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In my village this week they have been here everyday with two Octavias, pointing nise to nose in a layby, presumably using ANPR cos they also had an unmarked silver Shogun 5dr which seemed to be actually stopping people a little way down.
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"London's Finest" round my way use BMW 5 series estates, and Vauxhall Astras.
To see either of these driven at speed by a police driver is mighty impressive!
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Diesel Volvo V70s and Astras.
On the motorway used to see Range Rovers and Mercedes 4 x 4s, but I do not think they have them anymore
Why is the Volvo V70 so popular among the Police?
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Why is the Volvo V70 so popular among the Police?
Two main reasons - firstly, as an estate it can carry lots of kit (and the Police like carrying lots of useful stuff around), and secondly, they find that they can modify it to install all of their gizmos on the dashboard fairly easily - which can't be said of every car.
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In east London the unmarked car of choice appears to be the Toyota Auris 2 littre diesel, and everyone of them is dark metallic grey. I clocked this a few months back when I noticed "blokey blokes" driving around in Auris's, looked the sort who would normally would be in a Golf or even Focus but not a bland Toyota.
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For Avon & Somerset - Normal panda type cars, its Focus (estate mainly) with a few Astras knocking around too. CID have Focus hatch. For the faster stuff they've got some old Skoda Octavia VRS estates and I think a 3 series or two. Motorway have 5 series and X5, marked and unmarked, and I think they still have a few older Mercs knocking about.
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devon and cornwall use marked focus estates and saloons for plod work. mainly marked bm 5's and volvo's for motorway and a selection of unmarked motorway black focus', bm 5's in silver and skoda vrs' again in silver.
i'm driving past the workshops tomorrow so i'll case the operation.
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Here in Doha (middle east) the police use Landcruisers 5.3 V8, Nissan Patrols V8, Range Rover Sport, BMW X5, Merc ML AMG 63, Merc C63, BMW M5 and Toyota Camry.
But you never see them chasing a speeder !
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Lothian & Borders have been using an unmarked CORSA ! Apparently, its been quite effective,as it's the last type of car you would expect BiB to use!
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Dumfries and Galloway
Astra and Focus Panda cars
V70/S60 Marked Traffic+ Mercs and BMW5
Unmarked grey/silver Saab 95(very unexpected) Volvo and Mercs
CID use various humdrum hire cars from Arnold Clark
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Continuing the Scottish theme, Lothian & Borders now have a Passat 4 motion on use. As well as a 3 series estate with a roofbox on (allegedly) and various unmarked Audis.
Strathclyde have all the usual suspects, most of their CID cars are red Focus. The armed division use Land Cruisers. Beat plod use Focus estates and Astra hatches.
A while ago they had an unmarked Octavia silver vrS they used on traffic duties. This worked well for them as there are approximately 10million (well almost) silver Octavia private hire cars in Glasgow!
Have noticed though more and more 3 series estates coming on fleet instead of 5 series.
Both forces have had recent use of an Evo X car for testing purposes though I don't believe either force is taking the offer up.
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And as a little aside, anyone notice that as white becomes a popular car colour again, it coincides with the police changing from white to silver cars?
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L&B also use at least one (marked) A3 Sportback around town. Would be interesting to find out how they justified that to the beancounters, instead of (say) an Octavia...
Have also seen unmarked silver BMW 3-series saloons in the area in the past, so now I always check the back windows of BMWs on the motorway for discreet flashing light installations :-)
Saw one of their unmarked Corsas a few years ago - only knew it was a police car because it had POLICE on the back of the sunvisor.
Edited by Typ 8L on 03/09/2009 at 17:34
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Suffolk are pretty standard.....
Marked;
Volvo V70
BMW 5 Series
Focii (estates)
Unmarked;
Mondeo ST220 Saloon
Silver Octavia vRS
My dad is from Nottingham, and on a visit to a sick realitve in the QMC when I was just a nipper, I always remeber being in awe of a marked Subaru Impreza :)
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W Yorks - Vauxhall, Vauxhall or Vauxhall!
Corsa, Astra and Vectras, in marked and unmarked versions. There's also an unmarked Volvo saloon which I often see on the M621.
Marked traffic cops are V70s and Range Rovers.
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For town use Vauxhall Astra's
Generally on the A1 near scotch corner, i have seen BMW's and Volvo estates
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A wide selection so far, but no Jaguars.
Gone are the days when Jags were fast and cheap and an almost automatic choice for the rozzers. - and the criminals they were chasing.
Another curious omission is the Ford Mondeo, which drives well, is (fairly) quick and, one imagines, would be very cheap for the police to buy.
And what about motorcycles?
I've only ever seen Honda Pan Europeans and BMWs.
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>>>> Why is the Volvo V70 so popular among the Police?
Two main reasons - firstly, as an estate it can carry lots of kit (and the Police like carrying lots of useful stuff around), and secondly, they find that they can modify it to install all of their gizmos on the dashboard fairly easily - which can't be said of every car.
Volvo actually have a police spec car with all the wiring ready installed.
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""Why is the Volvo V70 so popular among the Police?"
Two main reasons - firstly as an estate it can carry lots of kit (and the Police like carrying lots of useful stuff around) and secondly they find that they can modify it to install all of their gizmos on the dashboard fairly easily - which can't be said of every car."
The third option, and the main one, is that Volvo are one of the few manufacturers who have a dedicated Police spec car (along with any other emergency services.)
The main think is that the wiring loom is beefed up as is the alternator; there is no radio fitted so the police can fit their bits more easily, and it comes with a basic interior trim. There aren't any upgrades to the engines, but they did used to use slightly larger brakes on the 850 (302mm normally, which needed a particular style of 16"wheel to fit, as the noraml 16" wheel fouled on the caliper!)
Things like the horn pushes are wired to the sirens, and allow the driver to toggle between sirens without taking their hands of the wheel (or at least that's how I've seen a Paramedic spec V50 set up)
Up here in Lancs we have a mix of:
-BMWs
-Volvo S60, P2 V70 and new V70
-LR Discosverys
-Mitsubishi Shogun Sports (Rural Beat cars)
-Vauxhall Vectra 3.2
-Mondeos
-S-Max
So just a few... un-marked are often:
-BMW
-New V70's (Saw one today on the M61...)
-S60's
-S-Max (Often on the M55... how many people carriers do you see heading in and out of Blackpool?!)
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One I forgot: a late Vectra in SRi trim but fitted with the 2.8T V6 from the VXR.
Would make an excellent stealth buy if you're into ex-police cars, but not sure how a model that can't be bought "off the shelf" would be valued and insured?
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Honda Jazz, my wife's car is ex-police, formerly owned by Hampshire Constabulary.
Edited by Lou_O on 03/09/2009 at 11:29
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sussex police seem to use marked bmw & mercs estates on traffic/ unmarked silver bmw for same.focus and s-max and some 4x4s.
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Middle-aged Renault and Peugeot minibuses and the odd Clio. They seem to manage ok.
There's a picture in what now calls itself 'classiccars' magazine this month of a late 1960s Somerset Constabulary Jaguar Mk2 traffic car. I remember them well. Had cardboard trim instead of woodwork if I remember rightly.
Edited by mike hannon on 03/09/2009 at 12:00
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Thames Valley have Astras for local plods, Vectra estates for traffic, Galaxies for Armed Response, the odd Land Rover LWB station wagon for rural use. Some of the unmarked are Vectra hatchbacks, but I'm not sure all are.
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Slightly surprising the number of votes for Skoda Octavias.
Here in Nottingham it seems to have become the unmarked car of choice, because I'm sure they have at least a couple of them.
With people reminiscing about the lack of Jags, I also remember the days when Triumphs were very popular. Dolomite Sprints and 2500s were always used as marked and unmarked cars
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In Cheshire they had a Jag X type Jag for a short while, a while ago, not sure whether it was being evaluated or what.
I was pulled over by a Saab 95 near Oxford two or three years ago.
In Poland and Italy in the ski resorts Land Rovers are popular
Edited by julie page on 03/09/2009 at 14:10
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