What will likely be the next generation cop cars?

Almost no domestic manufacturers are making sedans now, which seem to have been pushed off the battlefield by SUVs, just like the SUVs did to the station wagons.

The remaining sedan models (Cadillac, etc) are all luxury cars.

This is also the final year of the Charger, so that's going away (and that likely means the fleet of LE Chargers now in service has its days numbered, depending on spares availability and aftermarket support).


So, SUVs uber alles?  Or will cop cars diverge from civilian cars the same way that military vehicles have largely diverged into a specialty design market, and we'll start to see "Oshkosh Police Patrol Cruisers" built on designs with no origin in civilian cars?

Import sedans?  Nissan Altima Police Interceptor?

I'd guess we just see more SUV's. Seems like a good fit.

Seems like everyone around southeastern Indiana is going to full size trucks

Golf carts.

Just like the rest of the male population cops love pick ups. Great for hauling shit on the way home.

Our city police received a federal grant for EV Tesla's. 2 problems, can't be used for regular patrol. They run out of power.

Not enough room inside. With all their gear on officers don't fit in the seats.

So, they have expensive vehicles that can't be used for what they were intended.

SUVs and pick-ups for now.

I don't know what the future holds after fossil fuel power "ends"

Not an LEO but I'm involved in community planning for the municipality I live in. I'm not exactly getting inside info or anything, just the general local take on things.

We currently have rotating coverage between the state police and sheriff's department and there's been discussion about this very topic and EV grants being offered and rejected because they're not practical. The state police advise they are likely to continue to cycle through SUVs with interceptor packages. SO was a little more vague but along the same lines. No specifics on the vehicles of choice but MSP has been driving Explorers since the Crown Vic went out of production. The SO does drive Chargers but has a mish mash of trucks and various SUVs as well so there's no single standard for them per se.

JJ Police Pursuit Vehicles dealership is local to me here in southern Indiana. The lot still has dozens of Chargers but the volume of SUVs continues to increase. They have increased the truck volume but SUV seems like the big deal.

I've noticed Charger users transitioning to Durangos.

Dodge told our fleet guy that they plan on coming out with another pursuit rated sedan after the charger goes away but no clue what.  Probably be another abomination like the Ford Taurus Interceptor.

We've had tahoes for years, got 80 explorers, and a majority of the people dont like them. Say they're too small. So we're going back to Tahoe's once our final Explorer order comes in. By that time, it'll be the new generation of Tahoes that are starting to run around. We haven't had sedans since Crown Vic's

County next to mine, bought 200 Chevy Tahoes.  Atlanta police can hardly field a full fleet.  Oh, we need this.  City administration: take it out of the police vehicle budget.  Not enough cars, then you have 2 man cars, beat cars are pulled.  The rich neighborhoods are always pulled because they don’t need the police, they don’t have much crime.  Be rich, get penalized.

Try the LE v-6 twin turbo SSV (Expedition). Nicer than Tahoe.

Haven’t had sedans since 2013. We’ve been satisfied with the explorers. Hard to believe it’s been a decade since we’ve run around in Crown Victorias.

Only broke agencies have chargers. Everyone else is Explorers and Tahoes.

We just ordered 3 Tahoes and 3 expeditions to test.  We are quickly running out of room with the amount of shit we are required to carry in our explorers.

I've seen challengers here in FL
marked and unmarked

weirds me out because I drive one, plus side is people in front of me move over

Ever since my agency went to explorers they are constantly getting out ran in pursuits and losing the bad guy.

My old agency started buying Durangos. They are going to try a Ford F-150 for the sergeants. I drove a 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe 4x4 up to the day I retired. It was pretty gutless but I really liked the room.

A state trooper neighbor of mine just switched from a Dodge 3/4 to pickup to a Ford F-150. He does fish and game enforcement. He misses the bed capacity but says the Ford does pretty well off road.

That's saying something since every Vic I've driven was like floating on clouds past 80mph. Sure-footed would not be how I describe a Vic at anything close to pursuit speeds.

Explorers and Tahoes are pretty much it for now, I liked the Taurus, you needed a shoehorn and a bucket of grease to get into the thing but it handled very well.

Chargers sucked.  Aside from also needing a shoehorn and grease, they ate brakes like a fat kid eats candy and had almost no rearward visibility.

Our Explorers received within the last couple years (with the 3.3L) are absolute trash when it comes to maintenance and performance.  The throttle response and torque management or whatever they have going on in first gear. I was driving one the other day and felt like an asshole when I tried to shoot a gap in traffic and the thing just wouldn't go. Tested it later and found 2-3 seconds between putting my foot to the floor and the car actually giving me anything resembling WOT power.

The new 10 speed “adaptive” transmission is dog shit. Especially in the 2020’s. The last of our 2022’s came in around Nov and we have one 23’ so far.  They seem to be better.

_{Our dept (central MO Sheriff dept) uses Tahoes and full size trucks for patrol, with some Explorers tossed in for supervisors, etc.  Local towns use Explorers, Chargers, and one town has a Tesla.}

I’ve been in a Tahoe for 8+ now.  No way will I go back to a cruiser.  Crap I hated ‘falling into’ and pulling out of that damn thing.

Im getting too old for this shit

The way things are going.....

That is my prediction as well.

I just got a new Charger a few months ago after getting a new one in 2019. They're pretty slick, but I often miss my CVPI.

I doubt it will be that bad. It'll likely still at least be RWD/AWD like the Charger, though it won't have a V8. Stellantis is going to a 3.0L twin-turbo inline 6 as their new "V8"-tier engine that is supposed to go into future sedans and coupes. That would seem to exclude a FWD/AWD Taurus-like setup.

Doesn't mean it'll be good, but it probably won't be an abomination like the Taurus.

That and suvs for sure, except the state police they’re all charger for the most part.

I don't know if I'd call my old vic sure-footed, maybe predictable is a better way to describe it.  I feel I was more comfortable driving the vic at 100% vs my taurus.  Vic was 2006 mod year with a strobe lightbar that had literally been recycled from the 90s.  When I got it in 2013 it had 90K miles on it.  Lasted maybe 1.5 years before trans went, then shortly after that the engine blew.  They swapped an engine from a low miles wrecked vic and rebuilt the entire suspension of mine.  After that it ran great and I had full faith in it.  Sadly a head on wreck in 2016 took her out of service for good.  

Ended up with a Taurus.  Small, cant see shit, slow to the point I literally got out run by a Nissan Altima once.  I will say the engine and trans are pretty tough.  Mine is just the NA 3.7, but now has about 115K and over 7k idle hours on original engine.  Plugs/coils just changed recently due to bad misfires  One trans line blew and it puked most of the fluid out, but they just replaced the line and filled it back up.  The PTU lasted till 105K before catastrophic failure.  I would happily trade it for even the most clapped out vic we still have in service.

Some years we bought Chargers, but now with them done thats over.  Tahoes too expensive for anyone but K9.  That leaves the explorer, which the county gov has said they don't like the "intimidating" tinted windows but the only other option is Durangos which they wont even consider for some reason.  And of course we can't have vehicles that may actually have enough power to be in a pursuit so we only buy the hybrid explorers as of late.  Can't wait to see how well they hold up to the abuse and our excellent maintainers.  IME in them, when sitting they start and run for a min every 6-8 mins which was annoying as fuck.  In addition they are even slower.

Some grant gave enough cash for them to buy a handful of crew cab F150's for "adverse weather".  Ton's of room, decent ride.  Would love to have one but since they are funded via a grant, if someone wrecks them we aren't going to be able to get another.  So they just sit due to spineless admin.  And no way they would buy them for regular use due to cost and them not projecting "a mpg friendly" image to society.



Can't remember the company, but a decade ago someone tried to come out with a LE oriented vehicle built from the ground up and it went nowhere.  It's gonna be interesting with woke local city/county/state govs trying to out "green" each other, committing to entirely 100% electric vehicles in 5-10 years or whatever.  How are they gonna charge pool EV's adequately when they get hot-seated constantly from shift to shift.  And for dept's that have take home cars, will the dept pay for the electricity?  Will the dept pay to install the necessary charging equipment?

Cooper Motors.    Went no where.

The local politicians are pushing hard for us to go to EVs of some type to reduce our " carbon footprint"

My money is that its going to be a renamed/slightly altered Hornet. Which itself looks highly comparable to the current gen Explorer/Interceptor SUV.

There won't be enough back seat space for fat arrestees, nor will there be any trunk space to speak of, but agencies will still buy it because there's less and less choice these days.

Honestly, the biggest obstacle I forsee to large scale fleet use of EVs isn't battery life, but install costs and headaches for the charging stations. Rural agencies may not be able to get away with it, but I'd argue that for 80% of uniformed patrol officers across the country, an EV could serve. Working in a rural area I've hit 300 miles in a shift, which a fleet EV with current tech won't do. But working urban areas, an average shift is often well under 50 miles of driving. Even a heavily degraded battery would still be able to pull off several days worth of use at that level before dying, if not recharged.

All this push for electric patrol cars makes me glad I retired. I feel sorry for the current generation of coppers.

Our current sheriff seriously looked into natural gas powered vehicles until he realized how much it would cost.

The twin-turbos are an $8,000 option on the Explorer Interceptor...do you guys have any of those?

I’m assuming not, since the Interceptor SUV is faster 0-60 and top speed than a Charger Pursuit.

My old agency has a fleet of over 1000 vehicles and transitioned to all SUVs for patrol years ago.  No complaints from the patrol guys, especially with the extra room inside for a more comfortable 12 hour shift.

Maybe Taser will introduce an LE EV vehicle. Just park it in the charging dock at night and it also uploads your BWC and dash cam. Schedule maintenance through www.evidence.com.

Well, it'll definitely reduce the number of agency involved accidents when half the shift is stuck each day waiting for their cruisers to finish mandatory update downloads.

Our county is almost all Explorer.  They just got their first Tahoe and said they came in cheaper than the Explorer, our state is also heading towards Tahoes.  I can see it going to Full size pickups and SUVs eventually

Our fleet is all Tahoes, Z71 Silverados, and F150 Responders now - no more sedans.

My boss is 6'8" and won't have us driving anything he can't fit into comfortably.

County Board wanted our Office to explore EV options. We conducted a 6 months study and determined our deputies average about 200 driving miles a shift (12hr shifts, 1700 sq/mi county). On top of idle time and “hard use” applications both Chevy and Ford told us EV is not feasible for our agency.

Hopefully not electric. That will prove to be a nightmare.

It'll be SUVs for awhile. A huge amount of agencies have been going SUV for awhile now. When the Explorer first started getting adopted some agencies were not letting them initiate pursuits, so they had some officers in Chargers and Crown Vics (RIP) for pursuit duty. I haven't heard anything about pursuit restrictions on Explorers for awhile now. F150s and Tahoes are popular in the western states.

I took a course in the Tahoe and it is much more nimble than you would expect.  Chargers are unreliable POSs. When you compare the shakes, rattles and reliability of a police Tahoe with a police charger with 125K miles on them there is a big difference. Just reinforced my decision to never own a dodge anything.

We have a mixture of Tahoes and F-150's. My take home is a twin-turbo 3.5 V6 F-150 and as much as I loved my old Crown Vic this truck really does a great job.

You ain't lying...  

I'm an FTO and a drone pilot.  In addition to all the regular equipment I'm required to carry, I also have to carry my drone equipment AND be able to empty my passenger seat to accommodate a trainee and THEIR stuff (rifle armor, helmet, trauma kit, laptop, lunch box, rain coat, etc).

I'm currently in a 2020 Explorer and it's about full.  We tried to convince them to put half partitions in the back seat for drone pilots so we can have some secure storage but out fleet manager is dead-set against customizing vehicles for specialty units.  I miss my Tahoe...

Supervisors are all driving Tahoes, except the south end Sergeants that are in 4x4 F-150s (it's very rural in the south end).  The rest of our marked fleet consists mainly of Explorers, with a few old Tahoes, Chargers, and Tauruses mixed in as spares or rookie vehicles.  The Tahoes, Chargers, and Tauruses are all about to mileage out or need significant repairs.

We have a dozen or so new Explorers waiting to be outfitted, but consoles and other equipment are backordered so we have to make do with old, clapped out vehicles for a while.

I'm really surprised there isn't a market for a dedicated unique cop vehicle. If the market for postal vehicles is big enough I don't see why they couldn't do it with cop cars. Guess it's not worth it.

I think the biggest factor there is that USPS has over 235,000 vehicles in just one agency. With that much purchasing power they can get whatever design they want.

Yeah I get that but I still think it could work at some level.