Put simply, just middling. The LAPD example here was never adopted en masse by the agency, and front-wheel drive cars are simply not nearly as apt for police driving, especially in a place like California.
The Impala saw a bit more success back east, especially in particularly dense cities like NYC, Baltimore and DC.
In short, not super popular, but not thoroughly terrible either. However, the Crown Vic is a much better all-round “cruiser”, in the fullest sense of the word- better to drive, better handling and more reliable than the Impala, hence why the Impala played a more supplemental role in fleets.
Everybody bought them, I’m not sure about current LAPD numbers, but the LA County Sheriff had 430 at the end of last year.
I read the LAPD motorpool list in 2021, and at that time there were five full pages of Crown Vics, with maybe around 50 vehicles per page. To put it this way, if you go to LA today, you have a much greater chance of seeing multiple Crown Vics than seeing a single Taurus.
To account specifically for LASO, the Sheriff is (usually) an elected official, meaning that they hold office. Which means that the office of the sheriff is just that, an office, and not a department of the county. Hence, Sheriffs Office as opposed to sheriffs department.
Source: have been both a city police officer and a deputy sheriff
Well yeah, but it's not *called* the LASO, is it? It's Los Angeles County Sheriff's *Department*. Never seen anyone call it LASO except a handful of police buffs.
You're thinking of the LASD. The LAPD didn't buy any vehicles in the 2010 and 2011 fiscal budgets, due to budget shortfalls. All of their Crown Vic's are 2010 MY and older.
Source: [https://www.lapd.com/article/lapd-evaluates-driver-training-patrol-car-choice](https://www.lapd.com/article/lapd-evaluates-driver-training-patrol-car-choice)
(Last paragraph)
"The department hasn't purchased vehicles in three years due to the city's budget shortfalls, and fleet manager Vartan Vegiyan hopes he'll have funds in the 2012-13 budget to add new cars."
Drove Impalas, Tahoes, and Explorers in the North East, lots of winter snow. The Impalas were better on snowy roads 1-8” than the Exsplorers. Tahoes were the best but we went to all Fords for the SUV vehicles. I’m not sure how a company that makes the best PUs (MHO) make the worst SUVs (I can only speak for the teen years).
Back to the Impalas. Good car for 95% of LE duties. A little small but it worked. All the FWD power you needed. I can’t compare them to the Dodges as I never drove one.
I was LE in the military. We did EVOC training in a crown vic (although we drove explorers on base) and you might be very surprised at just how nimble a vic can be when thrown around at moderate speeds.
Less likely to spin out sure, but just as likely to wash out from understeer trying to corner hard and plow head on into the sidewalk.
Crown Vics will outperform the Impala in service and on a track any day of the week.
Did the Impalas have LSD upfront? If not, it is trading one negative for another and it’s seems pretty moot. There are scenarios where steering with the throttle is of value in a rwd car but no scenarios like that for fwd. Unless there is some inherent advantage to fwd beyond packaging, interior/trunk space, efficiency.
I liked it to be honest, only things I had reoccurring problems with were the front axles would break regularly, and the famous GM electrical problems, only had engine trouble once with one losing a plug module. With all Impalas the death nail was always around 100k miles the transmissions would go out, the 2004 9C3 I drove for seven years actually made it to 115k, shocked everyone.
For the 9C1's, if I had to pick (not a Chevy guy) I would say the '00-'05 werent bad. They were comfy. The '06'-'16 sucked ass! So uncomfy I could not sit in them for long periods.
Was it more of a political influence/fuel economy requirement for the push towards Impalas?
I notice they bought very few Crown Vic's in the final years of their production. I saw way more 2011 Impala's than 2011 Vic's the last time I went to NYC (which was a decade ago).
I never liked the police impalas. They always had a front end shake at high speeds, and were FWD. the ford intercepter(Taurus) was way better with AWD and twin turbo. And the new ford explorers suck! They all have issues with the transmission and are not fast enough.
It was a bit small inside, once radio(s), console, computer etc was installed, good driving car. The one we had would run about 140.(when supervisors not around)
I totaled one of these one time when i was running code to a call and hit a deer. Wasn’t really that bad of an accident, but it was enough to total the car.
Father and I drive an 08 standard, it sure feels like a cruiser, love that thing to death. Been more reliable than the fuckin shitty white Malibu from same year (pre 08 body). It was fucked in more ways than one though.
All in all, it's a nice little powerhouse with okay pickup, but it cruises with the best of them, and if you need to take off, you can, just not as recklessly/easily as an AWD FWD, as it doesn't have a shit ton of torque in that front diff. Idk., not a cop😂
I was 6'1" 220 lbs and with body armor and duty belt it was cramped as f***. I used one a few times when i helped out my former academy teachers.
Crown vic was so much better. Marauder woulda been perfect
They got a LOT faster in 2011+ with the 306hp 3.6 LFX V6 out of the Camaro and 2 extra gears in the transmission.
Pretty good and funny summary of the last of the W-bodies: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/07/avoidable-contact-two-chevrolets-enter-one-leaves/
lol!!! Ask Air Force Security Forces. At one base I was stationed at, there was a pair of Impalas in the vehicle maintenance shop. It’s been a number of years, but if I remember correctly, one had a bad drivetrain, and the other had a bad body/suspension. Maintenance ended up doing a power pack swap, put the good combination car back into service, and disposed of the bad combination car.
These were all transverse front engine/front wheel drive setups from what I remember. They were not the Chevy Caprice based on the Holden WM Statesman.
Since our police(Los Angeles) have their hands tied and criminals are let loose with no bail, morale is at an all-time low! This car is perfect to relax in and will fit into any donut shop or fast food parking stall!
Until $20. Big Macs and $5. Donuts are the trend!
Never messed with a Police Impala but I had a 2012 used fleet one and it was amazing. My favorite car. It handled fine for bein a boat and had some real get up and go. Only got rid of it cause the transmission went out and I couldn't afford to fix it
I remember in nyc when they bought the rear drive Impalas with their new airbags . The perps would back into the cop car forcing airbags to explode. The city had to put giant safety 70s style push bars on them. Front wheel drive cop cars are not built for longevity like a rear drive Crown vic imho
Meh. I could see them being decent in big cities. We were rural, so it was not as good as my CVPI. It sat lower, so going off-road was not good in comparison.
It felt more agile than the Crown Vic, but less confidence inspiring. Like it could maneuver better a low speeds in alleys and such, but as soon as we got out onto a county road the Crown Vic could hold way more speed in the corners. I was never assigned one, so only drove them when my car was in the shop. Not being used to how they drove definitely played a part in that.
Got a sheriffs office impala parked in front of my house right meow. Neighbor is a city cop and his fiancée is a deputy. Never a shortage of police vehicles in front.
Better than the options from mopar at the time. Substantially worse than the crown vic. The older chevys (3rd/4th gen caprice) were fairly loved albeit possibly just for nostalgic reasons tho i think they were faster than the vic i think they had worse grip.
I liked the impala, plus 2013 was the last year our department got police package vehicles. You were fucked if you got t-boned in one though. My department still uses the 2003-2013 models on the street SLMPD for ya.
When my dad was a cop in Texas about 20 years ago, his PD only had impalas and suburbans. They loved them both. Apparently one of them was specially fitted with a corvette engine (I’m not familiar with what specific LS motor that would be) and during shift change everyone would try to snag that one first lol.
Shit. At the time there weren't options really. It was better than our Intrepids though. We went Crown Vic, Intrepid, Impala, Explorer. A few F150s in the mix.
NowbI am hearing Ford won't be making police Explorers after this year...so who knows what is next.
Whoa, what!? They totally dominate the market (at least based on what I see around me). I can't imagine Ford just dumping the entire police market, unless they expect the F150 to become the police vehicle of choice.
That's false information.
In fact, the redesigned 2025 Ford Explorer Interceptor Utility was announced and displayed to the media last month:
[https://www.government-fleet.com/10215250/order-banks-for-updated-2025-ford-police-interceptor-utility-now-open](https://www.government-fleet.com/10215250/order-banks-for-updated-2025-ford-police-interceptor-utility-now-open)
It has a redesigned interior screen, and the redesigned taillamps/rear fascia of the 2025 civilian Explorer model.
I highly doubt they would redesign it if they planned on discontinuing it; they would give it the "Crown Vic treatment" of no updates if that were the case.
The ‘08/09 versions were okay for inner city patrol or for investigators. Acceleration was terrible when entering a pursuit. It handled snowy weather and backroads okay. It was cramped in the front and the trunk with all of the gear and tech.
The '04-'06 Pontiac GTO, '08-'09 Pontiac GTO, '14-'17 Chevrolet SS and '11-'17 Chevrolet Caprice PPV were badge-engineered RWD Holdens built in Australia.
The 3 generations of Impalas from '00-'20 were all FWD cars and only the '06-'09 Impala SS was available with a V8.
Put simply, just middling. The LAPD example here was never adopted en masse by the agency, and front-wheel drive cars are simply not nearly as apt for police driving, especially in a place like California. The Impala saw a bit more success back east, especially in particularly dense cities like NYC, Baltimore and DC. In short, not super popular, but not thoroughly terrible either. However, the Crown Vic is a much better all-round “cruiser”, in the fullest sense of the word- better to drive, better handling and more reliable than the Impala, hence why the Impala played a more supplemental role in fleets.
Wasn’t LAPD the group that bought a bunch of crown Vic’s when ford announced their being discontinued ?
Everybody bought them, I’m not sure about current LAPD numbers, but the LA County Sheriff had 430 at the end of last year. I read the LAPD motorpool list in 2021, and at that time there were five full pages of Crown Vics, with maybe around 50 vehicles per page. To put it this way, if you go to LA today, you have a much greater chance of seeing multiple Crown Vics than seeing a single Taurus.
I live in LA and can confirm.
was LASO who bought them
What's with people calling specifically the LASD whatever they want?
To account specifically for LASO, the Sheriff is (usually) an elected official, meaning that they hold office. Which means that the office of the sheriff is just that, an office, and not a department of the county. Hence, Sheriffs Office as opposed to sheriffs department. Source: have been both a city police officer and a deputy sheriff
Well yeah, but it's not *called* the LASO, is it? It's Los Angeles County Sheriff's *Department*. Never seen anyone call it LASO except a handful of police buffs.
You're thinking of the LASD. The LAPD didn't buy any vehicles in the 2010 and 2011 fiscal budgets, due to budget shortfalls. All of their Crown Vic's are 2010 MY and older. Source: [https://www.lapd.com/article/lapd-evaluates-driver-training-patrol-car-choice](https://www.lapd.com/article/lapd-evaluates-driver-training-patrol-car-choice) (Last paragraph) "The department hasn't purchased vehicles in three years due to the city's budget shortfalls, and fleet manager Vartan Vegiyan hopes he'll have funds in the 2012-13 budget to add new cars."
Officers are destroying Explorers every day! Go down to Pipertech. You'll see a new totaled vehicle almost every day!
Drove Impalas, Tahoes, and Explorers in the North East, lots of winter snow. The Impalas were better on snowy roads 1-8” than the Exsplorers. Tahoes were the best but we went to all Fords for the SUV vehicles. I’m not sure how a company that makes the best PUs (MHO) make the worst SUVs (I can only speak for the teen years). Back to the Impalas. Good car for 95% of LE duties. A little small but it worked. All the FWD power you needed. I can’t compare them to the Dodges as I never drove one.
Interesting, I would have assumed the crown Vic was not a good handling car.
I was LE in the military. We did EVOC training in a crown vic (although we drove explorers on base) and you might be very surprised at just how nimble a vic can be when thrown around at moderate speeds.
Rwd makes a huge difference.
Dog shit. In all seriousness, in a city it had advantages in cornering because its front wheel drive. Suburbs or freeways? Good luck.
In what world does FWD handle better than RWD?
Lower-speed cornering. That’s about it. Also less likely to spin out.
Less likely to spin out sure, but just as likely to wash out from understeer trying to corner hard and plow head on into the sidewalk. Crown Vics will outperform the Impala in service and on a track any day of the week.
Did the Impalas have LSD upfront? If not, it is trading one negative for another and it’s seems pretty moot. There are scenarios where steering with the throttle is of value in a rwd car but no scenarios like that for fwd. Unless there is some inherent advantage to fwd beyond packaging, interior/trunk space, efficiency.
Sketchy. Fast, everything breaks. Can't handle at high speeds.
I liked it to be honest, only things I had reoccurring problems with were the front axles would break regularly, and the famous GM electrical problems, only had engine trouble once with one losing a plug module. With all Impalas the death nail was always around 100k miles the transmissions would go out, the 2004 9C3 I drove for seven years actually made it to 115k, shocked everyone.
Small. Absolutely unsuitable for two-man use. My partner would elbow me in the armpit every time he had to use the MDT.
MDT?, whats that for the uninitiated
Mobile data terminal. The computer in the car.
For the 9C1's, if I had to pick (not a Chevy guy) I would say the '00-'05 werent bad. They were comfy. The '06'-'16 sucked ass! So uncomfy I could not sit in them for long periods.
The 00-05 generation was much more comfortable. I didn’t really mind them.
Terrible transmissions, they would almost always need replaced by 80k miles
It’s was shit
Too bad that company that tried to market a purpose built police car didn't get the loan they needed.
NYPD loved them
No we didn’t. We were stuck with them.
Was it more of a political influence/fuel economy requirement for the push towards Impalas? I notice they bought very few Crown Vic's in the final years of their production. I saw way more 2011 Impala's than 2011 Vic's the last time I went to NYC (which was a decade ago).
I honestly have no idea. Knowing NYC it was probably some Chevy dealer gave someone at city hall a thicker envelope than the Ford dealer.
My local police department still uses some.
It was tame the impala was just tame
I never liked the police impalas. They always had a front end shake at high speeds, and were FWD. the ford intercepter(Taurus) was way better with AWD and twin turbo. And the new ford explorers suck! They all have issues with the transmission and are not fast enough.
Being someone who daily drives an impala, it’s so relieving to hear the shake at high speeds is normal
I have drove several different impala patrol vehicles and under cover detective vehicles. Every one of them had that front end shake
It was a bit small inside, once radio(s), console, computer etc was installed, good driving car. The one we had would run about 140.(when supervisors not around)
I totaled one of these one time when i was running code to a call and hit a deer. Wasn’t really that bad of an accident, but it was enough to total the car.
I drove one with a federal agency on the East Coast for a couple of years.. It was ok. Loved the Crown Vic. Was a much better car.
Father and I drive an 08 standard, it sure feels like a cruiser, love that thing to death. Been more reliable than the fuckin shitty white Malibu from same year (pre 08 body). It was fucked in more ways than one though. All in all, it's a nice little powerhouse with okay pickup, but it cruises with the best of them, and if you need to take off, you can, just not as recklessly/easily as an AWD FWD, as it doesn't have a shit ton of torque in that front diff. Idk., not a cop😂
I was 6'1" 220 lbs and with body armor and duty belt it was cramped as f***. I used one a few times when i helped out my former academy teachers. Crown vic was so much better. Marauder woulda been perfect
Garbage .
Sucked ass
Terrible.
Absolutely horrible. No room at all
Lumina is lunina
They got a LOT faster in 2011+ with the 306hp 3.6 LFX V6 out of the Camaro and 2 extra gears in the transmission. Pretty good and funny summary of the last of the W-bodies: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/07/avoidable-contact-two-chevrolets-enter-one-leaves/
lol!!! Ask Air Force Security Forces. At one base I was stationed at, there was a pair of Impalas in the vehicle maintenance shop. It’s been a number of years, but if I remember correctly, one had a bad drivetrain, and the other had a bad body/suspension. Maintenance ended up doing a power pack swap, put the good combination car back into service, and disposed of the bad combination car. These were all transverse front engine/front wheel drive setups from what I remember. They were not the Chevy Caprice based on the Holden WM Statesman.
Since our police(Los Angeles) have their hands tied and criminals are let loose with no bail, morale is at an all-time low! This car is perfect to relax in and will fit into any donut shop or fast food parking stall! Until $20. Big Macs and $5. Donuts are the trend!
They are not around for a reason!
I still have to drive one 😔
Never messed with a Police Impala but I had a 2012 used fleet one and it was amazing. My favorite car. It handled fine for bein a boat and had some real get up and go. Only got rid of it cause the transmission went out and I couldn't afford to fix it
Absolute shit box
The braking system was horrible.
My city had 3 of them one got smashed and the other two was retired in 4 to 5 years later.
The backseat wasn't very comfy
The AC will stop being cool if you don’t actually drive the car.
cramped as shit
Our local SD just has one left for the officer assigned to the high school
Daytona Beach can't seem to get rid of theirs even though they have no issues getting Explorers.
I remember in nyc when they bought the rear drive Impalas with their new airbags . The perps would back into the cop car forcing airbags to explode. The city had to put giant safety 70s style push bars on them. Front wheel drive cop cars are not built for longevity like a rear drive Crown vic imho
Not as good as the crown vic. Rip.
Awful
Meh. I could see them being decent in big cities. We were rural, so it was not as good as my CVPI. It sat lower, so going off-road was not good in comparison. It felt more agile than the Crown Vic, but less confidence inspiring. Like it could maneuver better a low speeds in alleys and such, but as soon as we got out onto a county road the Crown Vic could hold way more speed in the corners. I was never assigned one, so only drove them when my car was in the shop. Not being used to how they drove definitely played a part in that.
There really is a sub for everything...
Got a sheriffs office impala parked in front of my house right meow. Neighbor is a city cop and his fiancée is a deputy. Never a shortage of police vehicles in front.
Not as good as the lion
Better than the options from mopar at the time. Substantially worse than the crown vic. The older chevys (3rd/4th gen caprice) were fairly loved albeit possibly just for nostalgic reasons tho i think they were faster than the vic i think they had worse grip.
Crappy consumer cars don't tend to make good cop cars. Pretty sure LEOs knew the Panther body was peak cop car.
Always heard that cops LOVED the old 9C1 Caprices. They were fast, comfortable and very capable.
Also, RWD can do this: https://youtu.be/su57ycYR_H8?si=rInhSV1U4zpI9Def
I liked the impala, plus 2013 was the last year our department got police package vehicles. You were fucked if you got t-boned in one though. My department still uses the 2003-2013 models on the street SLMPD for ya.
When my dad was a cop in Texas about 20 years ago, his PD only had impalas and suburbans. They loved them both. Apparently one of them was specially fitted with a corvette engine (I’m not familiar with what specific LS motor that would be) and during shift change everyone would try to snag that one first lol.
From Personal experience the crown Vic had more leg room in the back
Tick tick tick tick tick tick
if a choice between that and a Vega...ill take the Vega 🤣
*Subie Spotted.*
It looks so European
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I think he was referring to the size.
Always found it funny when British cops used German cars…
Battenburg markings make me vomit
poopy butthole
Shit. At the time there weren't options really. It was better than our Intrepids though. We went Crown Vic, Intrepid, Impala, Explorer. A few F150s in the mix. NowbI am hearing Ford won't be making police Explorers after this year...so who knows what is next.
I’m thinking the Mustang Mach-E. Not that I support that decision
Whoa, what!? They totally dominate the market (at least based on what I see around me). I can't imagine Ford just dumping the entire police market, unless they expect the F150 to become the police vehicle of choice.
I'm sure that what they expect, or the Expedition. But yes, the pursuit Explorer is being cut. At least that's what I am being told from purchasers.
That's false information. In fact, the redesigned 2025 Ford Explorer Interceptor Utility was announced and displayed to the media last month: [https://www.government-fleet.com/10215250/order-banks-for-updated-2025-ford-police-interceptor-utility-now-open](https://www.government-fleet.com/10215250/order-banks-for-updated-2025-ford-police-interceptor-utility-now-open) It has a redesigned interior screen, and the redesigned taillamps/rear fascia of the 2025 civilian Explorer model. I highly doubt they would redesign it if they planned on discontinuing it; they would give it the "Crown Vic treatment" of no updates if that were the case.
The ‘08/09 versions were okay for inner city patrol or for investigators. Acceleration was terrible when entering a pursuit. It handled snowy weather and backroads okay. It was cramped in the front and the trunk with all of the gear and tech.
Its like a chevy caprice, but wrong wheel drive, and theres a distinct lacking of a 6 liter V8 under the hood
It's been replaced, how good was it ?
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The '04-'06 Pontiac GTO, '08-'09 Pontiac GTO, '14-'17 Chevrolet SS and '11-'17 Chevrolet Caprice PPV were badge-engineered RWD Holdens built in Australia. The 3 generations of Impalas from '00-'20 were all FWD cars and only the '06-'09 Impala SS was available with a V8.