What's the worst squad car you've ever used?

**keith720** · 10-19-11, 08:25 PM

When I worked for a small township, the back-up squad was a 1986 Oldmobile 4-door Cutlas Ciera. It was a marked squad and had the old square rotators on the roof. No cage, no gun rack, and about as much legroom as a cardboard TV box. What a POS! What's the worst that you've had?

**Jim1348** · 10-19-11, 09:10 PM

I had a light blue Oldsmobile with a V6. It was awful. In fact, I think that is the car with an AM only radio! During the summer, the static crashes on AM are horrible. My girlfriend bought me an FM converter so I could listen to FM, not stereo, but at least it was FM.

**Pudge** · 10-19-11, 09:19 PM

My selection has been limited. The only thing different than a Crown Vic that our agency has ever had was one 1992 Taurus "Police Package". It was equipped the same as our other cars, but ran and drove like crap with less than no room.

**cajunguy** · 10-19-11, 09:29 PM

Dodge Diplomat with the 318ci 2-barrel carb.

Damn car couldn't catch a Mo-Ped.

(But to switch gears, the BEST car I ever had was a Dodge Polara with the 440 Magnum. Could put your head in the back seat when that big 4-barrel kicked in.)

Easily capable of outrunning it's own shadow.

Dayum, those were the fun days.

.

**jmur5074** · 10-19-11, 10:09 PM

I too haven't had much of a selection.

I've had a dodge ram p/u with the hemi
Several crown vics (05-11)
Ford Explorer
and Ford Expedition

I'd say the explorer was the worst. Horseshit acceleration, and it cornered like a dump truck.

**jcsdscott** · 10-19-11, 10:10 PM

I don't really have much to talk about since I've only had two cars while at the Sheriff's Office. By the time we traded my first one it had 175,000+ miles, only 7 cylinders fired, and was about to go on its' third transmission.

When I was in college the campus PD had a 1986? Dodge Ram Charger. This thing was what carried the big fogger for the Halloween riots. The floor was rotting out, the brakes barely worked and it smelled of oil and butt.

**Mark7** · 10-19-11, 10:37 PM

It's a toss-up between:

the 80's Chevy Malibu we had when I first started, and the SOB wouldn't die. The lightbar was way wider than the roof. One of the ugliest, smelliest POS’ I’ve ever driven

E.g.

OR

the late 70's retired PA State Police cars, with nearly 100K on the clock. These boats with 360 motors had a ton of get-up and go, but the front end, chassis and suspension were sooo tired.
E.g.

Sigh, I’m really showing my age here

Can someone point me towards the ROD (retired on duty) forum

**Broke Hoss** · 10-20-11, 12:12 AM

When I came on, the Dodge Diplomat was the fleet vehicle. They had decent power, but the suspension was so crappy you couldn't hold them on the road.

In 87 I was selected for our SWAT team, which meant I got a take home car. I got a 79 Ford LTD II that had been an admin car for the past 8 years. This POS had no guts & the suspension couldn't handle hauling my gear in the trunk. I remember a chase on I-20 that I had to move into the right lane so faster cars could pass me & I would have to build up speed all over again.

**pgg** · 10-20-11, 03:46 AM

The worst was the Dodge Diplomat followed by the Dodge Charger and the Chevy S10 Blazer

I liked the Ford Bronco the best out of the cars I've used. The Caprice and Crown Vic have been good also.

**Motorwaycop** · 10-20-11, 07:45 AM

1979 Hillman avenger, 2 door, synchromesh gear box was well, no good. 4 speed manual. Slow,slow, slow and a bit faster.
we were on mileage restrictioin of 25mile per shift, so it was just as well you could reach up behind the speedo and pull the cable! those cars did negative miles to the gallon according to the figures but the mileage restriction wasn't exceeded.

**keith720** · 10-20-11, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by Motorwaycop

1979 Hillman avenger, 2 door, synchromesh gear box was well, no good. 4 speed manual. Slow,slow, slow and a bit faster.
we were on mileage restrictioin of 25mile per shift, so it was just as well you could reach up behind the speedo and pull the cable! those cars did negative miles to the gallon according to the figures but the mileage restriction wasn't exceeded.

I love your description of the transmission.

**countybear** · 10-20-11, 10:15 AM

I briefly drove the 1981 model Futura (four headlights). It came complete with a broken tilt steering wheel with about six inches of lash both ways, a seat track broken through the floorboard, a rotating halogen TwinSonic barlight that had to be beat on in order to make the turrets work, no working air conditioning, and an inoperative AM radio (they took the fuses out intentionally). Ford actually put a 302 V8 in this beercan of a car body, forcing us to put sandbags in the trunk to keep it on the road in sharp turns or curves.

What a bucket it was... we took up a collection (to offset the suspension) for the officer responsible for running the last one of these in the fleet through a fence and a ditch, totalling it.

**bayern** · 10-20-11, 01:15 PM

Beat this; a 1982 Plymouth 4 cylinder Kcar with NO CAGE.

**ChesCopPodz** · 10-21-11, 10:10 AM

The worst has been the Dodge Charger.

Best was the Caprice.

In the middle were several CV's (97,99,01,03,06,07,08) and my 04 Impala.

**Trojan 42** · 10-21-11, 10:25 AM

Originally Posted by Motorwaycop

1979 Hillman avenger, 2 door, synchromesh gear box was well, no good. 4 speed manual. Slow,slow, slow and a bit faster.
we were on mileage restrictioin of 25mile per shift, so it was just as well you could reach up behind the speedo and pull the cable! those cars did negative miles to the gallon according to the figures but the mileage restriction wasn't exceeded.

Oh yes I remember those. Our's were only unmarked GP cars. But they weren't as bad as the Austin Allegro, with the square steering wheel we had as pandas, which I guess were on a par with the Morris 1000's!

**Motorwaycop** · 10-21-11, 10:30 AM

I'd forgotten the joy of the allegro. We had one that the radio supression didn't work.It was like an audible rev counter!

**jcsdscott** · 10-22-11, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by pgg

The worst was the Dodge Diplomat followed by the Dodge Charger and the Chevy S10 Blazer

I liked the Ford Bronco the best out of the cars I've used. The Caprice and Crown Vic have been good also.

Now a days you only hear the guys wearing bars or chevrons talk about the Diplomat, though apparently we had a sweet deal years back where one of the Big Three would refurbish the car at 75 or 100,000 and essentially double the "useful" life of the car.

**jcsdscott** · 10-22-11, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by Motorwaycop

I'd forgotten the joy of the allegro. We had one that the radio supression didn't work.It was like an audible rev counter!

Ha! I have co-workers who sound like that now! You know when they hit the gas at all when they are keyed up because the radio starts "meowing."

**E-man** · 10-27-11, 12:19 AM

My first patrol car was a 1993 or so Delta 88. The car sucked.
The next was a 94 or so Bonneville which was ok becuuse it had a center arm rest!!!

BUT the siren-light bar box was on the tranny hump UNDER the dash...

The WORST car EVER was the Dodge OMNI used to patrol a certain state park...DODGE OMNI with a rotating blue and a wanna-be rotating red bubble.
Google Dodge Omni for those not in the know

**CTR man** · 10-27-11, 02:21 AM

Though I am not a LEO but a civilian, I can imagine that this had to be at the top of someones list for the worst. This car was used in a city near me when I was in High School. 1979 Chevrolet Chevette. What were they thinking???

Now, according to my dad, who was a LEO in the 1960's, his personal best car was a 1963 1/2 Ford Galaxie with a 427 SOHC V8 similar to this one. The car was so powerful that the PD had to put heavy duty station wagon rear ends in them because otherwise when you floored it, the car would launch on the right rear wheel and bust the wheel bearings. He tells me that you could also watch the gas gauge literally go from full to empty in a single pursuit, but they always got who they were chasing. According to him there was nothing that could beat this car.