Is anybody else wondering why it took GM’s bright minds so long to figure out that the Holden Commodore/Pontiac G8/Chevrolet Caprice would make an excellent cop car? The first of the new Caprice police cruisers won’t hit the market until 2011. Aiy! May we all live long enough to see it!
Cops love big iron, rear [...]
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Is anybody else wondering why it took GM’s bright minds so long to figure out that the Holden Commodore/Pontiac G8/Chevrolet Caprice would make an excellent cop car? The first of the new Caprice police cruisers won’t hit the market until 2011. Aiy! May we all live long enough to see it!
Cops love big iron, rear drive, and V-8s. Those features used to be commodities available at every store. Remember when a cop car could be anything from a Chevy Caprice to a Dodge Polara to an AMC Matador? Well, me neither. But the point is this: after the old cetacean-shaped Caprice died, and except for the police SUV business, Ford has had the cruiser segment pretty much locked down. Given that the Commodore/G8/Caprice is built in Australia, there were undoubtedly concerns at GM about cost. Long pipelines and the uncertainties of foreign currency exchange rates are complications that always hamper an import’s business case.
But even if the Caprice carries a modest price premium, some police departments will bite. Why? Cops are people too, and they are as much susceptible to boredom as the rest of us. When Dodge brought forth the Chrysler 300-based Charger cruiser two years ago, many departments quickly pounced. Everybody likes a new car. And the cops often get what they want. Not always, but often. In a previous life I covered city council meetings at various communities around Detroit and watched how local police chiefs bully their city councils into giving the department what it asks for. A police chief is a career job for a lifer, and you don’t get to be one until you’ve been around awhile and grown a few gray hairs. A city council job is practically a volunteer position for elected citizens who have day jobs doing something else. When The Chief asks for something, it’s the expert talking, and the council usually rolls over without too much second-guessing. If the chief says the department needs to replace its aging fleet with new Caprices to help ensure public safety, the council will pull the money from the public art fund, the adopt-a-bunny program, or wherever it needs to to make The Chief happy. Thus, you better start memorizing the headlight signature of the new Caprice, as they’ll be out hosing the local roads with radar before you know it.
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