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Automakers' competition fierce for law-enforcement fleets

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Automakers' competition fierce for law-enforcement fleets

PLYMOUTH, Mich. — For much of this decade, a familiar shape, roaring over the horizon with lights ablaze, has comforted distraught crime victims and frightened lawbreakers.
Next year, production ends for that fixture on American roads, the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, aka the Crown Vic. A four-way race — among the Detroit 3 and an Indiana start-up — is on to build the replacement of choice for what accounts for more than 70% of police cars.
The incumbent, Ford (F), was the last to unveil its entry. On Friday, Ford rolled out a police version of its full-size, front-drive Taurus that it says has the size and durability of the rear-drive Crown Vic, but better fuel economy and available all-wheel drive.
General Motors has shown a big rear-drive sedan with a big V-8 from its Australian Holden unit that it will begin selling for police use as a Chevrolet Caprice.
Chrysler already has a police version of its current Dodge Charger on the street, and it has finally been making inroads in the market. The Charger is due for an update next year.
Challenging the Detroit 3 is start-up Carbon Motors. It's trying to sell agencies — and the federal government, from which it is seeking loans — on its purpose-built, police-only sedan with advanced features such as built-in bioweapon sniffers. A prototype has been built at its facility here near Detroit.
There's big money at stake. Carbon Motors estimates that the nation has about 450,000 police cars, of which about 75,000 are replaced annually.
The real winner may be police departments around the country, which next year will have more choices and bidders.
Though automakers often disparage fleet sales, such as to cities or rental agencies, as a low-profit business and a last resort, they've become increasingly important in the recession. Four out of 10 Fords sold in February, for example, went to fleets, including police — up 78% from the year before. Sales to individuals, by contrast, rose 28%.
The automakers going after the police market are working hard to listen to what agencies want.
"I love the fact that people are taking a look at the needs of law enforcement," says Sgt. Dan Gomez, who evaluates cars as part of the Los Angeles Police Department's Tactical Technology Unit.
Still, he and others say, the aging but tough-as-nails Crown Vic is going to be hard to replace.
Nowadays, it looks out of another era. With its broad hood and trunk, the Crown Victoria has plied the highways virtually unchanged since 2003.
Much of the passenger car world since has moved to front-wheel drive — a space-efficient, but complex configuration that melds the engine, transmission and drivetrain — and smaller structure built as a single, light shell of welded panels.
Not so the rear-drive Crown Vic Police Interceptor, with its body mounted on a heavy steel frame and its powertrain components lined up front to rear. The result is trucklike durability and lower maintenance expenses. It costs agencies about $25,000, and there is no longer a civilian version. It's a 171/2-foot, 14-city-miles-per-gallon rolling declaration of war on criminals.
Though it's now decidedly old school, the Crown Victoria is beloved by veteran cops for being big enough to accommodate an increasing load of gear, including more electronics and laptops. "The patrol car is indeed their office," says Andrew Scott, former chief of police in Boca Raton, Fla.
The Crown Vic has space for the partition that separates officers in the front seats from the bad guys in back, not to mention touches such as factory-installed bulletproof door panels.
But with its run near an end, makers are jockeying to capture that following for their entry.
"If a manufacturer can come up with a best-case scenario providing fuel efficiency, coupled with room and protection and performance, and make it at a cheaper price, police agencies (will) be loyal," says Scott, now a police consultant.
Here's a look at each of the hopefuls:​

•Ford Police Interceptor. This police concept car got an unveiling as flashy as a new consumer car Friday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway before an invited group of police officials.
The Taurus-based model will keep the Police Interceptor name but offer just two 3.5-liter V-6 engines, no big V-8s, as in the Crown Vic. Ford boasts that the standard version will be 25% more fuel efficient than the current standard V-8. And the version with two turbochargers, what Ford calls EcoBoost, will deliver 365 horsepower, 115 more than the standard Crown Vic. Ford says the new model will equal the Crown Vic in safety, holding up in 75 mile-per-hour rear-crash tests. It'll offer side-curtain air bag rollover protection.
Among special police changes from the civilian Taurus: The shifter is moved to the steering column to leave more room in the console area for electronics gear, and the back doors open 10-degrees wider to more easily guide a handcuffed suspect into the back seat for a trip to the pokey.​

•Chevrolet Caprice. In the 1990s, there was Chevy's big Caprice for cops. Some agencies now use a version of the Impala, but it's smaller and has front-wheel drive, a durability and maintenance drawback in the minds of some fleet managers.
The new Caprice — out for 2011 — will be a full-size, rear-drive sedan with a 6-liter V-8. It's bigger —GM touts its long wheelbase and roomy interior — but mechanically similar to the short-lived but highly rated Pontiac G8, also made by Holden.
It will have a full array of safety features, such as front side-impact air bags, says Joyce Mattman, GM's director of commercial products and specialty vehicles. Front seats will be shaped to accommodate big police officers and all the equipment on their belts.
"It is a full-size sedan," she says. "It is the right car at the right price to meet the performance needs of officers, as well as comfort and safety requirements." And there'll be no civilian version.​

•Dodge Charger. It's a rear-wheel-drive sedan with an optional 368-horsepower Hemi V-8 that can take it from 0 to 100 mph in just 14 seconds. Plus, it's the best-looking police car on the market, boasts Dodge division head Ralph Gilles. Since rolling out in 2005, sales have grown to about 18% of the market in 2009. LAPD is among buyers.
"Officers love the look of the car," Gomez says.
While a performance leader, it is smaller than a Crown Vic. Gomez says that the city's 1,700 black-and-whites typically carry two officers — remember the cop-buddy drama Adam-12? — and with all their gear, it can be a bit cramped.
A redesign of Chrysler Group's full-size sedans, including the Charger, is coming next year.​

•Carbon Motors E7. Perhaps the most interesting contender — for now, only a prototype — is Carbon's E7, designed specifically for police work. The light bar is aerodynamically built into the roof. There are no carpets, only a rubber floor — with drain plugs. The shotgun mount, computers and other gear are built in, not rigged on accessory mounts as is typical. Among the switches is one marked "stealth" to prowl silently, light-free. The engine is a turbo-diesel that Carbon expects to get a city-highway combined rating of 28 to 30 miles per gallon, about 50% better than a Crown Vic.
"Everyone recognizes the Crown Victoria has been the best thing that is available, (but) you are taking a retail passenger car that wasn't designed for this kind of work," says Stacy Dean Stephens, a former Dallas police officer who was inspired by shortcomings of his cruisers to found Carbon Motors. "I was literally sitting in the patrol car day after day, and I would keep notes of things that needed improvement," such as light bars that didn't work and doors too narrow to get in and out of in a hurry.
He teamed with William Santana Li, a former Ford executive, to start the company, based in Connersville, Ind. Carbon says the prototype has garnered 12,500 reservations. It hopes to get an Energy Department loan to jump-start production.
The big question on the E7 is price. Li and Stephens will only say it will be "competitive."
The concept, however, has its supporters. Larry Thoren, police chief in Hastings, Neb., calls most police cruisers "a glorified towing package with a heavy-duty suspension." Carbon would not only build a better car, he says, but increase gas-mileage savings. He frets that if the cost is too high, however, only big departments will be able to afford them.
Gomez, the LAPD's police car expert, says he would love to work with Carbon. He's already procured examples of the other major candidates to replace the Crown Victoria. The LAPD works with automakers on testing for just about every police vehicle on the market.
"A change like this is a huge deal," Gomez says.
It's a sign that the Crown Vic soon will be gone, but certainly not forgotten.​

 
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