|
Having read HJ's report on the police auction, it would be interesting to find out how many of these vehicles get clocked or end up with a completely new identity. Who does the V5 state as the owner on a police vehicle? Anyone here ever bought one? The prices are certainly tempting.
|
Be very very wary of two to three year old white Omega MV6s and V70 T5s in white, without sunroofs and with 30,000 miles on the clock.
HJ
|
Be very very wary of two to three year old white Omega MV6s and V70 T5s in white, without sunroofs and with 30,000 miles on the clock.
HJ,
Care to elaborate a little?
|
a) No-one buys an Omega MV6 in white, cos it looks like a police car.
Same for V70 T5.
b) Police cars (esp. motorway patrol cars) cover 40,000 miles or more a year.
Be even MORE wary of three-year-old Skoda Octavia diesels with 30,000 on the clock!
(3-year finance deal, 3-year unltd mileage warranty, stricter taxi test after 3 years old)
Mine's 18 months old and on 130,000 already. :-)
|
|
It will be interesting to see what the police Octavias fetch in a couple of years and whether they will be prime clocking material. West Yorkshire have got at least one on a YK 52 reg.
|
Dave will be ecstatic to know that the Leicestershire boys in blue are running Octavia RSs as area cars instead of Mondeo V6s. They get 30mpg instead of 17mpg, and, so far, with the cars at about 40k miles, nothing has gone wrong with any of them.
HJ
|
|
|
|
|
I thought that the police had stopped buying so many white cars. Around me in London there seem to be plenty more silver BMW 530d's and silver Focus's and fewer and fewer white ones.
|
We talked about that. Some police forces are into colours, like the silver Fabia in the report. Others stick to white because of the high visibility and the public expectation that a police car will be white.
HJ
|
|
Does anyone have any experience of owning an ex-police car? On the face of it it seems a very cheap way of getting a very new car. I know they are well maintained but are they a good buy?
|
Only once. I bought a Cavalier SRi for a girlfriend, it must have been about 1991 car with around 100k on the clock.
It performed perfectly and was eventually sold some years later with about 180k on the clock. It did the intervening 5 years and 80k with nothing other than standard servicing.
It had some irritating holes in the dash and the car did have a somewhat "loose" feel to it. But all in all it was an excellent buy. Also the hole in the console for the stereo had been butchered and a cheapo rubbish thing rammed in.
I'd certainly by another one, although that is my only experience of them.
|
|
I've never bought an ex-police car but what I heard from a friend of mine who's a long term police mechanic certainly would lead me to be very careful. For example they had an Omega in the workshop with a faulty clutch and a strange tickover, the usual checks came out OK (tickover issue) so they got in touch with Vauxhall (probably tame dealership) about this. Their advice was that the flywheel on certain models contains vicious fluid that can leak out, the easiest why to diagnose it is to check the clutch plate for contamination. The clutch was contaminated and so due to the monsterous amount it would cost to replace the flywheel, clutch, etc. the car was re-assembled and sent to the auction. I obviously can't state for sure whether this is true but I've not know him to lie about anything else in the years I've known him. Maybe someone with more experience of Omegas would care to comment?
|
Their advice was that the flywheel on certain models contains vicious fluid that can leak out, the easiest why to diagnose it is to check the clutch plate for contamination.
Evil thing this vicious fluid
|
|
|
The fact that police Omegas come to auction with 90k - 97k miles and Volvo T5s with 135k - 160k miles kind of tells the story. (Police Range Rover 4.0 litres make 160k - 170k.)
HJ
|
|
|
I hear police cars are *very* poorly serviced now.
I beleive in many cases it's contracted to the AA.
The tame Rozzer I refer to so much once 'impounded' [1] a load of police cars in service as being simply unroadworthy.
I'd buy one thuogh. All profesional servicing is rubbish - can't discount cars because they've had a garage look at em! Plus th emilages these cars do is massive - can't be that bad!
[1] Strong official word dunno what the actual procedure was.
--
These are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of all Toads.
|
Some forces cars are much better than others and when it comes to disposal time they are a far better buy.When i used to buy them Thames Valley were head and shoulders above the rest of them and usually for only a little more.
I did once buy a TVP Senator with an unusual vibration,that turned out to be the fluid flywheel,about £50 from Vauxhall Spares.
|
Plus points for a Police Vehicle.
Not likely to be an 'old' vehicle.
Subject to daily continuous driving with mixture of short and long runs.
Service schedules adhered to.
Back seat likely to be in pristine condition with possibility of 'goodies' under the squab from arrested persons trying to hide evidence.(or may be nasties).
Restricted choice on colour.
Against
High mileage.
Likely to have been hammered with number of minor bumps/scratches.
Subject to lack of car consideration due to being driven by a multitude of drivers all with their individual style or care as if not their own.
Various holes in the trim where items of equipment have been removed.
Indifferent servicing through being contracted out to various private Garages.More and more Forces just employing mechanics for routine maintenance.
Front seats well and truly used.
VRM likely to be known by villans if sold locally thereby maybe attracting revenge damage.
All in all you pays your money you take your chance. There are some good ones and there are dogs.
DVD
|
|
|
Toad's was a surprisingly sweeping generalisation for the toad. Cheshire police change timing belts every 30k because this minor inconvenience is far less than the problems posed by a car being off the road for two weeks with a snapped timing belt and its valves embedded in its p[iston crowns. Leicestershire police change their oil every 5,000 miles and use semi synthetic in turbos, despite this meaning up to 9 oil changes a year.
HJ
|
As a Police Driver, I can say that the cars that spend their life on the motorway are generally good buys. They are well serviced are lead a fairly tame life. However, I work on a Divisional Road Policing Unit and our cars (Vectra V6, Omega, Volvo) get hammered. They definitely do not spend there time driving in a straight line at 56mph.
Surprisingly, the most unreliable car has been the Volvo. It's constantly in for repair. We're just about to get a 5 series, it will be interesting to see how it fairs.
MLC
|
The local Focuses are forever in Arriva's bodyshop, saw one today where someone had kicked the windscreen in... and one that had caught fire... and one that was involved in a heavy frontal (think this was only there to be assessed as a write-off)... I'd still buy one though, 'cos they're filthy cheap and are well maintained.
Blue
|
I currently run a '98 V70 T5 Auto , mileage maybe far higher than anybody other than a taxi driver would be willing to drive but so far in 9 months and 12 000 miles there have been no unusal problems.
The car just came back from a service at the local Volvo dealers who gave it a clean bill of health and a new timing belt. The only comments they had were the holes in the dash and roof as it is now standard practise for them to do a pre-inspection of visible damage to a car before taking them in for service.
The usual problem I have had with this car was the drivers door check strap breaking which cost about 20 quid for a new part from volvo. Reading the volvo forums and talking to the dealer this is a common problem.
Prior to this I have owned 2 Vauxhall Senator 24 Valves each giving good service until time to replace the exhausts which at the time were very expensive.
I would recommend an ex-police traffic car to anybody but in general give it as good an inspection as any other purchase at auction. Most forces will declare any known or major faults but the vehicles are always sold as seen with no come back.
A little side note to this is when successful at purchasing always check the hose pipes and electrics are working. I bought an ex TVP bike (ST1100) which luckily was transported home but when I checked it in the light of day they had not tightened the clip at the top of the radiator and the standard horn wires had been cut during the decommissioning. Reconnected both and bike still runs great.
|
|
The 'silver' police vehicles mentioned earlier aren't, really. What the Met and other forces are introducing is a protective covering that can be removed prior to disposal of the vehicle, leaving pristine paintwork. The other benefit is they can order vehicles in any colour, not just whiet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
