Ex-police car - buy or avoid???

[2011G6E]

Cop cars used to be treated like crap...regularly serviced crap, but still crap. Back in the early eighties a workmate of mine went to Brisbane to the auctions to buy "a police car" as he heard they were cheap. We said he was mad.
When he came back he proudly showed us his purchase, which he had snapped up for four grand.
We walked out and saw an XE Fairmont Ghia, metallic gold, cloth interior, all the options, power everything, and with only 30,000km on it in two years of use. He said he'd looked at all the XD and XE white police cars, and many of them were pretty sad with high kilometers...a lot less hiding behind bushes with cameras back then and a lot more actual driving around...once known as "police work".
Then he saw a detectives car come up and he couldn't pass it up. The only holes anywhere inside were some small ones on one side of the console where, obviously, the little mount for a radio handset had been fitted.

If you're careful no reason not to buy one.

[Qwerty321]

I'd assume a cop car would be better than a private seller, granted that the cars are of similar age and the cop car hasn't clocked an unfathomably large number of k's. They are well services and maintained, and almost all their km's are hot km's.

[GetToTheGone]

My first car was an ex cop car (97 EL) couldn't fault it one bit, plus it had all upgraded suspension so that was a bonus.
Although after buying, a family friend who is a HWY cop said to never buy an ex cop car as it would have been absolutely flogged.

[Octane_Flash]

I have read on this thread antedocal stories about police abusing their cars but most relate to cars from the 80's & 90's.
From what I heard from the someone at the Police fleet depot at Minto that there has been a shift in policy about how the cops need to operate the cars as resale values are an important factor these days.
In my car there are no holes in the dash board or obvious penetrations for wiring.
I had the car on the hoist and the underside had no obvious signs of kerb hopping. The bushes looked good as well.
So far so good.
Let's see how it is in another 12 months

[sbutler]

Told ya, thats great, its exactly how I found mine, I looked under the car & the only scrape was under the left side on the bumper, probably from coming out of Macca's driveways. Other than that it was as new.
In another 12 months you will be more happy than you are now, the fuel economy is great if you drive them correctly & will surprise you.
Happy motoring...............

[GREGL]

The majority of cabs in the 80's and 90's in Brisbane were ex police. After service with the force they then went on for another 300-500,000 ks before being sold to Joe Public.
Back in the day the attraction of Lpg for next to nothing was attractive to some I knew, one had a XC which would not die. Drove like poo but.
Polar white was the colour of choice back then I think which black and white cabs just stuck stickers on. Yellow cabs had to do a respray but in most cases it was exterior only, open the door and she was white.
There were some rattly old bombs going around back then which was ok around the streets but if you caught one and had to go down the Sth east freeway all the grog you had consumed beforehand came in handy settling the nerves .

[Octane_Flash]

Originally Posted by sbutler

Told ya, thats great, its exactly how I found mine, I looked under the car & the only scrape was under the left side on the bumper, probably from coming out of Macca's driveways. Other than that it was as new.
In another 12 months you will be more happy than you are now, the fuel economy is great if you drive them correctly & will surprise you.
Happy motoring...............

I had the cat back exhaust fitted today and it sounds a heap better than standard.
Very happy

[Top_Ghia]

Originally Posted by Octane_Flash

I had the cat back exhaust fitted today and it sounds a heap better than standard.

Very happy

X-Force?

[Octane_Flash]

Yes, 3.5" done at Intune Motorsport

[Kingsley]

A cop in my hometown bought a ex HWP Charger from auction. He'd grown fond of it while in the service and it was kept in great condition. Still had the siren in it when he got it back. The Charger was babied for years before he sold it to a young kid who wrote it off soon after in an argument with a Land Cruiser.

My brother bought a low mileage ex XE HWP in the mid eighties. The only major work it ever needed was a clutch and a engine rebuild 8 years later. It was a good car.

I had an ex HWP EL XR8 that did time in Coffs Harbour. The only problem I ever had was a gearbox rebuild and that was my own fault. Other than that, the car was fantastic.

And yet I've seen people fall over themselves buying cheap ex rentals at auction because the ex cop cars were too thrashed......

[sbutler]

Yeah but apparently the experts say they are flogged out peices of camal dung that are buggered. As Ive said, look carefully at what your buying, & you'll get a gem, like 99% of ex chaser owners have. Thats not to say there are cops out there that do mistreat them, but they are easy to identify, far between & stay away from.
Im still sad I had to sell mine to make way for the GTP.

[The Monty]

As a cop, there is no chance in hell I would buy an ex-police car. Some might be good, some might be bad. But the majority all get driven the same. I wont elaborate any further, but thats my opinion from someone on both sides of the fence.

[sbutler]

So what your saying as a cop. You mistreat & thrash the cars in your LAC? Im sure you area commander would love to know that?

[The Monty]

You have a real uncanny knack of rewording everything people say as soon as someone disagrees with you. How do you think police get to jobs quick? How do you think police catch speeding drivers? They idle for whole shifts for shifts at a time. They get driven hard from cold if they ever get to cool down. They need to be driven hard to get to jobs to save a life.

Pull your head in, and accept FACTS. Not hearsay, not uncles stepsons brothers best friend said this, but facts. Police cars get driven hard. People drive into them. They get crashed.

Not once did I ever say I mistreat police cars. Stop making crap up and force feeding it to people.

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by The Monty

You have a real uncanny knack of rewording everything people say as soon as someone disagrees with you. How do you think police get to jobs quick? How do you think police catch speeding drivers? They idle for whole shifts for shifts at a time. They get driven hard from cold if they ever get to cool down. They need to be driven hard to get to jobs to save a life.

Pull your head in, and accept FACTS. Not hearsay, not uncles stepsons brothers best friend said this, but facts. Police cars get driven hard. People drive into them. They get crashed.

Not once did I ever say I mistreat police cars. Stop making crap up and force feeding it to people.

cop chip, cop brakes, cop maintained

or

some random jazzed up, juiced up, jizzed up, random hektik tuned up, been popping top gear skids at 3am bumtree special??

buyer beware

[The Monty]

Hahaha very much so. No worse than what you find on the secondhand market usually, just a more worse than good.

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by The Monty

Hahaha very much so. No worse than what you find on the secondhand market usually, just a more worse than good.

i would call it loosened up / just run in

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by sbutler

So what your saying as a cop. You mistreat & thrash the cars in your LAC? Im sure you area commander would love to know that?

Please don't misquote people. I don't believe The Monty even mentioned that he's actually driven one.

[HO 3]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

i would call it loosened up / just run in

I'm still laughing at the jizzed up, comment.

Cheers Mick

[sbutler]

Originally Posted by The Monty

You have a real uncanny knack of rewording everything people say as soon as someone disagrees with you. How do you think police get to jobs quick? How do you think police catch speeding drivers? They idle for whole shifts for shifts at a time. They get driven hard from cold if they ever get to cool down. They need to be driven hard to get to jobs to save a life.

Pull your head in, and accept FACTS. Not hearsay, not uncles stepsons brothers best friend said this, but facts. Police cars get driven hard. People drive into them. They get crashed.

Not once did I ever say I mistreat police cars. Stop making crap up and force feeding it to people.

Whatever

[XR8AU2121]

Just like to add my experience with my ex-nsw hwp 1999 auxr8 bought at auction in sept 2000.
While 16 years old it still drives like new, no squeaks or rattles, no driveline backlash, auto still gives smooth changes. First 10 years was a daily driver to and from work.
Apart from normal service every 6 months only mechanical replacements have been dba front rotors in 2003, cam synchroniser, fuel pump relay, new coil packs and cat back exhaust.
Had a new diff under warranty and no issues since.
Paint still pretty good has a few stone chips and scratches but cleans up ok with awash and polish. Lives out in the open these days so no point in having any sections repainted until I can get my garage back(full of daughters furniture).
As it was an unmarked hwp car only had phone cradle on the consul with radio in glovebox so minimal holes to fix. Apart from my wife I have been the only driver 95% of the time so apart from the drivers seat the interior still looks new.
Along with my wife's 2009 Mazda 6 it has been one of the most reliable vehicles I have owned in 55 years of vehicle ownership.
Long live the AU.

[99AUXR]

Originally Posted by The Monty

As a cop, there is no chance in hell I would buy an ex-police car. Some might be good, some might be bad. But the majority all get driven the same. I wont elaborate any further, but thats my opinion from someone on both sides of the fence.

Like I said earlier both of our local police officers also agree with your views.

[HO 3]

The "Taxi Factor" would also be a consideration too...............potentially resulting in less wear and tear on the motor and box in a cop car.

Cheers Mick

[CoupeKing]

Originally Posted by HO 3

The "Taxi Factor" would also be a consideration too...............potentially resulting in less wear and tear on the motor and box in a cop car.

Cheers Mick

An ex Taxi just doesn't have the cool social status vs an ex cop car, even though they've both carted around scumbags and their back seat has absorbed more DNA than Hugh Hefner's bedsheets.

[cro142]

A major problem with buying an ex police XR6T is that they are grossly overpriced - at least in the Brisbane auctions.

The Police Service are trying to recover far too high a price for what the vehicles are.

They are trying to get the same price as you would expect to pay for a privately owned good condition car with only half the km.

In either case you take pot luck about how much they have been thrashed - but remember the police cars are purchased to do "high energy work" compared to the less frequent "pleasurable thrash" of a private car.