The Badge : 2011 Ford Police Interceptor On The Way

Ford has said that their future RWD replacement program for the aged Crown Victoria was cancelled. This was punctuated when the new 2010 Taurus launched and was said to be Ford’s new “flagship” sedan. That is great for showrooms, but what about the cops? They depend on the good ‘ol Crown Vic because it's tough, simple and cheap.

Earlier this year, Ford announced that the Crown Vic would end production in 2011 for good, with no rear wheel drive replacement. At a law enforcement presentation Ford recently showed the assembled police representatives the new Taurus and hoped they would be wowed. Since then, they have been conversing with law enforcement agencies to get their thoughts on what they should offer to replace the Crown Victoria.

Then last week Ford announced they will debut all-new purpose-built Police Interceptor specially designed and engineered to replace the Ford Crown Victoria law enforcement vehicle lineup in 2011. But they didn’t say much about what it would be based on, didn’t mention specs, or whether it would be FWD, RWD, or AWD.

What they did say was pretty vague actually. “We have heard the repeated requests from the law enforcement community to continue uninterrupted support of the law enforcement community,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of The Americas. “Ford is answering the call with the new Police Interceptor – engineered and built in America.”

Whatever they come up with, it has to be good if they want to keep the business. Ford currently controls approximately 75 percent of the police pursuit vehicle business in the U.S. They said this week that the new Police Interceptor would be designed to provide municipalities with reduced ownership costs through improved fuel efficiency, quality and the kind of durability police departments nationwide have come to expect from Ford.

This means that it would have to be just as mechanically bullet-proof as the Crown Victoria, perform just as well, and have just as much room inside. This is a tall order. Some believe that the new Police Interceptor would be based on the 2010 Taurus lineup, but stripped of all the gee-gaws and beefed up. It could offer the 263hp 3.5 liter V6 which should outperform the wheezing 4.6 liter V8 of the current Crown Victoria. Moreover the fire breathing 365hp Ecoboost twin-turbo V6 with AWD might be the top choice.

But changing to a FWD or AWD chassis might be less than palatable to many departments who rightly believe that RWD is the best choice for high-speed pursuit driving and durability. FWD and AWD chassis have a lot more moving and consumable parts that can likely break or bend much easier when jumping curbs and flying over rough gravel highway medians. This direction would well have its engineering challenges.

There is also the remote possibility that Ford might be sandbagging us on the future RWD platform development that has been in the works off and on. It could very well be that Ford might bring a variation of the Australian market Falcon chassis to the states for fleet use just as GM announced this summer with their Caprice Police Cruiser - due next year. Many including us here at TMN see this as a long shot as Ford has said that the next Police Interceptor would be engineered and built in America. Though such a plan would be welcome in so many many ways.

Ford plans to reveal the new model and provide full vehicle specifications in the first quarter of 2010, likely at the Detroit or Chicago Auto Show. This they say will give time for law enforcement agencies, police equipment manufacturers and upfitters to develop a transition plan from the Crown Victoria to the new product.