The Ford Crown Victoria is based on Ford's Panther platform - the big 'body-on-frame' brother to the Fox platform. The Crown Vic was built from 1979 to 2011 - the second generation from 1998-2011, but only for fleet sales after 2007. The crown jewel of the Vics is the P-71 police interceptor package and only available to the public after the police are done with them and sold at auction. This 2004 Ford Crown Vic P-71 Police Interceptor is for sale in Largo, FL currently bidding at $4850 reserve-not-met with a buy-it-now of $6900 on ebay.
Anyone who has an active driver's license should be able to spot an outline of a Crown Vic from a mile away. They dot the nation's underpasses with radar gun wielding badged vigilantes ready to dole out the road tax for driving at a reasonable speed (if speeding was about safety it wouldn't be fines, it'd be jail time for going 1 mph over. In that case, we wouldn't speed). Most P-71s are decommissioned black-and-white squad cars and have been painted black (or white) - but this one was a detective's model and is a particularly menacing shade of grey and we like it.
It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop
suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters
so it'll run good on regular gas. -Elwood
This P-71 is equipped with Ford's 4.6 liter modular V8 in 2-valve per cylinder SOHC trim -putting out 250 horsepower and 297 ft-lbs of torque. It is mated to a an automatic transmission and puts the power down to the rear wheels. Its an all business power-plant that has some P-71 specific tricks, like an oil cooler to keep temps down while idling for long periods of time (stakeout!) and pushes the Crown Vic around with plenty of gusto. Taxi cabs are known to get 250k miles driving around downtown Manhattan with these engines, so just keep changing the oil and it'll last forever.
What do you say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what? -Elwood
Fix the lighter. -Jake
The P-71 has a number of upgrades over civilian issue Crown Vics, including a slightly higher engine output, heavy duty shock absorbers, reinforced body and frame mounts, and an optional limited slip differential. Cosmetically the P-71 does not have any of the gaudy chrome trim and has a sweet Police Interceptor badge and this one has an American flag making it look even more 'copish'. Police departments around the country had demanded that the car not have traction control - a notable departure from the 'safety' obsessed DOT that requires traction control in all new vehicles as of 2012. The reasons for not having traction control was to assist acceleration in extremely low grip environments (snow/sand/ice) and to aid in low speed maneuverability - "j-turns". We think similar logic should apply to all rear wheel drive vehicles available to the public!
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This P-71 is equipped with the essential drivers spot light (no pass spotlight unfortunately), and three antennae. More antennae is always better on a police car... We've spent some time behind the wheel of a decommissioned P-71 and we've gotten tons of waves from real cops, thousands of other cars moving over from the fast lane, yielding when they have the right of way, and generally trying to avoid being in front of us...and we enjoyed every minute of it - the only downside being the 12 mpg you'll get driving these things around.
See another car that will punch a hole in the fast lane? email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.
-Elwood
See another car that will punch a hole in the fast lane? email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com
~ these cars are a great throw-back to the days of real American cars despite the facts that they were built in Canada and only sold in the middle-east during the final years. then there is also that lonely, broken-dream filled rear seat. there are a million stories in the Naked City.........
ReplyDelete88K miles is pretty good for a retired P71, but what are the engine hours? Important since thousands of idling hours adds up to more mechanical wear than the mileage would suggest. 2004 didn't have the digital odometer yet, so it isn't as easy a pushing a button.
ReplyDeleteSilver is unusual, and this example appears to be in really good condition inside and out (of course, that fact seems to be reflected in the price).
Yes, Crown Vics hold up well to abuse, and you can pile the miles on them, but beyond the novelty value (which wears off pretty quickly), you are left with a car that isn't that much fun to drive, isn't that comfortable, and sucks gas at an alarming rate. That, in particular, will cost you.
This looks pretty sweet, especially because it isn't in all white or the dreaded black with white doors. In this detective trim people are more likely to think it is still a real cop car!
ReplyDeleteI had a 2001 with what we affectionately called the "pig package". Mine had 3.55/axle but most have 3.27, the standard cars have a 2.73. Even with the 3.55 and a heavy foot i got 18-20 mpg's with mine
ReplyDelete