You know what they say: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. While police forces in the U.S. are rapidly replacing their Ford Crown Victoria Interceptors with the latest batch of patrol vehicles from Detroit’s Big 3 including the Ford Taurus, Chevrolet Caprice and Dodge Charger, the Blue Oval’s geriatric model is finding a new life in the UK as a quirky alternative to those who want to stand out from the crowd.
The perpetrator in this case is a UK-based company named “USA Cop Cars Ltd”, which has recently started bringing fully refurbished 2009 and 2010 Ford P71 Police ‘Interceptor’ law enforcement cars into Britain.
The British firm describes the Crown Victoria as a rare “muscle car with a difference”. If that hasn’t put a smile to your face, maybe this will: the used Ford Police Interceptors carry a price tag between £23,000 and £29,000 or about US$37,000 and US$46,700!
USA Cop Cars Ltd says all vehicles come complete with all the usual police goodies including roof-lights, PA systems, and even detailed recreations of US law-enforcement liveries to individual customers’ requirements.
The company also states that the Ford Interceptors are not sold to the public in the U.S., though to our knowledge, this does not appear to be true as we’ve seen plenty of alleged ex-police cars available in the secondhand market. Perhaps the firm means not directly. In any case, if any of you can elaborate on whether or not this is true, we’d appreciate it.
Here’s what Mr Lindsay Groves from USA Cop Cars said on the matter:
“Neither Ford or US Agencies are allowed to sell ‘Interceptors’ to civilians – most see post-police service as cabs or with other US agencies. There are also many other hurdles to overcome before they are legal to drive here in Europe, which explains their rarity here.”
“You don’t need to be a fan of Americana to own one,” Groves continued. “They are tremendous fun to drive – the reactions from men and women, young and old alike is amazing – they love them! They are also very safe – the only car in America that withstands a 75mph rear impact, whilst the civilian version received the maximum 5-star crash resistance rating from the American federal road safety organisation for 14 successive years,” he added.
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