Comments on: Today’s Wimpy Police Car

By: Urban

Urban — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:51:53 +0000

A 911 police car, used in southern Sweden 1970-73: http://www.samlaren.org/porsche/ (The “right arrow” icon leads to full size photos.) There was only one.

By: K!P

K!P — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:07:05 +0000

wel it would sure be cool to drive a 911 targa as a squad car And for the euro perspective: VW now has a 1.4 liter engine that delivers 160 BHP, couple that with a 1200 kilo car, and its rather quick.

even a few year old VW Jetta TDI does 230 KM/u quite easy, thats about 140 mp/h

By: fred

fred — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:57:45 +0000

That cop looks absolutely disgusted standing next to his crimebuster ‘81

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:08:20 +0000

Meanwhile:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,465329,00.html

By: Tracy B.

Tracy B. — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:36:40 +0000

It’s not necessary to have 400 cu. inch displacement to have 400 hp now. In the early 80’s most gas engines used carbs; now we use fuel injection– much cleaner, better gas mileage and best of all POWER!

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:04:19 +0000

sweavo- the other difference between Europe and the states is . by the time the rabbit (Golf) was fitted to meet US emissions it lost some power.

By: Toronto

Toronto — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:37:13 +0000

My! Do the cars try to hide when you walk onto a sales lot?

By: JMyint

JMyint — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:43:32 +0000

In the 1980’s I had two Honda Civics and two Ford Escorts. My first Honda Civic was used 1978 bought in 1981 it lasted me a whole two months before the crank shaft broke. The shop told me it was going to be $2000 to $2500 to replace the engine, that was more than I paid for the car. My second Honda was a 1980 Civic Wagon that I bought in 1983. The car never had power. In order to travel at highway speed with any pasengers I had to draft on semis. Sure on level ground with no wind and just me I could run 55 mph, but change any of those and I was lucky to hit 50 floored. Every time anything broke on that Honda (and things were always breaking) it cost an arm and a leg to have fixed. Finally after three years the head cracked and I sold it to the junk yard. In 1987 I bought a used 1985 Ford escort off of my brother and that car was a joy. It had pep, it got 32 miles to the gallon, it had an air conditioner that actually cooled the air, and it had a real radio. I drove that car 400 miles a week for eight years with nothing more than regular maintainence. Sadly the radiator hose blew out on me one day while on my way to work and by the time I got off the highway the damage was done. My other Escort was a 1989 wagon that I had for fifteen years and went through my wife, me, my daughter, and my son. I might still have it today if my son hadn’t wrecked it on three different occaisons. And don’t get me started on what a piece of crap my 1982 Nissan was.

By: scud

scud — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:43:20 +0000

Hybrid police cars in US…

And meanwhile in Italy:

http://news.motorbiker.org/blo.....MWE9FN.htm

(more on Google)

By: HollowCat

HollowCat — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:55:55 +0000

New American cars in 1982 were generally pathetic, in both performance and quality. If you needed a big car back then, better off fixing up a 1970 American car. For the average American who needed a new economy car, during a recession with high fuel prices, a new Cavalier or Escort were underpowered lemons compared to Corolla or Civic. This is when Detroit handed its future over to the Japanese.

By: sweavo

sweavo — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:55:25 +0000

This is so funny reading from a European perspective. Suspension, handling and weight are much more the focus over here than raw power, and the rabbit (here called the Golf) GTI was a famously fast car that accelerated and handled great.

But then European roads are much twistier than US ones, so the requirements to corner at speed and to accelerate are probably a lot more important in general than to be able to sustain high cruising speed.

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:01:10 +0000

you wouldn’t want a firetruck or ambulance to be downsized and slow just to save fuel would you?

By: Jim Dunn

Jim Dunn — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 04:14:51 +0000

How many innocent Americans became criminals back then, just so they could scoff at that Rabbit?

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:05:25 +0000

Are you kidding? The police are already using Segways, the criminals just fall over laughing.

By: Rick Auricchio

Rick Auricchio — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:46:48 +0000

This does make sense, because so many police cars in urban areas don’t need to be muscle-cars.

Of course, getting the officers to accept a less powerful car takes a long time.

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:22:39 +0000

just think the next police cars are going to be hybrids and/or electric.