What's Wrong With This Picture: To Protect, Serve And Haul A Little Ass Edition

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: March 12th, 2010

what s wrong with this picture to protect serve and haul a little ass edition

Ford’s new Taurus-based Interceptor will be available with the 3.5 liter Duratec, or the twin-turbo Ecoboost engine. Front wheel drive is standard, and AWD will be an option. But then, if you got to use other people’s tax money to buy your work ride, would you really save the few bucks by not buying the 365 hp, AWD version? Of course not. You are the law! Libraries can always have bake sales. [via Jalopnik]

#Ford #Interceptor #Police #Taurus

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5 of 74 comments

Z71_Silvy on Mar 12, 2010

"Dear Ford, Thank you for building such a mediocre appliance. We sure appreciate being handed the police market on a silver platter. It will go well next to the ambulance market you handed us. Your friend, GM"

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- Nate Cristea on Mar 12, 2010
  
  Arent police cars supposed to be appliances? They are not supposed to be personal, they are supposed to tools you use for a job, aka an appliance. If this PI Taurus will be built in the Chicago plant, they will for sure be bought by the Chicago Police Department or else Daley will have a lot of pissed off UAW workers come election time. How do you know the police market is so profitable? Taxis are moving away from large rwd sedans and its looking like police fleets might be as well. As for the ambulance market, I still see Ford E-series here in Chicago and barely any Chevy ones.
  
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- Rmwill on Mar 12, 2010
  
  Sorry to bring a little reality to the discussion. GM and its clueless leadership under Aztek Mark Reuss have decided to use a hopelessly unprofitable Austrailan platform for their police car base. They will lose money on every one they sell. When will those idiots comprehend that developing a car in Aussie dollars is a guaranteed loser, just like the bland GTO and the UGLY FAIL G8. Reuss has the negative Midas touch, much like is daddy Lloyd did.
  
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- Z71_Silvy on Mar 13, 2010
  
  Nate...here's the deal: The Taurus itself is a bland appliance...but all of the changes necessary to make it a squad have made it heavier, more thirsty for fuel...and STILL not as good as the Crown Vic (when you take EVERYTHING into account). Sure the Taurus can probably do the job (about as good as an Intrepid anyway), but when it comes to repairs--both in cost of parts and labor time--the Crown Vic has it beat every time. Add to that the price increase over the Crown Vic and this thing is destined to fail. With this (rather poor) Taurus squad...there is no reason to stick with Ford...with the Crown Vic, there was. My public safety agency just paid 23K apiece for some new Crown Vics. I have talked with employees at the Crown Vic factory who say that it costs around $12,000 to build a Crown Vic. Do you think this Taurus has that kind of margin? Hell no. Ford is still paying off the initial investment into the (failed) D3 platform/Five Hundred and it's counterparts. They have yet to pay for the (failed) Flex, (failed) 2008 Taurus, (failed) 2008 Sable, (failed) Taurus X, (failed) Flex, (failed) Lincoln Taurus, (failed) 2010 Taurus...or Taurus III, (failed) Lincoln Flex. And why Ford would want to fleet dump their so-called "flagship" is beyond me...Ford spent millions repairing the damaged they caused to the Taurus name...and now, they are going to damage it again because of this. As for the ambulance thing...Ford is trying to con EMS agencies into buying an E-Series with the boat anchor V10...and they are saying "HELL NO" in droves. My Public Safety agency is now buying a Chevrolet ambulance with the D-MAX (better then Ford's diesel anyway) and upon hearing that the new Taurus squad is FWD (frail wheel drive), we are now going to be buying the new Caprice when it arrives. ---------------------------- rmwill: The Caprice is not unprofitable. It uses American engines in a platform that is sold all over the world. The tooling is paid for, the engines are paid for...and it was federalized on the back of the G8. GM was just handed the police market on a silver platter.
  
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Ion on Mar 12, 2010

Whether this will sell or not probably will come down to how it does in the reviews that police academy publishes. I don't read about the Charger's IRS breaking under police use so I doubt FWD will be an issue outside of pit maneuvers. Sure precincts have stayed away from FWD cars in the past but those were all shitty cars to begin with. The Impala and Intrepid were/are garbage in civie clothes I doubt they could polish those turds much for police use.

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