

They sure do like our Australian sedans… funny how the mazda 3 is the number 1 selling car over here… guess we dont like them as much as the Americans do

VS ute

Holden has had the number 1 seller for 15 years (commodore) and Mazda gets it for a month here or there does not a number 1 seller make

Nice try but sorry thats a fail right there

HP

Actually so far this year the Mazda 3 is outselling the Commodore. Only by about 80 cars though.
John

Kind of like holden loving the attention of having the number 1 sales in Oz for a couple months after toyota has slipped too number 2. Toyota sales have fallen an average of 4-6k units for those 2 months because of major supply issues while holden has stayed stagnant.
Nice try but sorry thats a fail right there!
Bogan Hater

Owning a Holden, now that is a fail right there.
Arky

In private sales, the Mazda3 has been beating the Commodore for ages.

Big government fleet buys to prop up the local manufacturers don’t make the Commodore more popular.

Steve

So Holden sold something like 23 PPVs of which 13 went to a dealer trying to flog them to the public. Wow, that’s incredible.
Bomber

Low $30K’s is a good price. Wish I could get a brand new V8 commodore here for that.

Peanut

Why is every car we sell to America way cheaper to buy there than it is here?

Patrick

Exactly, especially since our dollar is worth more than an American dollar now, they should be paying more than us.
Where can I get a new aussie Caprice for $35,000?

Hell, it might even be cheaper to import one from America !!!!!

Devil’s Advocate

One thing you must remember Patrick is that the “Caprice” going over to the US only LOOKS like ours from the outside. Inside it is very sparse in specification ie much closer to Omega trim/specification than Caprice. Whilst that doesn’t explain the whole difference, it is one of the many factors/excuses that GM-H would use. They can’t even use “economy of scale”…..
Peter Stone

It’s just a stretched omega with a caprice front and a v8, not an actual caprice

Joof

Clearly you have no idea. Just look at it, it IS THE CAPRICE bodyshell, not “just a stretched omega”. Your philosphy suggests a caprice is merely a stretched calais…

Shak

Its called silly taxes. We pay a lot of tax on our cars.

Arky

Nah, the price differences go way way beyond taxes. if not for the hassle of compliance costs and warranties, it would be cheaper to buy a lot cars overseas and ship them here than to buy the local model (same as nearly everything else).

It’s like the thing with Gerry Harvey blaming the GST for people buying electronics over the internet. Price difference is way, way more than 10% Gerry, that’s why it’s still cheaper to import even after shipping and even if you added GST to it.

Nelson Muntz

Makes you wonder how they can be making money on these…
Jack

It did say that the dealer had to add features including power windows.

Whilst it is evident that there is a large discrepancy between Australia’s new vehicle pricing and that of the U.S, we do tend to receive vehicles with a much better spec level. Take for example the base Mazda3 in the US which comes with next to no kit, and a less powerful engine.

That said, overall I believe we are being ripped off.

Devil’s Advocate

Don’t forget though that a base model Mazda3 in the US is only $15,800, less than half of the asking price of the Caprice mentioned in the article.

A more realistic demonstration of how we are getting ripped off is comparing something like a BMW M3 coupe. It costs approx US$59,000 over there compared to close to AU$169,000 here with no options on either car. Another interesting figure is the difference between “rival” cars in both Australia and the US. Example, the Lexus IS350 and BMW 335i sell for around US$39,000 and US$41,000 respectively, yet in Australia the IS350 is around $71,000 and the BMW 335i sedan is around $118,000 on the road in NSW with no options/metalic paint etc. How can two similar cars vary by around $2,000 in the US yet are separated by$47,000 over here? There are quite a few things that are not right. It is similar with Mercedes Benz too….

Jack

“That said, overall I believe we are being ripped off”

Fortunately for me, being a student on the lower end of the pay scale the issue of over-priced merc’s and bmw’s is of more concern to my father than myself. With the state this country’s going I’ll be more concerned about the nanny state putting health warnings on my beers than car manufacturers in a free market economy ripping off the upper class who are willing to hand over their cash.
o

This is what annoys me, A honda jazz is about the same price and in the lower priced cars there is less mark up, once we get to the luxury cars though even with the the tax there is no excuse, BMW must make all there profit from the australian market. I mean a 100k markup on the M3 is overkill.

laurie

Think how much the cars that were sold are now worth!
john

Once again we get ripped off in this country very badly.
paulb

The Americans really want there RWD vechles back,if only we could get the Commodore and Falcon over there.
Good on the US dealer who managed to get a couple on the market,he knows how well they would sell.

Phil

You’re basing that on 1 or 2 sales of a RWD car?

In the 90s/80s Americans had a choice of buying mainstream cars with RWD of FWD. They choose FWD.
Now today, only a handful of RWD mainstream models exist and they sell in extremely low numbers.

Commodore was over in the USA a few years ago. It sold poorly and was discontinued. Falcon would sell even worse if it went there.

Shak

No hes most likely basing it off the thousands of posts made by fans over blogs and fan sites everyday about how good we have it downunder with our Falcon/Territory and our Commodore ranges. Many many Americans want something affordable, powerful, spacious and relatively fuel efficient. GM have made a very silly mistake by creating this new ALPHA platform for billions when they could have updated ZETA for much less. They pretty much had all the work done for them on Camaro. Same with Ford and the Falcon FG chassis package. It is world class and arguably better than anything FoMoCo have Stateside, but again they turn a blind eye to a package which is essentially ready for anything, and could probably be a German beater with a bit of TLC (oh and some $$$). The Americans DO want RWD, but they have been subjected to FWD torture for so long now, that many seem to have forgotten what the good ol’ days were like…

Phil

The “good ol’ days” meaning live axle/leaf sprung rear ends and lovely sillky soft sponge suspension? Yes I’m sure the Americans have forgotten that.

Sales speak louder than blog posts. If they loved the Commodore, why didn’t they choose to buy them (they had a chance over a 5 year peroid!) instead of choosing Camrys/Civics/Corollas/Jettas/Accords/Malibu/Altima/Fusion – which by the way, for every single Americans that choose a Commodore, 1000 Americans choose one of the abovementioned models.

Shak

Many reasons the Americans didnt buy them. Marketing, the Pontiac brand, and that fact that the Commodore was not a volume model or a fleet model in the US when it was there. And they didnt have a five year period. That would mean that from day one of VE, the Commodore was on sale in the US and that it only ended this year, which is untrue. Many people who did want the Commodore got it.
Phil

Shak, the Commodore/G8 replaced the FWD Pontiac Grand Prix. The G8 sold in far fewer numbers than the FWD Grand Prix despite a similar sales price.

The Commodore reached the states in 2004 as a VZ based GTO Model. GMH stopped exporting the G8 model in mid 2009, however GM USA had thousands of unsold G8s and they were on dealer lots untill early 2010 after selling in Commodore tradition with heavy discounts.

Cadillac also had a model in the 90s that shared the Commodore RWD chassis. It too was discontinued due to poor sales.

paulb

Shak i have been reading the posts.

Old Dog

I wonder if the whole story is being told here. Were the vehicles actually delivered to the customers?
ohreally

only 30K
half price caprice in the USA?

But if we are to buy an imported US vehicle we pay stupid amounts, eg camaro, mustang, f150
Phil

I’m confused about two things:

1. Why would GM stop a dealer from selling cars that were meant to be sold?

2. These Caprice’s are normally fitted with wind up windows???? “Criswell fitted the stripped-out sedans with a number of additional comfort features, including power windows “.

union

These are not the Caprice’s sold here. They are basic model designed/sold into a fleet market. Like the XT Falcon or Omega Commodore.

Phil

But the bottom of the range commodore has had electric windows for the last decade.

Surely removing the electric windows, redesigning a manual wind up system AND having a seperate segment in the factory to install this would cost more than simply using the same power windows as every other model.

Karl

These vehicles were only intended to be for the police force (not the general public). They have a ‘Caprice’ body, but because they’re a cop spec/fleet model, they probably have less features then an Omega (except the police equipment obviously).

bangel

Better get an extended warranty , if they can , they will need it .
Rickdingo

I hope roadside assistance comes standard…….if they are as reliable as normal Commodores they will need it!!!
JD

Ok so your saying after you ship the car across the pacific ocean to the us the car still costs less that the omega but wait … It’s a v8 aswell

So much for dealer delivery

Or how about Toyota camry 21k in US or 24k in Canada or 29k here for base model

Before I moved to oz from Canada I bought a new 07 camry le, that base model is equivalent to that of ateva here
Jack

Why are aussie cars so expensive?
Our dollar is just slightly over parity with the US dollar so by rights we should be paying about the same
Shak

I commented on this situation last week when it happened, CA you are a bit slow in your reporting lately.
PeterG

Re headline Who cares.

Change the badge its still crap underneath.

Could be cheaper to import from US after exporting from Oz cause of Oz Govt tax rip offs. How does the carbon tax fix that?
Guess who the middleman is collecting the dosh?
Become a dealer and screw the govt like they deserve to be.

Simple how can it be fair that a car manufactured in Oz is cheaper in the US
Leigh

It’s basically an American car anyway…….camt see it being assembled in Australia for very long as they lose money on every one just like the Cruze.
Martin

Wasn’t the ACCC meant to be looking into these issues? Like Apple’s download pricing?

The only way the Australian public can change these inflated prices is by voting with their wallets. If the car manufacturers sell very few cars then they will consider dropping their prices. We need to stand up for ourselves and stop getting pushed around by these grossly inflated prices. After being to the US on holiday it is so frustrating to find the huge prices differences. Even IKEA is much cheaper. (IKEA Stockholm is AUS$2999, and US$1499).

If only cars could be bought over the Internet from other RHD countries…

Arky

If the government changed the compliance scheme so it was almost as easy to import a car from a RHD country as it is to import a Playstation 3 (especially if that model is already on sale in Australia), I reckon we’d see prices fixed in an awful hurry.

But it might hurt the local manufacturing, and so no government would ever dare do that even if it’s hurting everyone else in Australia who buys cars.

Almost a GM customer

This would have clinched the deal for me.

I called the dealer on Thursday, got my financing in order Friday, by Monday general motors cut my throat Not only do I have a bad taste from this experience, I have shut out the notion of switching to a general motors product.

. . . and I hate writing commentary, but this just twisted me the wrong way.

Shak

What do you mean? Did they not sell the car to you? Because from what i understood from comments made by the dealer online, they were able to sell all of the ones they had for the public, but GM has essentially said they will not be getting anymore stock of the Caprice…

Alex

I reckon GM is testing to see if the public snap those caprice’s on offer….

And yeah it is hypocrisy to sell only 2 US police forces, maybe they want to protect their own US divisions by making the Holden fail…..
diesel

whats the big deal about having a “cop car” ?? most of you wouldnt hesitate to bad mouth cops (american or Aussie), but you have double standards and want to “pretend” to be a cop?? for what reason, to get your jollies in making the driver beside or in front of you, into thinking you’re a cop?? how strange…..go and join the police force for real instead of buying/driving these cars.
Jamie wildash

Why would anyone want to buy a Holden of any kind? A big bogan mobile with no technology driven by mindless idiots in hoodies and trackie daks.Old technology which is failing in Australia. rotten build quality and poor resale value guarantee the supply to the dropkick zone
Jamie wildash

Why would anyone want to buy a Holden of any kind? A big bogan mobile with no technology driven by mindless idiots in hoodies and trackie daks.Old technology which is failing in Australia. rotten build quality and poor resale value guarantee the supply to the dropkick zone
Jamie wildash

Why would anyone want to buy a Holden of any kind? A big bogan mobile with no technology driven by mindless idiots in hoodies and trackie daks.Old technology which is failing in Australia. rotten build quality and poor resale value guarantee the supply to the dropkick zone

Karl

If you say so chap.
To be honest, I’ve always thought this ‘judge people by which car they drive’ thing a bit stupid.
Hitler had a hand in the original Beetle, but that doesn’t make someone who drives a German car a eugenics touting racist now does it? Of course not!
Unlike car enthusiasts, the majority of people see their cars as just transport. They don’t look at their cars the same way most enthusiast do.

Smoov

Just have a look at the door trim on any VE model.
There is just no room for a window winder.
Those cop cars have got electric windows.
Tom

I am one of the guys who got one of these cars from Criswell. They added chrome mirror inlays, a rear spoiler, SS badging, and chrome exhaust tips. Standard options on all 9C3 Caprice PPVs are power windows, locks, and 8-way power driver’s seat and 4-way power passenger seats, amongst other things. Mine has been upgraded with an 8-way power passenger seat, remote start, full size spare tire, and electric heated mirrors.

Exterior: Silver Ice Metallic
Interior: Jet Black

I love it, and everyone else who has seen it loves it. I’ve gotten jokes that I’m driving a unicorn. I couldn’t resist the opportunity as I have a few of the old 1994-1996 B-Bodies. The Caprice PPV isn’t anything like those. But honestly, it has the same spirit with the V8/RWD…and handles FAR better than the B-Bodies.

With everything being bland FWD anymore, it was exciting to get a V8/RWD 4-door sedan without needing to pay Cadillac prices.

I didn’t buy it for investment. I bought it to enjoy. I will take good care of it though just as I’ve preserved my other cars.