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Purchasing ex police vf evoke K9 ute(nz)

Z31na

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Preventative maintenance, (including doing things at the start of ownership just so theres no guessing when it was last done) is key. If its got good service history, you know its history and its a value buy for the price and job it will do then go for it.

I’ve owned my ex Vicpol Evoke for 7 years now. It had about 67,000 on the clock and has now almost 125,000. Other than needing to replace trims with drill holes. The only thing I’ve had go wrong with it so far was the Mylink died. But it wasn’t a general duties car either. It was assigned to an individual detective so he had an incentive to not treat it like turds.
 

yamahahatim

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I've had basically the exact same experience as Z31na.
Ex unmarked spec vx used at police academy by a senior instructor.. had personalised plate from new. Pol3 or something!

Never had one problem in 17 years. Just the general maintenance it needed..
 

RevNev

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I would say, there's possibly been a only a few drivers, as K9 vehicles wouldn't get shared around like general service vehicles,
as the dogs don't like the smell of other dogs in their territory (in the cages).
Combative dogs, typically German Shepherds trained to track, apprehend and bite people, are assigned to the dog handler along with a permanent vehicle and off duty, they take the vehicle and dog home. The dogs are considered dangerous and must be housed in an approved enclosure with an approved caged vehicle on standby for the handler to transport the dog at any time. K9 handlers are often on call 24/7 and aren't assigned to specific shifts. Their vehicles may have only had one primary driver.
 

VSYoot

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270 is alot of k's theres alot of parts to wear out

Yup, I'd be comfortable on an VY or earlier but not on a VF V6, hard pass from me unless it's almost free and you're happy to wrench on it.
 

stooge

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i would go over the service history to start with, if it does not include things like transmission service history i would walk.
being a ute it would have had a module fitted to the back for the dog which has a fair bit of weight in it so it is a bit like a tradies ute in terms of driveline/suspension wear.
i would want to see services on the transmission at a rate of 40~80 thou, if it does not you will probably drop the pan and find the guinness storage.

typically police vehicles will sit idling a lot so 270k might not actually represent engine hours especially when it comes to a k9 unit because they keep them idling more to keep the dog cool in the back.

personally when people tell me its "ex police" i tell them no thanks and walk because if its not an administrative vehicle it is basically no different to a mine vehicle when looking at 4wd's they get thrashed, its a work vehicle so there is no care involved, can have been through accidents etc.

there is also a breed of bogan that lives in the fantasy that ex police means its somehow faster and better but those bogans just drink too much bong water :D

there has to be something better that you can find.
 

RevNev

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there is also a breed of bogan that lives in the fantasy that ex police means its somehow faster and better but those bogans just drink too much bong water
Back in the '90's, I'd often get 2 a week with ECM chips out of ex-cop cars for a dyno run and guess what? It's the same chip and did nothing!
 

VS 5.0

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I've owned two BT1s in the past.

The first was a VK.....had 220,xxx on it when I got it when it was around 7 years old and 272,xxx on it when I sold it some 7 years later.

That was followed by a VS that had 62,xxx on it when I bought it at 3 years old and 292,xxx on it when I sold it some 19 years later.

So a total of some 280k kms of BT1 ownership over some 26 years.

Neither of them had any issues that the same non BT1 cars had and, in fact, didn't have a number of issues that non BT1 cars had.
 

VSYoot

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I've owned two BT1s in the past.

The first was a VK.....had 220,xxx on it when I got it when it was around 7 years old and 272,xxx on it when I sold it some 7 years later.

That was followed by a VS that had 62,xxx on it when I bought it at 3 years old and 292,xxx on it when I sold it some 19 years later.

So a total of some 280k kms of BT1 ownership over some 26 years.

Neither of them had any issues that the same non BT1 cars had and, in fact, didn't have a number of issues that non BT1 cars had.
My sister had VP BT1 Auto, followed by a 5 spd VS BT1, the VP was a freak, but the VS was an utter disappointment.
 
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