Ford’s US police car platform could underpin next Aussie Falcon

By Matt Brogan | March 12th, 2010

Ford US will next Friday unveil its new, purpose-built Police Interceptor to a select group of law enforcement fleet customers in Las Vegas.

The car’s underpinnings could be the strongest hint yet at Ford’s new global rear-wheel drive platform that may form the framework for the next-generation Australian-built Falcon.

The unveiling, which is not open to members of the media or general public, will showcase the vehicle Ford will use to replace the aging Crown Victoria, due to be superseded next year.

Though little is known about the upcoming vehicle, a report published in the Detroit News said Ford are unlikely to use a version of its new Taurus due to the concerns voiced by law enforcement agencies that the model’s more complex structure, engine technology and monocoque design make it undesirable for police work (believing a body-on-frame design is preferable for the additional strength and lower repair costs required).

The news follows GM’s response to a new Police Patrol Vehicle (PPV) last year when it displayed a Zeta platform-based, Holden-sourced Caprice at the 2009 Los Angeles Motor Show. Wearing a Chevrolet badge, the Caprice was offered with both V6 and V8 engines.

CarAdvice will keep you posted on any news as it comes to hand.

bill

Body on Frame…. that’ll make the falcon a laughing stock!! here’s hoping that they talk the police into something a little more sophisticated.
Alex

Body on frame and ‘underpinning’ new falcon. I don’t think these two items belong in the same sentance. I beleive someone is reading between the lines here.

Ford Aus would be better off keeping the cuurent platform for 20 years than even consider a body on frame design… unless the new Falcon is a decent 4WD with Locking diffs!

Shak

Ford Aus dont have a say in the matter. The US parent wants to achieve economies of scale so they need a single RWD platform. While i am a Holden fan even i would be sad to see the Falcon stoop soooooooo low.

JEKYL & HYDE

NEW FLASH!!!

upon reading this car advice article,the boss of g.m. has decided to raise the tender price of the w.m. statesman police car up by upwards of five grand…lolololol
ohreally

how old is the godforsaken Ford crown victoria? one update in 30 years?

why doesnt ford USA take our platform, its probably superior

Bob

It is, and how do you know they’re not?
Karl

I think the facon is smaller then a crown.
All we can do is hope.

Damian

The decision as to which manufacturer gets the police car tender, will purely be a political one – the relative merits of the vehicle will not be high on the priority list. It’s highly unlikely that US law enforcement agencies will adopt the WM Caprice, unless somehow, GM starts producing the WM Caprice in the US. A “built in Australia” US police car is akin to political suicide.
colin

If they only want body on frame they won’t be takIng the commodore/statesman either

Shak

Its not that they only want body on frame. They would rather that to the Taurus. They seem to quiet like the IRS on the WM, and the space, and engines, and versatility. The only thing they are concerned with is the panels. They been using CV’s in NA for so long now you can find panels everywhere. For the WM they would have to import them and that is not AMERICAN! My solution, why not import the car, and put it together on the Camaro line as its all ZETA. That way Holden make the parts GM NA bolt it together. Win Win for both sides.

Andrew M

Since when has there ever been a win, win when America is involved???

Its usually Win(america), stuff everyone else….

If they want body on frame they would be better off just rebuilding the current Crown, after all it is a car that is only made for fleet, they stopped letting the public buy it a while ago.

If its going to be body on frame, they will still need another RWD platform in circulation. I doubt Lincoln and Mustang would accept it either, and they are the vehicles Falcon is said to be sharing with
LJS

Not so quick.

The reason they have kept the CV around for so long is it’s cheap to build, buy, and because it’s body on frame, cheap to repair.
Damian

But ultimately, the US Government has ZERO incentive to allow Holden to manufacture parts and export the same to the US, especially when its auto industry is in such a sh*t state. The political ramifications arising from the adoption of an Australian manufactured US police car, will just be too much for most US bureaucrats.

Even from a non-political perspective, the logistics involved in importing the actual cars from Australia, as well as spare and crash parts, makes the WM Caprice an untenable option.
The Oracle

The Statesman is assembled in China from Australian components and badged as a Buick. Both they and the previous model are very common in the large cities like Beijing and Shanghai. It would seem that there would be no reason why the parts could not be made here and sent to the USA in CKD kits for assembly over there. That should get over the political problem and remember the engines and transmissions can be sourced from USA directly.

Damian

The political problem will only be partially mitigated by CKD, at best. I am sure the US auto industry, like Australia’s, sources its components from many local suppliers, of whom rely on the likes of Ford, GM and Chrysler to ensure their survival. CKD from Australia would mean that most, if not all, components are manufactured in Australia, with US workers only being involved in the assembly process. This will never be acceptable to their local industry, and will most probably be the coup de grace for the WM Caprice in its quest for police car supremacy – unless of course, the WM is completely manufactured in the US.

Another factor which further tarnishes Holden’s chances, is the fact that most police cars run 24/7, only retiring for maintenance and repairs. Commonsense would dictate that crash parts (body panels, bumpers e.t.c.) as well as other componentary, need to be manufactured in the US to guarantee a certain supply flow.

Shak

But the Taurus also has imported components so if the US poli’s use that argument they are just being hypocritical. And BTW GM Holden is a subsidiary of a US compnay, so if they dont make business they lose money, and then the US bailout money is going to have to be used to bail them out. Why not just used the CKD kits and use the US sourced ‘boxes and engines. That way Holden and the US police all benefit.

http://carAdvice Onepoppa

It is now sevral months since GM unveiled the Caprice police car. Wonder how many – or how few – orders they have taken for it.
The Original Stevo

Leave it up to the aussies to design the next global RWD platform. We want something that can actually go round corners without being overtaken by the arse end of the car.
Publicity machine

They havent taken any orders, and they are not going to take any orders. If you want to try and keep a bankrupt manufacturing facility (Holdens) going for as long as you can, you keep making promises, and try and entice the polititcians to give you money. According to Mark Reuss, everyone wants a Commodore, its just that no one wants to buy one.

Shak

Yet it seems every month its the top selling car in Australia. So it seems that everyone is buying them.

matt

lol… what douchebag at CA let this get through? Body on Frame for next falcon? …. yep your on GM’s pay list. BOF is nearly extinct as far as passenger cars go… i think the law officals in america need to drive an XR6 turbo or SV6.. honestly, they would be able to catch those criminals alot better
Chilliman

Already confirmed this morning – Ford’s new police interceptor is based on the Taurus
3.5L V6/FWD standard with an option of 3.5L V6 twin-turbo/AWD
Wingman77

Yep other internet sites are reporting it is an AWD Taurus and showing official Ford pics. Ironically, this article seems to be way wide of the mark in it’s content EXCEPT it’s headline – Ford’s US police car could underpin next Aussie Falcon!!
Jason from America

Yep the next Ford cop car here will be the Taurus. My dad is a deputy and his department has looked into getting a Dodge Charger actually. He still drives a Crown Vic right now and the good thing about them is the cars can really take abuse. His previous car had well over 200K miles before he switched to a newer car. I’m interested in seeing how the new Caprice will do.
Tom

Wow, this article seems pretty light on facts, or even logic. Especially when Mulally has heavily hinted multiple times that the Mustang will remain RWD, necessitating Ford maintaining a RWD platform, with the implication that the Mustang and Falcon will share a common platform.
TheMenz

I really can’t see how any decision regarding either Commodore/Statesmen or Falcon can possibly be pinned on producing police vehicles for the States.

The scariest thing for both Ford and Holden (despite Holdens “Success” in the US) is that the parent companies are greedy. I say this not as patriotic Australian, but rather I say it because it is clear that Detroit has for the best part of 30 years snubbed the work done by there satellite Australian operations despite the quality of their products and the relatively modest development budgets.

When you listen to rhetoric of Ford in Detroit you would swear that there is no possible way the Falcon can survive on the modest production numbers it generates. Yet every request to open up LHD export to the middle east or even the states, it has been shut down.

Take the Territory for example, It’s development was undertaken concurrently with the BA Falcon (Although Territory was released in 2004) on the EA169 platform. Ford Aus was looking for LHD drive export for both vehicles and found no joy in Detroit. Amazingly whilst the Territory’s development went on in Broadmeadow’s and the bean counters in Australia desperately attempted to make the numbers work to get Detroit to approve production the Yanks went and developed an almost identical vehicle – The Freestyle (later known as the Taurus-X) for the US market.

And that is the problem, if Australia can do it, the American’s believe they may as well do it themselves. Police cars and all.
Chilliman

Leaving political considerations aside, the Taurus Police Interceptor has been designed in conjuction with the demands of US police Depatments:

The Taurus PI has passed the 8inch kerb hop at 40mph (64km/hr) test – can the Caprice do that?

The Taurus PI has had its chassis strengthened up the point where it is twice as strong as the current Crown Vic PI (a very rugged car) – how strong is Caprice’s chassis?

Taurus PI’s interior in 90% new to accomodate the requirements of Police work. It has resculpted seats to accomodate officers wearing their utility belts and most importantly a column shifter has been engineered to free up console space for police equipment. -I think Caprice still has a floor/console shifter, is the rest of its interior police friendly?

Ford has designed the PI to fit police depts current equipment so that they can quickly and at little cost move that equipment out of existing police cars and into the Taurus – have Holden and GM made similiar allowances for the Caprice?

Most importantly, Taurus PI has been engineered to pass the crucial 75mph (120km/hr) rear-end collision test – could Caprice pass that test?

The Taurus PI has ticked all these boxes – unless Caprice can also meet these requirements then regardless of the politics, Holden won’t get a look in.

Damian

That’s a very insightful post, Chilliman. A lot of engineering must go into a car to make it suitable for police work. It appears that Australian law enforcement requirements are much less stringent than its US counterparts. The modifications undertaken on NSW HWP cars seem to be minimal, and are restricted to dual batteries, extra mounting points for lights, bigger brakes (or pads with different compounds), police mode on the dash e.t.c. – certainly nothing like the US modifications you have described.

Save it for the track

Australian Police vehicles have very little modification made to them, becasue they are not kept anywhere nears as long as in the US, and aren’t put through teh same kerb hopping, PIT manuevering etc. as in the US, and whereas in the US a POlice vehicle may be ‘handed on’ to a poorer department with a bit of a freshen up, or bought by security etc. , no such market exists in Australia or NZ. Most POlice would prefer properly modified seats to allow for our gun butts, and other equipment, as well as having toughened suspension etc. to be able to go over gutters at speed. But here in Aus the almighty dollar and ‘management’ take precedence, and vehicles are put back as close as possible to standard. Whilst I definitely know we need the v8 and turbo performance of the Commodore’s and falcon’s for Highway patrol work, we could certainly do without the standard driveway scraping low ride height, spoilers and side skirts.

Shak

Have you seen all the previous articles re-iterating how many departments were impressed with the ‘modified caprice’. GM Holden has actually made a lot of modifications to accommodate the US police department requirements. Bigger seats, modified touch screen, large rear area and criminal screen. Bigger boot with dual battery, and mounts for weapons and first aid, and all the navi equipment.

Lynchy

Ye Shak the Caprice wasn’t a bad offering from GM, but they paid relative lip service to the safety and strengthening requirements the US law enforcement agencies require, particularly in the HP segment. I was initially sceptical about the Taraus but from all accounts they’ve done their home work. They’ve reinforced all the areas required, passed all the safety tests (the first company to do so) also their offering AWD and FWD variants in both 3.5 and 3.5 eb. They’ll pick up alot of sales in the metro and cold weather areas with the FWD option. The Caprice and Charger will pick up sales in various markets but I think Ford will maintain it’s dominance in the segment.

noj

Well its good news for the Australian police when we import the Taurus as the Falcon. They can import this specific model for our police and it will be safer and more suited as a police car.

Lazybones

Its official, just picked up a news feed claiming the unveiling of Fords new PPV is modified Taurus”, on w w w. autoblog.com
http://shelbyvilleautobody.com/category/uncategorized shelbyville auto body

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