Buying ex-police car?

Warwick_Hunt

Richard53 wrote: »

Not only was a police rider killed on one, but the instructor who was sent out to try to replicate the incident was thrown off and killed too. I don't think they ever got to the bottom of it, even working closely with Honda, but it was probably the way the extra police kit was loaded. I crossed Germany on mine, fully laden with camping gear, doing long stretches at ~140 mph and it was steady as a rock, so it wasn't just the extra weight.


It certainly wasn't a dangerous bike, but I agree that a lot of forces may have been spooked (or advised by legal teams) into getting rid of perfectly good bikes on the basis of a couple of unexplained incidents. I liked the bike but sold it in the end because it was just too big.

I can't really comment on the ST1300 as we went back to BMW. I did see a load of ST1100's that had been sold, bought by a company who but then into neutral livery and rented them back to the police. They had between 6000 and 14000 on the clock.

kittennose

Head_The_Ball wrote: »

How will you benefit by changing from one car worth £3k to another worth £3k?

Are you looking at changing to a much lower spec car?

I currently have a small 3 door car but with 2 children and a wife we need something with more doors and a bigger boot.

That's all.

Strider590

Warwick_Hunt wrote: »

Given the police run the engines in standard spec it would have been as quick as any other car from the same factory.

Not always, but they usually get special custom vehicles from the manufacturer. So when they had Vectras they got a standard SRI body/kit/wheels (or even the lower spec cars) but the engine was the turbo charged 2.8 V6 from the Vectra VXR.

The problem this can create is with insurance, because the car likely won't match their database.

motorguy

Strider590 wrote: »

Not always, but they usually get special custom vehicles from the manufacturer. So when they had Vectras they got a standard SRI body/kit/wheels (or even the lower spec cars) but the engine was the turbo charged 2.8 V6 from the Vectra VXR.

The problem this can create is with insurance, because the car likely won't match their database.

irrespective - the engines arent made any quicker by the police, even though they may have a different engine in the car than you would otherwise expect at a particular trim level.

Strider590

motorguy wrote: »

irrespective - the engines arent made any quicker by the police, even though they may have a different engine in the car than you would otherwise expect at a particular trim level.

Some of the pursuit vehicles are said to be modified, coming from the horse mouth so to speak, but I suspect it would hard to prove either way and the Police sure as hell aren't going to give out any official word on that.

When you consider that the high performance cars in those models of vehicle are seriously fast as standard, the only thing you can guarantee is that the car is never what it appears to be. It might look like a BMW 318, but that could well be a 4 litre V8 under the hood.

Car_54

Strider590 wrote: »

Not always, but they usually get special custom vehicles from the manufacturer. So when they had Vectras they got a standard SRI body/kit/wheels (or even the lower spec cars) but the engine was the turbo charged 2.8 V6 from the Vectra VXR.

The problem this can create is with insurance, because the car likely won't match their database.

Surely that depends on their database. I'm pretty sure they use a subset of the DVLA database, rather than the back pages of What Car.

motorguy

Strider590 wrote: »

It might look like a BMW 318, but that could well be a 4 litre V8 under the hood.

As much as i'd love to believe that BMW have managed to drop the running gear from a wide track M3 in to a regular 318i, i really dont think they have - for our police force or anyone else.

Likewise the sheer effort for an individual or a team of mechanics required to do that would vastly outweigh the benefits.

Any that are about i'd imagine are likely to be the likes of a 335i with a remap at most. It'll give you 95% of the every day grunt of an M3 anyway. Most non M cars look like the entry level variants anyway, sadly.

If i was looking for discrete usable power that can be got down to the road, i'd be looking at an AWD RS4 or RS6, it wouldnt be a tail happy 3 series.

Likewise i dont think a 2.8i Turbo Insignia that looks like a 1.8i is beyond Vauxhall or our local constabularies....

... Vauxhall did it themselves for us regular folk -

Grandad spec beige Insignia with beige interior and 280BHP and 4x4?



http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201708017915826?advertising-location=at_cars&fuel-type=Petrol&minimum-badge-engine-size=2.6&radius=1500&model=INSIGNIA&postcode=bt622hb&make=VAUXHALL&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&sort=price-asc&page=1

Or if you suffer just a 220BHP variant, they did a 2.0i Turbo that looked like the 130BHP diesel variant

220BHP 2.0i Turbo variant -



http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201706256766275?fuel-type=Petrol&minimum-badge-engine-size=2.0&make=VAUXHALL&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&model=INSIGNIA&sort=price-asc&postcode=bt622hb&radius=1500&advertising-location=at_cars&page=1

130BHP diesel Variant -



http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201705215672799?model=INSIGNIA&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&fuel-type=Diesel&year-to=2010&body-type=Hatchback&year-from=2010&colour=Red&sort=price-asc&advertising-location=at_cars&postcode=bt622hb&make=VAUXHALL&minimum-badge-engine-size=2.0&radius=1500&page=1

But a 4.0i V8 3 series in 318i running gear - not so much.

golddustmedia

The company I used to work for provided and managed the Met police fleet cars.

We advised them to stop buying white cars and buy silver instead as they typically sold for £300+ more at auction. Hence the colour of the cars isn't much of a giveaway these days. Similarly "unmarked" cars tended to be the cheaper or more unpopular manufacturer colours such as burgundy or navy blue.

All the cars were well maintained, as much as any "fleet" cars are, and contrary to popular opinion it's now quite rare to drill holes in the cars for all the extra equipment. For example the flashing roof lights actually clip to the roof gutters.

They are sold on after a set time period regardless of mileage or condition and a specific team converts the cars back to normal road spec. This doesn't mean the police had the engines tuned to be racing cars, far from it, rather it means the blue lights, sirens & comms kit are removed and where appropriate replacement trim pieces are fitted.

Nearly all are basic entry level cars and if they want a faster car for pursuits they don't tend to hide it, hence the fast cars are quite visibly so and these are often not sold on - instead they are passed to police training schools.

For most other than looking at the history you'd never know it was ex police.

Good points will be the car should have good tyres and will have been inspected prior to sale.

Warwick_Hunt

Strider590 wrote: »

Not always, but they usually get special custom vehicles from the manufacturer. So when they had Vectras they got a standard SRI body/kit/wheels (or even the lower spec cars) but the engine was the turbo charged 2.8 V6 from the Vectra VXR.

The problem this can create is with insurance, because the car likely won't match their database.

When they ran the mark on SRI it was a normal 2 litre injection. The mark two West Mercia had were 3.2 none turbos when I drove one. But I'll stand corrected if you can evidence any British force having a non VXR Vectra with a VXR engine fitted.

Warwick_Hunt

Strider590 wrote: »

Some of the pursuit vehicles are said to be modified, coming from the horse mouth so to speak, but I suspect it would hard to prove either way and the Police sure as hell aren't going to give out any official word on that.

When you consider that the high performance cars in those models of vehicle are seriously fast as standard, the only thing you can guarantee is that the car is never what it appears to be. It might look like a BMW 318, but that could well be a 4 litre V8 under the hood.

Your horse lies like a cheap watch.