With the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore going out of production very soon, police forces around the country will soon be looking for a new highway patrol vehicle. Are we about to welcome a Ford Mustang police car?
Not likely. NSW Police have apparently been testing the new Mustang muscle car but so far it’s understood tests haven’t gone well. According to reports the Mustang has been overheating and has been put on a no-go list.
The local force recently took on the Mustang GT, the 5.0-litre V8 version, and have been testing it as part of the usual screening process a car must go through before it can pass as an official police car.
It’s understood the Mustang went into limp mode after a pursuit test. Authorities then apparently sent the car back to Ford with a virtual ‘no thanks’ attached to it.
Like other state police forces, NSW Police will soon have to sort something out as the Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo and Holden Commodore SS highway patrol cars being used now aren’t going to be around for much longer.
Given that taxpayers will be funding whatever vehicles the force decides, it’s expected the force will be looking at other performance vehicles at around the $50,000 mark.
Unlike the (ridiculous) promotional police cars that are popping up, which are usually just one-off marketing exercises that probably help the respective carmaker sell more cars than do any kind of community service, we won’t be seeing any high-end luxury cars being employed. However, the Volkswagen Golf R wagon is rumoured to be one of the possible candidates.
Regular duty Falcon and Commodore vehicles have already started to be replaced with cars like the Toyota Camry and Hyundai Santa Fe. What do you think police forces should adopt as a new highway patrol vehicle? Let us know below.
I think they should go with the golfs, that way I can hoon along the freeway and know I’ll get away when their VW breaks down!
It will be interesting to see which cars can cut the mustard, so much for local cars being rubbish!
Funny ! Crims in the boot. Just run with the Falcon 6 Turbo. Soon the New Mustang will be the Ford Belly Button, everyone will have one
What else is there? I just searched for 4 doors, RWD, minimum 3500cc & under $60k and besides the commodore and falcon you get Hyundai Genesis or Chrysler 300C…. LOL
Maybe Chrysler can start shipping the cops some nice stripped-down SRT-8’s for HP work? I’m sure the jolly-hoppers would appreciate 350Kws on their daily run to Macca’s for lunch. I’m sure they could get them close to $50K at a wholesale level for bulk buys. Stranger things have happened!
Don’t know how many highway patrol cars they order per year but surely they should just replace them all with new ones in 2017 before Holden closes up, that buys them a few more years to figure something out. An even more stripped down SRT8 Core would make sense and put in about the right price mark to the current SS.
Unlike our ex PM who ditched his Statesman for the 7 series BMW faster than you can blink an eye.
My thoughts? If you were a crim, you’d want to see the force driving around in anything Fiat Chrysler wouldn’t you? Jeep Patriot or Compass for general duties, Wrangler for ‘serious’ off road pursuits and for Highway work, the one they’d like the most Chrysler SRT. Could be seen coming for miles. Perhaps the cars that Crims wouldn’t want to see – Golf R Wagon, Golf Alltrack and Passat Alltrack Wagon. As far as Divy vans, why not a Transporter or Caddy. Would stand up to most of the tough stuff
Mustang GT overheated? This is really interesting. If you look at US spec versions of the GT you will notice a lot more area of the honeycomb grill especially the lower half under the front crash bar is vented. Where as our UK spec cars run a slightly different lower part of the grill which is more blocked out. Also we have the unvented UK spec cars bonnet where as the GT in the States get the vented bonnets. Now in the UK where they barely get any temps over 30c on the hottest summer day this might be ok. But Australia’s climate is more like the hotter parts of the US. It would make more sense since Australia are now abandoning ADR’s and adopting both Euro and US standards, that for cars at least that are designed and manufactured in the States we adopt the US specs of these cars as their climate is much closer to ours. It might just be all BS in my head, but anyone can go online and check out some hi res pics and see that the US spec GT’s have more frontal cooling flow. Ford Australia should take this serious and start testing the GT in hot weather. If the Cops can get them to overheat that is a very bad sign for any potential GT owner in this country. After all its a performance car, it should not be going into limp mode so easily.