Pro & Con of buying a Ex pursuit car ?

[plonky]

Arn't they the same cars they use for police driver training the ex pursuit cars, or would they have a dedicated car...highly unlikely but

The cars down at the driver training school are attached there. They are not rotated from the school to a station or vice versa.

All of the cars are maintained with book services and anything that is not right with them gets replaced.

I think they are very good value (in NSW)

[curious]

I have a snippet of the QLD vehicles at driver training, unfortunately file too big. excellent fun

[CDAA]

Pro: Most of them go like stink because they are pushed hard.

Con: Because they are pushed hard their life is shortened in many cases.

It's a case of value. You pay much less for them so their shortened lifespan is relative I think. If that concerns you don't get one. If it doesn't and you plan to modify the hell out of it anyway it would be my preferred option.

[rex13bt]

I would steer clear of ex cop pursuit cars. They do not have all the feature of the regular versions. A couple of years ago a friend looked at a ex chaser VX SS. They do not come with traction control, 4-channel ABS brakes and they have different instrument clusters among other things. You do get a switch on the dash that turns all the interior lights on and off. They only go for about 3K cheaper at auction than the regular versions. :o

[BA_Turbs]

They do not come with traction control, 4-channel ABS brakes and they have different instrument clusters among other things.

Err, they do. If one gets pranged and a police member hurt, how is the dept meeting its OHS requirements by not providing traction control? If it is standard, then it will be there. If it is optional, and its considered a "safety" item, it should be there. The only reason I can think it may not have been there is if it had just been released as an option and it had not yet been trialled by the dept.

[curious]

They do not come with traction control, 4-channel ABS brakes and they have different instrument clusters among other things.

Err, they do. If one gets pranged and a police member hurt, how is the dept meeting its OHS requirements by not providing traction control? If it is standard, then it will be there. If it is optional, and its considered a "safety" item, it should be there. The only reason I can think it may not have been there is if it had just been released as an option and it had not yet been trialled by the dept.

I agree too, when they are decomissioned they are returned to factory condition. (if you could call it that). They are rewired back to normal and the gear box selector is modified back again. However they do come with bonus spew stains, blood stains, occasional bag of grass and the odd weapon in the back seat.

[rex13bt]

They do not come with traction control, 4-channel ABS brakes and they have different instrument clusters among other things.

Err, they do. If one gets pranged and a police member hurt, how is the dept meeting its OHS requirements by not providing traction control? If it is standard, then it will be there. If it is optional, and its considered a "safety" item, it should be there. The only reason I can think it may not have been there is if it had just been released as an option and it had not yet been trialled by the dept.

Interesting comments. I assume you are a police officer. If so you obviously have never driven a VX pursuit SS commodore. None of them in Sydney had traction control fitted. Traction control has been standard on all non cop SS’s for some time. Come to think of it you must not of ever driven a general duties car either, because they also didn't have traction control. I didn’t know that it is a OHS requirement to have traction control fitted. If it was, the police would not of been able to use AU AR8’s.

[curious]

They do not come with traction control, 4-channel ABS brakes and they have different instrument clusters among other things.

Err, they do. If one gets pranged and a police member hurt, how is the dept meeting its OHS requirements by not providing traction control? If it is standard, then it will be there. If it is optional, and its considered a "safety" item, it should be there. The only reason I can think it may not have been there is if it had just been released as an option and it had not yet been trialled by the dept.

Interesting comments. I assume you are a police officer. If so you obviously have never driven a VX pursuit SS commodore. None of them in Sydney had traction control fitted. Traction control has been standard on all non cop SS’s for some time. Come to think of it you must not of ever driven a general duties car either, because they also didn't have traction control. I didn’t know that it is a OHS requirement to have traction control fitted. If it was, the police would not of been able to use AU AR8’s.

Different specks for different states.

VX????? who can remember back that far. I'm into our 3rd turbo and 4th VY executive V8

[BA_Turbs]

They do not come with traction control, 4-channel ABS brakes and they have different instrument clusters among other things.

Err, they do. If one gets pranged and a police member hurt, how is the dept meeting its OHS requirements by not providing traction control? If it is standard, then it will be there. If it is optional, and its considered a "safety" item, it should be there. The only reason I can think it may not have been there is if it had just been released as an option and it had not yet been trialled by the dept.

Interesting comments. I assume you are a police officer. If so you obviously have never driven a VX pursuit SS commodore. None of them in Sydney had traction control fitted. Traction control has been standard on all non cop SS’s for some time. Come to think of it you must not of ever driven a general duties car either, because they also didn't have traction control. I didn’t know that it is a OHS requirement to have traction control fitted. If it was, the police would not of been able to use AU AR8’s.

I am a general duties police officer in Victoria, not in the TMU.

It would be prudent of any employer to offer the safest equipment for their employees to use in the execution of their duties, regardless of what that job is.

Asking a vehicle manufacturer to REMOVE a safety feature like traction control when it is a standard option, given the daily urgent driving situations that police cars are used in, in MY OPINION would open the police force to criticsm if a police officer died and the coroner deemed that traction control would have averted or lessened an impact/collision.

General duties sedans/wagons/vans do not come with traction control. Nor is it a standard option. In the eyes of a coroner, there would be a big difference between not spending the extra $$ for an option, and having a standard safety feature deleted. General Duties vehicles are only base model XT or Executives and are not expected or even allowed to engage in similar levels of urgent duties driving as TMU vehicles (SS, XR8 and rarely XR6T). This is the Gold/Silver/Bronze/White licencing system that has been adopted by most police forces nation wide. Comparing a General Duties vehicle to a TMU vehicle is not right. They are bought to fulfil different roles.

I was not saying that traction control was mandatory, I was just saying that IN MY OPINION there may be OH&S issues if it were deleted. I apologise, re-reading my original post I did not make it clear that:

A) I'm from Victoria, not NSW

B) It was my opinion.

Regards,

BA_Turbs

Oh, and the TMU office that operates out of the police station I work at has had four VX SS go through it since I began my time there. Three marked and one unmarked, all fitted with traction control, becasue they never stopped complaining about it. The VY and all Ford sedans in their office now all have traction control also, and they still complain about it, but now they all HATE the Ford TC, saying it comes on to early, so always switch it off.

[Guest catcha]

No Way.  You couldn't pay me to take one.  A car could not have a worse life.

Constantly thrashed when still cold, run at 110% all day everyday, right from 0kms.  Excessive (hours sometimes) periods of idling.

But the worst bit it the hacking and damage that is done to the electrical system adding radio, lights etc.

Ok it being constantly thrashed? Police can't just thrash a car on the streets, they also have to set an example right, so it would be thrashed when needed? not constantly ?. When does a police car have the opportunity to get thrashed, not like you can take it down the back roads and do some burnouts, if the public saw it I'm sure they would report it.

Cars these days are run in from factory right bit a bit of TLC to break it in is that's understandable.

When problems arise they take the car in for service? or you wait till the car is due for changeover or something?

Government cars are taken for scheduled servicing and any problems fixed at the time right?

Some questions may come up are erupt, no harm ment but it's just the way I see the cars driven from a publics persepective, And up in the NT their are rarely pursuits compared to southern states.

But I did see a Cop car give it a bit of go while at the lights, nothing a performance orientated person would do if they owned the same sort of vehicle.