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Would you buy or have bought a former police vehicle

SuperSierra

By SuperSierra
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SuperSierra Enthusiast

SuperSierra

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Little wonder that the people that drive former cop cars used to ride in the back.

Why did you write that as if it was a riddle? Lol

 

 

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SuperSierra Enthusiast

SuperSierra

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I wouldn't mind paying a tad bit more money for an older vehicle since it has a little less miles. Since you basically do 12K miles per year is "average" 90K on an '08 is a lot better than 93K on an '11 especially being the same body style. Again even with regular maintenance done when needed they're still driven hard so you'll still have certain parts go before they normally would. Trust me, I drove my '98 Z71 hard as hell both on and off-road and had a lot of big problems with it because of it. I like to compare it to as if you gave a 16 year old a V8 Camaro or Mustang. I'm 32 and I don't know if I could even trust myself with a V8 Camaro now since all I've ever owned were full size Chevy trucks. I think I would revert back to my 16-20 years. Luckily I got my class A CDL at 20 so it made me respect driving so I started to calm down, not all at once.

Good Analysis, I had a mustang when I was 16 so I know what you're saying lol

 

 

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99silveradoz71 Senior Enthusiast

99silveradoz71

Posted
Posted

You have to consider that a police vehicle has a lot of idle time due to all the electronics, so mileage may not be an accurate indicator of use/wear

SouthernSilveradoGuy85 Senior Enthusiast

SouthernSilveradoGuy85

Posted
Posted

You have to consider that a police vehicle has a lot of idle time due to all the electronics, so mileage may not be an accurate indicator of use/wear

 

Well then I guess the engine and HVAC systems have more "miles" and wear than the odometer would should then. It still has 93K miles of hard driving. Of course not the whole 93K, but a lot more than civilian would. So again the parts will just go out sooner than normal, at least the first time it goes out. So what money you may save at the initial cost you still pretty much lose with fixing things sooner than normal.

 

A good example is the way I drove my '98. I got it in '04 and had it until '14 so 10 years, 10 years plus about 4 months to be more exact. And well the trans went out once, had the change the engine and rear end 2 times among other things. So when I got rid of it the truck was on it's 3rd engine and rear axle and on it's 2nd transmission. And really I only drove it real hard the first 2-3 years of having it, but still went mudding a little and just stopped with the burnouts and so on on the road. Anytime you're hard on anything it just shortens it's life.

The Zip Senior Enthusiast

The Zip

Posted
Posted

I don’t how many of these comments are from current/former police officers or police vehicle maintenance personnel, but my perspective is from someone who spent over 37 years around these vehicles. But as an occasional driver you probably won’t go wrong with either based on what you wrote. Just on quality, the Gen 2 (black) vs the gen 3, was a better built truck. Plus the black has more convenience items as opposed to the basic police vehicle. I still have my gen 2 I bought in 2000, nothing more than routine maintenance.

Heavy 5.7 Enthusiast

Heavy 5.7

Posted
Posted

Why did you write that as if it was a riddle? Lol

 

 

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I didn't know I did?

OP take it for a test drive just for fun and listen to how loose everything is. Then think exactly how would you treat a vehicle that you didn't own? Former cop cars aren't just used they're used up. Kinda like a blackout Wednesday with a Hertz rental, you can trust me when I say you don't really want to buy one of those either. lol.

SouthernSilveradoGuy85 Senior Enthusiast

SouthernSilveradoGuy85

Posted
Posted

I don’t how many of these comments are from current/former police officers or police vehicle maintenance personnel, but my perspective is from someone who spent over 37 years around these vehicles. But as an occasional driver you probably won’t go wrong with either based on what you wrote. Just on quality, the Gen 2 (black) vs the gen 3, was a better built truck. Plus the black has more convenience items as opposed to the basic police vehicle. I still have my gen 2 I bought in 2000, nothing more than routine maintenance.

 

I'm not, but I'm just going off of what other cops say and they all say the same. It's not only driven hard to catch up to someone that they may or may not write a traffic ticket too, but also getting to a call. If the vehicle is from a quiet little town that nothing happens then it may not be bad. But even my town I wouldn't trust a used police vehicle. You may get lucky, but it's a lottery I wouldn't want to play. I barely want to play the lottery on a normal used vehicle because you don't know how they drove it and how they maintained it. I know police vehicles are routinely maintained pretty good, but it's the other stuff I wouldn't trust that you replace when worn. There's just a lot of other choices that are better in my opinion. It seems like a fad though is buying a used police vehicle, and honestly it's usually people that don't like cops which is ironic as hell. It's the same people that will raise a car just to put big truck/SUV rims on it.

Colossus Senior Enthusiast

Colossus

Posted
Posted

Here is a good read from someone who went thru a dealer that "specializes" in used police vehicles.

https://elightbars.org/forums/threads/buying-process-of-my-2013-chevy-tahoe-ssv-from-asia-motors.81820/

 

I spent a good amount of time around police vehicles working for a county fleet department, as well as having owned 6 retired police vehicles in the past. My 2 cents- If you have money to throw away, go for it. Sometimes you get lucky. Most departments will take good care of their vehicles, however- the miles that are put on them are HARD miles, which means that despite proper care and maintenance, componants are going to wear out and break. Transmissions, coolers, differentials and transfer cases for starters. Contrary to popular belief, there are not major engine performance mods that are done to the police package vehicles. No special tuning to make it fast. Just some extra oil and tranny cooler stuff and for the 2WD Tahoe models, they will be able to hit 130 MPH due to the electronic governor programming at the factory in most cases.

dab5577 Enthusiast

dab5577

Posted
Posted

Is it worth looking at engine hours? May give you an idea of how many more "miles" some of the components have just due to the nature of use.

 

 

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SuperSierra Enthusiast

SuperSierra

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Here is a good read from someone who went thru a dealer that "specializes" in used police vehicles.

https://elightbars.org/forums/threads/buying-process-of-my-2013-chevy-tahoe-ssv-from-asia-motors.81820/

 

I spent a good amount of time around police vehicles working for a county fleet department, as well as having owned 6 retired police vehicles in the past. My 2 cents- If you have money to throw away, go for it. Sometimes you get lucky. Most departments will take good care of their vehicles, however- the miles that are put on them are HARD miles, which means that despite proper care and maintenance, componants are going to wear out and break. Transmissions, coolers, differentials and transfer cases for starters. Contrary to popular belief, there are not major engine performance mods that are done to the police package vehicles. No special tuning to make it fast. Just some extra oil and tranny cooler stuff and for the 2WD Tahoe models, they will be able to hit 130 MPH due to the electronic governor programming at the factory in most cases.

That was a good read, I work for Gm so I do get parts at a discount price but I wouldn't want to deal with all he had to do lol

 

My drive to work is 5 minutes, if I do get the Tahoe it will only be replacing my 2005 avalanche that is only driven 1-2 a week during the summer by me or my sister.

 

She no longer has a winter vehicle only has a Camaro for the summer, so it pretty much would be for her during the winter so at most the run time for the vehicle would be around a hour a week.

 

I have 8 tahoes I can look at from the dealer so hopefully one is ok. I don't trust the dealership from the reviews I read so I will keep my guard up.

 

 

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Colossus Senior Enthusiast

Colossus

Posted
Posted

That's the way to do it. Good luck, I look forward to hearing how things turn out!

KARNUT Senior Enthusiast

KARNUT

Posted
Posted

Most typically police vehicles would spend lots of time at idle than at extreme speeds. I would be concerned with damage under the vehicle from off road. My reasoning for this, I've watched trucks idle on pipelines all day in the Texas heat with inspectors and supervisors sitting inside. Typical the larger companies would keep those vehicles for 200K miles with just general maintenance. So if those police SUVs are lower miles,reasonable priced and not banged up go for it.

 

 

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