Chevrolet has quietly released its new police-spec Caprice Police Patrol Vehicle (PPV) to the media today at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
The Holden Caprice-based PPV, shown earlier this year at a police chiefs conference, enjoyed its first public outing at the show and is the first of a new fleet of US police vehicles set to roll out from early 2011. V8 powered models will come first with V6 models expected to follow in 2012.
As shown the Caprice PPV utilises GM’s 265kW 6.0-litre V8 with 0-100km/h times said to be under six seconds, making it the fastest police vehicle currently in service. Active Fuel Management and E85 (flex fuel) capability should ensure decent fuel economy.
The Caprice PPV package also includes a high-output alternator, engine oil, transmission and power steering coolers, 18-inch steel wheels, heavy duty brakes, upgraded suspension, a revised stability control program and a driver information center mounted in the gauge cluster.
Inside, the five-seat LWB design allows for an optional centre-mounted touch-screen computer which is backed-up by two boot-mounted batteries. The rear seat will be upholstered in heavy duty vinyl but can be replaced with a hard plastic police-spec arrangement at the buyer’s discretion.
“The new Chevrolet Caprice police car is the right tool at the right time for law enforcement,” said Jim Campbell, general manager for GM Fleet and Commercial Operations. “We asked for a lot of feedback from our police customers, which helped us develop a vehicle that is superior to the Crown Victoria in key areas.”
An undercover street appearance package will also be available for the Caprice, although it will not be available to the general public.
The Caprice police car will be built here in Australia from the beginning of next year.
With Leftlane News
this car hasnt been confirmed as the crown victoria replacement ……..Ford have a new police car as well….no decision has been made yet.
looks so bloody tough! ;)
Thats frickin fast for a BIG car! hope they use it, as it can only be good for our exports!
i stil LOL at active fuel management though. It wont help where the police car is used!
What about when they are buying donuts??? which is ALOT…!!!
lol
My brother is in the NSW cops, apparently they don’t mind pizza either, especially free pizza lol
Love the way it has the word Caprice in its name.
thats a nod to holden !
It’s not a nod to Holden – the name ‘Caprice’ was firstly given to a car produced by Chevy from the mid sixties.
and its literal meaning is not very flattering at all. It essentially means impulsive, reckless, or perhaps thoughtless. I suspect one of those words that was used because it sounds classy, when in reality it is far from it.
Like Pajero: Wanker in Latin
the Buick “LaCrosse” means “self love” in French Quebecois slang and the LaCrosse is sold in Canada.
No it’s not, it’s renamed for the Canadian market, as the Buick Allure.
“An undercover street appearance package will also be available for the Caprice, although it will not be available to the general public.”
Doesn’t sound very undercover if the coppers are the only ones that have them!
Exactly what I was thinking. Even the dumbest of crooks should be able to figure out if they’re being tailed by the fuzz.
There is some very dumb people out there LOL.
“undercover street appearance package” car has a Ford badge on it :)
0-100 in UNDER 6 seconds! These big boys sure do haul.
What no Shotguns in the trunk!!! Not even an Uzi
I reckon they still need a nice nimble car for those crazy agile ricers in the city :P
Nah, they could always just shoot the ricer.
[The Holden Caprice-based PPV, shown earlier this year at a police chiefs conference, enjoyed its first public outing at the show and is the first of a new fleet of US police vehicles set to roll out from early 2011]
Interesting seeing as they haven’t actually received approval, a contract agreement or an order yet….. I hopw Holden haven’t started building them and handing out supply contracts. Although if they had then maybe they could trade out of them by building them in yellow for the Australian Taxi fleet…. woops don’t have a successful factory backed LPG package…
Are you really Safety Frist, rather than Safety First? Just Curious.
Ha Ha has only taken 3 months for someone to pick that typo :p
G’Day
We’ve been using the current model Statesman in Canberra as part of the Silver Service Taxi fleet.
I was lucky enough to drive one before the owner wrote it off, and the only thing I didn’t like about it was that the V6 was noisy on acceleration. Since the owner wrote it off, we’re back in a Fairlane and whilst its really quiet on take off, it lacks the presence on the road that the Statesman has.
Oh, and I’m a huge fan of the Auto Wipers, especially if you forget to turn them off when entering a car wash…
Or maybe Ford could pitch the Fairlane as an alternative…woops didn’t have a successful large car…
Yep,
they failed to stitch up fleet deals to warrant the cost of a seperate platform.
You do know who buys LWB sedans dont you???
I don’t think Holden has a chance here. American will buy US unless they don’t have a choice. Also, the spending here goes directly back into the US economy.
I think if Holden succeeds it will be a hollow victory for them. GM has idle factories in the US that are being closed. If Holden win this contract….. er, correction…. if GM win this contract my money would be on a US GM factory building the cars that holden designed.
I would be very suprised if they opt to import almost one factories output of cars from Australia. If the US Taxi fleet take to them also it will be enough business to keep one factory in the US fully employed.
I agree,
its got to be a big kick in the guts for the american factories sitting idle.
Im sure the Caprice suits them well, but why not take the recipe and make it there???
Umm not sure what you guys are talking about it not being approved yet.. GM has already been officially awarded the contract!
Really?? Where’d you read that?? Because the contract isn’t due to be awarded till the Second half 2010…. Hence the reason Ford has NOT played out it’s hand yet on it’s CV Replacemnet vehicle yet. Neither for that matter has Chrylser or Toyota (both are also rumoured to be working on PVV’s)
Actually none of these concept vehicles have been given to the various agnecies for evaluations yet. Rest assured there is going to be plenty of mile done in evaluating these vehicles before the contracts are handed out.
I love the thoughts behind an undercover car… haha how does that work… those cars will only be sold as a cop car. should be easy to spot a mile away.
I wish it was like that here.
Undercover cops drive Golf GTI’s and Honda Accords where I live. We’ve got no hope.
“An undercover street appearance package will also be available for the Caprice, although it will not be available to the general public.” LOL, which means there undercovers will stick out like dogs balls!
“Oh chevy doesnt sell a caprice to the public in the U.S. geee must be a copper!”
Richo…..nobody has been given anything yet. Ford have their own police car as well and they arent gonna just lie down and let GM take the police contract away. Ford should win the contract because it will mean jobs for the american Auto Industry. Anyway Fords quality and reliability is up the top these days and i am sure they wouldnt want a poorly built un-reliable GM car like the Commode\Caprice breaking down all the time.
Actually reliability and durability are the Holdens strong points. These cars are used as police cars in some of the harshest environments around.
Yeah it shouldn`t be hard for a car that only does 60k in its life to be reliable, but still they have trouble managing that.
Just like all police cars. The only advantage that the Police Interceptor had was that it was like a kit on wheels. if some panel got damaged just stick a new one on. alhtough the platform was ancient and sucked the juice it was huge which is what the Caprice is compared to the rest.
Here is a link from Allpar.com the first showing the Dodge Challenger squad car Which will reach 100 km in under 6 easily. The second link has a comparison between the Dodge Charger,Chevrolet Tahoe, Chevy Impala, Ford Interceptor, pursuit cars.
http://www.allpar.com/squads/p.....enger.html
http://www.allpar.com/squads/p.....-2010.html
Very good. Only one problem with these cars, they have no where to put the prisoners in the back and possibly a gun rack. Large police departments have at least two pump action shot guns and an assualt (semi-automatic) rifle, those cars shown would be too small for such items.
265kw and it can do the sprint in under 6 seconds?????
sounds unlikely since the higher powered aussie versioned HSV’s struggle to do that
So the undercover version is not available to the American public… that doesn’t make sense. Any trainspotting suspect would be able to tell that the statesman/caprice, that doesn’t have police blue and white livery, following him is a cop car because civillians can’t have them.
That makes perfect sense to me!
Civilian’s can’t buy them NEW, but that doesn’t mean they can’t buy one at an auction second hand.
The tail-lights look cheaper than on the Australian version. Aren’t ours LED, at least on the Caprice? (I don’t think our Statesman is LED but the ‘pattern’ still looks better than those plain jane lights on the US version).
Both Statesman and Caprice come with LED’s. One thing that seems to be confusing people is that whoever wins the contract will supply all the PPV’s. It wil actually go to multiple manufacturers just like before. Remember Dodge and Ford supplied at the same time.
US has completely different rules for taillights, eg, blinkers can be red. I’m guessing they’re specific to this car
Quite dumb to have the same colour signal lights as brake lights. That’s confusing.
Al juraj ur right. But what did you expect from form the Yankee’s
I bet the seppos are trying to keep it hush-hush that they are made in Aus. Its not readily obvious from their website. I love how the website also states “Dependable Auxiliary Battery” – probably coz they still cant fix the problem with VE’s getting flat batteries hahahaha
The Crown Vics they mainly use now aren’t made in the US anyway so it shouldn’t matter a great deal, the Aussie dollar being strong against the green back would be effecting their ability to do it at an acceptable price & profit margin I’d imagine tho.
I don’t know what people are saying about “the contract”. All US policing is local – county, city, and state forces are all separate, and each makes it own purchase decision. So presumably some will buy Chevrolet Caprice ( an old Chevy nameplate by the way – Holden just used it) – as many today buy Chevy Impalas (FWD), some will buy Dodge Chargers, as they do now, and some will buy Fords.
This Police car is being made in my home town, Melbourne Australia,
LA are getting the same cars for there Police Force, there building them here in Melbourne and are going to import around 6.000 cars per year, but the cars are only for the Police, there not available to buy any where in the United States.
Australia\’s been using this type of car for years, with new ones coming out every 3 years but our ones are available to by in Australia, and Melbourne, and the cars have the badge Holden