Overhaulin'

What are the pros/cons of buying an ex police car at auction?

I was thinking of buying at auction, and that ex-police cars would be well maintained and not driven into the ground........

Public Comments

1. Pros are that they will have been well maintained, and won't have been clocked or 'cut and shunt', cons are they'll have been hammered on mileage. I would imagine that the police would run cars until it was no longer economically viable in order to keep costs down.
2. i used to work at a garage that did maintaince on them, and while they are in service they are maintained PERFECTLY, yes high mileage but generally not as hard miles as most people think. one thing to look for is that a few little things may be wrong/wore. as in brake pads tires etc, they do not bother to put new tires/pads on them as religiously as they usually do, right before they are about to be auctioned off to itisme.... to the cheap oil... we used nothing but castrol syntec, cold starts is what hurts an engine, not running all the time.The ones we have are perfectly maintained everything is lubricated and checked every 4000 kms the interior is usually better then most cars, as the drivers seat is usually the only one being used, i dont know what kind of police cars you have been around, but its hard to withhold the peace in a car that is falling apart...
3. As the above answers, but also, depending on the type of car, there may well be a lot of screw holes and wiring holes in the dashboard where police comms, radar, video stuff used to be.
4. Yep, good choice. My friend had the bonus of a calibrated speedo on the dash of his senator ex-motorway patrol car, which was very entertaining; being able to tell friends that their cars were NOT doing 110, more like 97, was a joy:) Any damage with a cop car is fixed properly, all services are upheld, there's few vehicles you can buy second hand with as much going for them. Of course, it helps if you're a fan of white, and don't mind the screw holes mentioned above.
5. I refer to the answer I gave a few days ago and repeat it, don't bother. Speaking as someone who drove them for many years, the notion that they're well maintained is a myth. Yes they are kept street legal, but they're ragged, abused, driven VERY hard and treated like builders skips. They very rarely get chance to cool down because as one shift ends, another patrol takes it out, UK police don't have a huge car pool, there's often not enough to go round. The interior will be full of holes, scuffs, rips and tears the engine is lubricated by cheap reconstituted engine oil, formerly supplied by Castrol, called Constab-special. Would you buy an ex-taxi? Give them a very, very wide berth.