What makes a P71 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor special?

Remember she's got a cop motor so she'll run good on regular, cop shocks, cop suspension

As a 25+ year State Trooper (SWAT) I started my career in a 1984 LTD Pursuit w/140,000+ miles on it. My second car was a 1988 Mustang SSP 5 speed! During my 25+ years other vehicles I was assigned a include 95 Suburban 4x4 (SWAT), 93 Crown Vic, 96 Crown Vic, 2002 Expedition and 2008 Chevy Tahoe! Our department experimented with Dodge's and Chevrolet's, but always went back to FORD's because they were VERY Reliable!!!

My dad used to travel to the states a lot for work and always hired a car and he used to specifically ask for a crown Vic or similar as to him, being not altogether car orientated saw it as not only quintessential Americana but also a superb way to travel huge miles in comfort.

I used to work for a municipality and our department had one of these in our vehicle pool, a retired police car in the "detective" spec. It drives like a smaller car. The handling is flat, compliant but not mushy, and the steering is quick and precise, but way over-assisted. The visibility and maneuverability is superb, nothing like today's cars with massive blind spots, it's not really that big and it's actually very easy to drive. It's just such a juxtaposition of old and semi-new. Old: seating configuration, column shifter, v-8 RWD, and a whiny transmission (which I like, and remember from 70's/80's old RWD cars). New: materials and switchs, dash design, flush headlamps, lack of chrome are somewhat contemporary.

I own and daily drive a 2011 CVPI SAP. The SAP is probably the rarest version of the CVPI and it comes with the best perks. As a Panther owner, there are some things to worry about. The intake manifold will fail because it's plastic. The best option is the Professional Products all aluminum intake manifold. The next thing to worry about if you own a 06-11 is the gauge cluster. It might be dim, stop working intermediately or might stop working all together. You can get yours rebuilt or buy a used one. I would recommend having it rebuilt. Another thing, no one talks about is the lower steering column bearing. This will cause play in your steering. There are a few other things too, but the biggest thing I would recommend is change and flush your fluids religiously. And by fluids I mean, motor oil, tranny fluid, coolant, rear diff fluid, brake fluid and power steering fluid. I would also highly recommend running AT-205 Reseal through your engine and transmission. Also take AT-205 Reseal and put it into a spray bottle and spray your rubber suspension parts. Another tip, get MSD coil packs and better plugs. The car will run better.

Such a cool car, hard to say its unique considering how many where built but here in the UK its a rare and almost "exotic" car. Love it.

I'm an American and the police department's around me don't use these cars anymore. Actually I haven't seen one in some time. I do remember sitting in the back of one a couple of times. Me and my buddy were coming back from the strip club on New Year's eve and we ran out of gas only a few miles from my house. It was 2am in the morning walking down the road and a police officer in his crown vic pulled us over ask what we were doing. We told him we were walking home so he gave us a ride. That was a fun night.

Good day to you sir. This is Ted from Texas USA. Being an ex-police officer I have driven quite a few different model police cars. Everything from the Plymouth Gran Fury Dodge Diplomat Crown Victoria and Chevy Caprice. My very first one was a Dodge Diplomat. That was a supervisors car from a State Police Academy. It had blue velour interior in which metallic powder blue outside. An awesome unmarked car. My last car was a 1994 Chevy Caprice with the LT1 Corvette Interceptor motor. It had the high performance chip and I've been told that it would get up to over 140. But I've only taken it to 105. That Chevy Caprice was the badass car out of all my cars. Fast was an understatement. Good show good video and I'm glad you have a couple of American muscle cars over there.

I once saw a taxi crown Vic with over 715k miles and still running

The Crown Vic is an iconic American car from the early 2000's which is immediately recognisable to those who watched the American cop shows of that era! Love 'em!

Excellent video. I know of several police departments that stocked up on Crown Vic's at the end of the production to bring into service at later dates. I can't believe Ford discontinued these. At the same time Ford discontinued the Ranger pickup that was an excellent small truck.

Thanks for your video. I enjoyed it. I own a 2011 P7B and love it. I live in rural Pennsylvania and drive a mix of local and highway roads. It's a fun car to drive. It's all white with black trim, trunk antenna, front push bar, w\light bar, and rear trailer hitch. Many motorist still think it's an active duty undercover car and many won't pass me or they slow down when they see me in their rear view mirror. LOL It has over 178,000 miles and drives like a champ. I have winter tires on the steelies, otherwise I have lower profile 18s on black custom wheels for the other months. I drive it almost daiy.

Nice video. Two things. 1. The seats are not bulletproof, they are stabproof. Couple CV has a bulletproof front door but not every CV. If your doors has a special marker (left or right upper corner near to the window), that's bulletproof. 2. Usually the regular police cars don't have vinyl back seats. They have hard, s*itie, plastic seats. Verrrrryyy uncomfortable, but easy to clean. 😄 They also have couple extras, melybe you can make a prt. 2 video in the future. 😊 Thanks for the video. 👍

Over here in New Zealand , the old Police cars, mainly HOV6 Holden Commodores, which go to public auction , are instantly recognizable from their white paint jobs , and holes in the roof and dash , the NZ Police now use Skoda Superb , love the old Crown Vics too

They're bucket seats as opposed to bench seats. The default civilian configuration was a 50/50 split front bench seat, where both seats extended to the center, enabling (uncomfortable) seating of another passenger. This was a carry-over of the traditional American car, when families were bigger. Rental car fleets and some taxis used them for the extra accommodation, while old people liked it because it enabled easy storage of canes and walkers.

Great video Matt, very interesting indeed. Also loved the non-edited pedal info.. just shows how much effort it takes to,produce these videos!

Didn't scroll through all the comments so I don't know if someone already mentioned this, but you misspoke about the gear ratios. You said 3.27 for acceleration and 3.55 for economy. It's actually the other way around. A high gear (low numerical) will give you more top speed and lower rpm when cruising (hence better economy) and slower acceleration, whereas a low gear (high numerical) will do the opposite. So 3.55 for acceleration and 3.27 for economy.

Don’t wanna know what your doing at night Matt with a RED light on in your big comfy washable back seated car 😂, who knew there was so much to know about a Crown Vic 😳 mesmerising indeed .

I miss the days when if you saw a Crown Vic you just knew it was a cop car. Hands down the most intimidating vehicle you could drive past because everyone would slow down. They’re rarely in use any more and it’s a shame really. Very iconic.

@furiousdriving. I drove P71 Crown Victorias throughout my career, from 1996-2016. Previously we drove Chevrolet Caprice 9C1, and I retired driving AWD Dodge Charger Hemi Pursuit. The Pre 2006 Crown Vics would never see anywhere close to 150mph. They were also speed limited. at 131 the car would shut down, slow to 128, power back to 131 and do that repeatedly. Also after extended pursuits above 120 the overdrive green light would blink and indicate the transmission was getting hot. One of the most comfortable police cars I drove. The best performer was the hemi charger, but my Favorite will always be my 1994 Caprice 9C1 with the big 5.7L LT1 engine.