Honestly?????
Cops don't have a choice in what they drive, the choices are made by the budget geeks and fleet managers. The cops have very little input. The choice is made on fleet pricing, and which car manufacturer happens to be having a fire sale on police package vehicles at the time.
You know why the Crown Vic has been so common? It had been made so long the manufacturing costs were low compared to the then new Dodge Charger and Chevy Impala.Same thing happened with the Impala in the late 80s and early 90s. For a lot of years, the Crown Vic was about the only Police Package vehicles made with a V8 rear wheel drive layout.
You know why those Crown Vics last so long? The fleet mechanics stay pretty busy servicing and repairing these vehicles every 5-6000 miles and repairing damage from hitting curbs, bottoming out in dips, and the routine accident. That is why they are so durable....you only see them running around the streets as patrol units and later as taxi cabs, you don't see the amount of maintenance that goes on behind the scenes to keep them running. If a Crown Vic was privately owned and driven in the manner required under police driving conditions, and the maintenance was not kept up in the manner required by fleet managers and the tax payers, a majority of those Crown Vics would be sitting in the junk yards with shelled transmissions, knocking engines, bent frames, and shot front ends. The same would apply to Impalas, Chargers, Tahoes, and yes, even Land Cruisers.
You want a true picture of a Crown Vic squad car service life, talk to the fleet mechanics that work on them, particularly after they hit 80,000 miles or so. Some police agencies dump their Crown Vics after 50-60,000 mile because of the maintenance costs. Durability is no better or worse than any other vehicle made.
Don't delude yourself, initial fleet pricing drives police car choices, not what the cops want. I know.
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