Ex government department

[woooo]

I don’t understand why people love ex police vehicles likes it’s going to be in excellent condition? I wouldn’t go near one with a stick, couldn’t even pay me to own one. Anyway, good luck and enjoy! I won’t write a book length response as to why.

 

[VS 5.0]

I don’t understand why people love ex police vehicles likes it’s going to be in excellent condition? I wouldn’t go near one with a stick, couldn’t even pay me to own one. Anyway, good luck and enjoy!

I've had two over the journey, a VK for 6 1/2 years followed by a VS for nearly 19 years.

Their condition was on par, if not better than, others I looked at prior to purchase.

Neither of them had any issues that any other car of the same model didn't have, in fact others with non-ex cop cars have had issues that I never experienced.

 

[abuch47]

My guess is the old thinking that they are somehow made better for police at the same cost (e.g. chipped and lsd). It is very hard to change opinions.

 

[Stroppy]

I bought a '14 Evoke Sportwagon from a large Melbourne dealer last year. The only clue to the fact it was a former police vehicle was the dual battery setup (the second battery has all the unconnected labelled terminals sitting there). I had my mechanic check the car over. There was no underfloor damage...the car was immaculate inside (the dealer probably replaced bits on the dash and console that had been drilled) and still smelled like a new car inside. The mechanic checked the engine...listened for any lash sounds at startup...all okay. The car had the new-style Victorian numberplates when initially registered (I found this out via the service book. It originally had the number letter mix for all six positions) but the dealer had re-registered the car with those new black half-sized plates which are reissues of the "A" series numbers from the time Victoria first got white number plates back in 1979 or thereabouts.
It seems like the car was a "general duties" vehicle and not used as an everyday station car (it's not police white...it's that pearlescent black colour). What I would like to know from you learned gentleman is what modifications VicPol ordered from the factory from these cars... different suspension? Was there different engine tune? Etc...

 

[Forg]

My guess is the old thinking that they are somehow made better for police at the same cost (e.g. chipped and lsd). It is very hard to change opinions.

This. And it was a Thing way-back-when, for example in the VR & VS era I went to Belmore auctions quite a lot, and a lot of the ex-police cars did have all sorts of HSV bits under the bonnet. Plus, entirely for resale purposes, the police specifically had their cars made to appear to be a higher spec than they were; for example even though the seats were only Exec ones, they had the interior trimmed in SS cloth.

These days there're no engine or gearbox mods or tunes. And whether something had heavier-duty suspension or raised suspension or an oil-cooler whatever seems to depend on the car or who/when the order went through or something like that; it doesn't seem that every general duties base-spec wagon from a state's police force has the same spec. I think Highway Patrol does tend to order a more consistent spec, though I don't know what exactly it is.

 

[VS 5.0]

they had the interior trimmed in SS cloth

The factory did this, not the police for resale purposes.

 

[Mik 030]

In the 70's, I owned an ex police pursuit 1964 Studebaker with powder blue paint, a patch over the roof light location, 289 ci v8 and a 3 speed manual box. Great unreliable fun. Bit off topic......

 

[Forg]

The factory did this, not the police for resale purposes.

The police ordered it this way from the factory - as part of the big chunk of special stuff the police could order but which retail buyers couldn't get - for resale purposes. The cloth itself was no more hard-wearing or stain-defensive or anysuch; it just had the SS logos & plenty of used buyers thought they were getting an SS interior.

 

[VS 5.0]

The police ordered it this way from the factory - as part of the big chunk of special stuff the police could order but which retail buyers couldn't get - for resale purposes. The cloth itself was no more hard-wearing or stain-defensive or anysuch; it just had the SS logos & plenty of used buyers thought they were getting an SS interior.

Yes, the police ordered the cars with SS interior.

Aside from the SS logos, it was also a different pattern to standard exec cloth and the door inserts matched.

Used buyers thought they were getting an SS interior coz they were getting an SS interior.

Interior code was 25i......same code as SS.

The only difference was the badge on the dash said Executive instead of SS.

 

[Anthony121]

I had a VN ex police car back in the 90's. 18 Months old with 90K on the clock. I did another 90k in it and sold it for the same price I paid after 5 years although I did paint bumpers and added SS kit to it with Alloy wheels. No problems at all with that car and only sold it as I had a company car. I saw it for sale again about 5 years ago but didn't have many more kilometers than I sold it for!! This was a ex highway car as you could see the paint was immaculate where the stickers used to be. Also had a whole in the roof.