Following on from our story late last week, reports today say Ford US will replace its aging Crown Victoria with a new front-wheel drive sedan that shares its platform with the current model Taurus.
The new purpose-built vehicle will be engineered to exceed the Crown Victoria’s safety, durability and performance record and will also be offered in an all-wheel drive variant.
“Police nationwide asked for a new kind of weapon in the battle for public safety, and Ford is answering the call with a purpose-built vehicle — engineered and built in America — that’s as dynamic as it is durable,” said Mr Mark Fields, Ford president of the Americas.
The Ford Police Interceptor will be available with two 3.5-litre V6 engines: a naturally aspirated 196kW unit on front-wheel drive models, and a 272kW twin-turbocharged direct injection variant equipped with all-wheel drive.
Ford also announced today that a second pursuit model, an as yet unnamed utility vehicle, will be offered to police agencies. More details will follow in Q3 this year.
The Police Interceptor will be built at Ford’s Chicago assembly plant from late 2011.
“Shares the same platform as the Taurus”….It is a Taurus just slightly modified.
Mind you a 272kw AWD does sound like a little ripper!
What is going on with the side panels in the photo? Trick of the light, or does the panel slope deeply inwards?
It’s the lighting in conjunction with the reflection of the white paint on the road.
Apparently durability in service is double that of the old Crown Vic, handle better in the snow ridden parts of the states also.
They’re going to still produce the Crown Vic for another year yet. I’m told some police are not happy as it it FWD. The AWD is the preferred package, but will be limited.
They wanna be durable Adam! The cost (maintenace) of the Taurus will be alot higher than the CV.
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why? Don’t FWD cars work in the wet?
FWD is safer in the wet, if anything.
When you try to accelerate hard from standing still in the wet with a FWD car, there’s no traction ~
ahhh, so let me get this straight. In slippery conditions where we have 2 cars 1xFWD and 1xRWD, the FWD car, despite having that big heavy thing sitting on the front axel will lose traction and not move. But a RWD car with less wait on the rear axel will somehow not lose traction, not fishtail, and get away …right got it. That must by why there is some much crime in the UK, its thoses pesky FWD police cars not keeping up the bad guys who only drive beemers!
When you accelerate, the weight shift to the back. When you brake, the weight shift to the front.
Traction Force = Friction coefficient X Weight.
I studied engineering for your info ~
If you brake only the 2 front wheels, the car stops in a much shorter distance than if you were to brake only the 2 rear wheels.
when you have weight under cornering loads on a front wheel car you get understeer this means the car has no turn or control into the corner it just keeps traveling straight, this is even more noticeable in heavy larger cars .
it is better to have oversteer than understeer.
Isn’t physics part of engineering anymore? since the shift in weight as you call it, is known as inertia.
So using your example, the Friction coefficient will be the same for both cars assuming they have the same size tyres. But the FWD drive car will have a higher traction force because it will have more weight on the front axel.
Isn’t this why burnouts are usually done in RWD cars?
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Australian Police departments DO NOT take ‘police specific’ vehicles as in the US. The only way Australian departments would get the AWD Taurus based cars is if Ford brought it out for general sales, and then the way our departments are structured it would be for Highway patrol. And as for RWD v FWD for Police use, RWD is much preferred.
But they can still have a Taurus when it comes here as the Falcon replacement.
I’ve seen twice, the WA cops stop drivers with unmarked WRX cars.
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And then the Caprice just lost 11 because its not US made.
Let me remind you the Caprice isnt proven either.
In fact the Taurus has passed more durability tests then the Caprice
The FWD versions will be the run of the mill parking ticket issuing vehicles, and the AWD boys will be called for the serious stuff. Thats already the format they use not only in the US, but also here in OZ
No its not. We also use the FWD cars as chase cars, and i dont think we have any AWD Aussie Police cars(SUV’s dont count). And how has the Taurus platform been proven for Police work. 30 years for the panther platform under the CV, and about 5 years for the Zeta, VS about two years for no police work and only light civilian applications for the platform under the Taurus. Im not saying it aint up to the task, just that FWD is not a good solution. In fact it is a step back.
I keep hearing how much more it’s going to be to fix the Taraus over the Crown Victoria, that’s stating the obvious, it doesn’t matter what vehicle becomes the PD vehicle of choice it’s going to be a lot more expensive than the CV, the beauty of having a car that’s been around so long is the abundance of parts. In terms of how often the Taraus will need major repairs probably not as much as the CV, structure wise it’s reportedly 50 percent tougher than the CV.
In terms of the Caprice I don’t think there’s much that either vehicle won’t do but the fact that the Taraus is the first vehicle offered to pass all the PD tests for safety and strength and it’s Ford US, desinged and built, will give it a significant advantage. They’ve also got both basis covered in terms of Pursuit and inner suburbia pedestrian model with the FWD 3.5 and AWD 3.5 TT.
Wouldn’t surprise me if the 2nd Pursuit model ends up being a dedicated RWD, who knows, it could be based on the Falcon platform lol, not likely.
As i said, durability of the taurus is twice that of the CV, except it and get over yourself.
The taurus platform is a variation of a volvo platform orginally. Ford US builds numerous vehicles of this platform, economy of scale would exceed that of the CV.
I’m over the misconceptions about FWD police vehicles, as another rational person has stated on here already, we don’t live in a hollywood movie.
Also Ford US appears to be making none of the same, past mistakes, another fact regardless if you accept that or not.
The Taurus has a history of being used in the U.S. or police and taxi service The Crown Vic has been used more. Besides, the Taurus Interceptor model may be a police model, but the civillian version is the Taurus/SHO. the Crown Vic is for fleet sevice only and is no longer sold to the public here.
Most police car applications are not high speed pursuits, with power slide drifting. In fact the trend is away from high speed pursuits due to the danger. A concept I thought was much better was a diesel powered one for a year ago or so. Most police work is slow putting around town, making a diesel idea. BTW who says it can’t also be fast?
Just remember we are not living in a Hollywood movie
Should have called spoiler alert before you said that…
very expensive cars for fetching cheese burgers.
The US auto industry dropped the ball when they went FWD for their large cars.
Have a neighbour who drives pursuit cars with the fast response group. Reckons the big deal for them is getting across town quickly by jamming on the brakes at intersections to assess oncoming traffic then getting up to speed asap. Bum draggers dont cut it as the fronts spin too easily, wasting time and the nose heavy nature chews brakes and tyres. WRXs are too small to carry shotguns and associated gear. They love their XR6 turbos and are looking at turbo Territorys. Bosses wont let them have V8s (half-wits)