</font><font color="blue" class="small">( you guys favor rear wheel drive vehicles almost exclusively - because of handling, or because it's hard to find anything else with a V8 these days? )</font>
Bob, I can't speak for Gerard's, or anyone else's agency, but I can tell you that there are still a lot of people who do not (or think they do not) like front wheel drive vehicles. Difference in handling? Yes, in some people's minds. I don't think I want to get into a big debate over the differences, but yes, I understand there are some differences; however, you still drive them both basically the same and for a decent driver, the differences are just not really important. When I was involved with the police fleet, I did have a supervisor who was adamantly opposed to "foreign" vehicles, front wheel drive vehicles, and anything smaller than a Cadillac /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif. In fact, he bought a new Cadillac (I believe in 1981) because he was afraid rear wheel drive cars might not be available later.
However, in my area at least, the important factor was interior space. When we started putting mobile telephones, mobile digital terminals, tracking equipment, etc. in the cars, the only ones big enough to do that, and still have two officers in the front seat, were the Ford Crown Vic and the Chevrolet Caprice (Chrysler threatened to sue me when I spec'd them out because they were too small). So Chrysler got out of the police car business, then Chevrolet, so there aren't a lot of choices anymore. Another factor is the fact that, in the overall scheme of things, police vehicles are a tiny fraction of a manufacturer's business, but a real headache for the manufacturer. You or I may own a car that'll run 130 MPH, but if you wreck it at 90 MPH, the manufacturer's owners manual probably tells you to drive legally, so they aren't facing too big a liability risk. However, if they sell you a police pursuit vehicle and something goes wrong at 90 MPH, it's a different story. And when they sell to a governmental agency, they have to meet the specs, submit bids, lots of paperwork, provide warranty (and in bigger agencies like mine agree to allow the city to do the warranty work themselves), etc. You've undoubtedly seen in the news lately that a number of agencies, including Dallas, are suing Ford because of fires from rear end collisions (and the police frequently are parked where rear end collisions are going to happen).
A number of years ago, Honda made what was the best motorcycle for police work, but they had sense enough to just refuse to even try to get police business. The Gold Wing would run over 125 MPH, but the manuals said to drive legally, and in no case over 85 MPH. They were well aware of the lawsuits over the Kawasaki police bike crashes at high speeds, and in my personal opinion, as well as some more expert than I, those crashes were the result of improper tire pressure, improperly adjusted front fork pressure, improper weight distribution, and/or rider error, but Kawasaki paid out a lot of money.
Oops, let me off this soapbox. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I guess bottom line is that the Ford Crown Vic is the last "police" sedan made, and I wonder why they still do it (are you old enough to remember when Ford, Mercury, Chevrolet, Dodge, Plymouth, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Volvo, and many others marketed "police interceptor" cars?
