For some, it seems like Ford’s Crown Victoria has been the single car we most feared in our mirrors for our entire driving lives. While private sales of the Crown Vic ceased in 2008, sales to fleets—read “police departments”—will continue through 2011. Then, after 15 years on the job, the Crown Vic will retire to a restless life of obsessively mowing the lawn, trying to get interested in cooking, and relentlessly nagging its wife about the dust mites in the living room.
Come 2012, though, there’ll be a new sheriff (cruiser) in town. It’ll be Taurus-based, although we wonder about Ford’s complete avoidance of the word “Taurus” in its presentation of the new Police Interceptor, as it is called. A vote of unconfidence in the full-size sedan? Instead, the company repeatedly referred to its “purpose-built” Police Interceptor. It isn’t. Consider it “purpose-modified.”
High-Speed Chases? Check
Like the Taurus upon which it is based, the Police Interceptor will offer a choice of V-6s: a naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V-6 and an EcoBoost turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6. Both are promised to produce more power in police trim than their respective civilian forms of 265 hp for the unboosted motor and 365 for the twin-turbo EcoBoost. The n/a engine will offer the choice of front- or all-wheel drive, while the EcoBoost will only be available with all-wheel drive. Ford says the all-wheel-drive system will sport unique tuning for more predictable handling and better dynamic behavior, but won’t share specifics on what that might mean. The Taurus SHO with which the Police Interceptor shares its turbo powertrain already demonstrates a surprising balance for its weight, so we suspect the system’s tuning won’t be all that unique.
What will be wholly unique will be the interior of the cop Taurus, which is said to be up to 90 percent new in the Interceptor. There’s a column shifter for the six-speed automatic, as opposed to the console-mounted shifter of nonpurpose-built Tauruses. The front seats have the lower bolstering removed, to provide a dish for officers’ utility belts. The center console remains the same width as the outgoing Crown Vic cruiser’s, the better to facilitate adaptation of current computer equipment to the new car. Anti-roll bars are often referred to as “stability bars” or “stab bars,” but the PI has “anti-stab plates.” They go in the backs of the front seats not so much to upset the suspension so much as to prevent shiv-equipped back-seat passengers from stabbing the officers in the front. To allow easier loading and unloading of perps, the rear doors have been modified to open an additional 10 degrees, for a total of 71. Supermarket-parking-lot door dings across America have us hoping this modification stays a police-only development.
Cop Shocks, Cop Tires, Cop Brakes
Other modifications for civil service include the usual police-car enhancements to the brakes, suspension, and electrical and cooling systems. The braking system gets new rotors and calipers for an improvement of 60 percent in swept area, an upgrade we hope makes its way to the everyday SHO. Unspecified improvements mean the Taurus can now take on eight-inch curbs at 40 mph, which ought to benefit both cops and the drunks they pursue. Myriad electrical improvements begin with a 220-amp alternator (about 40 percent higher than an average sedan of this size) and include numerous wiring improvements to make it easier for municipalities to hook up the various tools used in police cruisers. Engine cooling is improved through the addition of a radiator with about two times the cooling capacity of the average full-size sedan. (Can’t have those cops losing their cool.) Despite all the extras, Ford says fuel economy with the base V-6 will be a 25-percent improvement over the Crown Vic. However, when your benchmark is the Crown Vic, improvements of less than 7000 percent are somewhat of a letdown. The EcoBoost V-6 will still beat the Vic on the fuel-economy front, although Ford won’t say by how much.
Not only will the cops be able to plug their own computers into the Taurus Police Interceptor’s console, but the computing power of the cruiser itself is amped up, too. Standard equipment will include blind-spot warning, cross-traffic monitors for low-speed situations, and a camera and sensors to aid reversing. Ballistic door panels will be optional.
A Paddy Wagon, or More Likely a Paddy SUV
Ford says that, over the past five years, it has maintained upwards of 70 percent of the police market, and it expects to retain that share. To help achieve that goal, Dearborn promises a utility police vehicle based on this same platform, which it will announce in the third quarter of 2010. Bet on it being a version of the upcoming Explorer, although we’d love to see a Flex cop-wagon, too.
Ford says it has worked closely with police departments across the country in preparing this car, but that’s a claim made by every manufacturer introducing a new cruiser today, and we have our doubts about whether or not Ford can maintain its dominance in this market. The last major front-drive police cruiser, the Chevrolet Impala, was poorly received and plagued by reliability issues when faced with the stresses of police work. With the Dodge Charger out there now as a sturdier option for police forces—not to mention the upcoming Chevrolet Caprice PPV—Ford may be in the unenviable and unusual position of having the weakest entry in the competitive police market. We’ll see when production of the Taurus Police Interceptor begins at the end of 2011.
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