If you ever looked under the new Charger and Magnum while it is up on a repair hoist you would pick the Ford Interceptor in your sleep. They are about as sturdy looking as a lame Impala.

Many Police department still pick the Ford Police Interceptor because the trunk is bigger than average automobiles. Also, the break performance is better than new comer, Dodge Charge.

I wonder why many police departments are not driving the Chevy Impalain the State of CA.

Like the Dodge Charger, the Magnum is a great police vehicle. The Magnum is as fast as the Dodge Charger. However, there is a drawback for the Magnum since the visibility is marginal.

Very nice to see a unit from my county, I will try to get more of this dept, as well as my own.

Like so many other departments in the nation they probably had a hard time coming up with money to by new cars for the past few years.

I love 70s bush !!!!!!!!!!

Just a slow Saturday night with the gals from the strip club....

Yeah, a lightbar, led grille lights, corner strobes, and wigwags they might miss, but an extra 10 leds should just do the trick.

Most of our fleet consist of Ford Interceptors and Dodge Intrepids. The ten cheverolets were good cars, but they have high milage. Plus the cars are expensive to maintain. The old cars will be sold off to MGM Film studio for an tv movie that they will film in mid September.

My city just ordered a fleet of ten 2006 Dodge Magnums. The new cars will replace an aging fleet of 1996 Chevy Caprices. The cars will be arriving in late August.
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10 year-old cars as the main fleet? Was it just because the city likes Chevies? If so, why not go with Impalas?

Dave Arnold

If you ever went on patrol you would understand.You never have enough.

are those many lights really necessary?

Ya know, if you look at this ofcr's face for a little while, it kinda looks like Sonny Bono! Cher must be in the trunk. I don't know, maybe I need new glasses;)

Good show, too bad half the archive footage was of Chevys when they were rebuilding and racing Plymouths

"a Magnum wagon crashed thru a barrier at over 100mph when it was unable to slow down into a turn on the test track"

According to a LASO deputy at the vehicle tests, this is why Chrysler elected not to submit their Magnum to testing at this venue. He went on to say that they had two prototypes in Michigan. They (at the time) only had one left.

As far as the vehicle itself; a couple of observations. First, the thing is very low. While the looks are intriguing, the visibility in multiple directions is pretty poor. Also, I could see this getting high centered on a curb in it's current stance. Finally, the brakes on this thing were already squealing loudly (100+ feet away) after a very mild run through the pursuit course for the photographers. This may mean nothing, but after I heard about the MSP debacle, it makes you think about it.

that is a very nice patrol car indeed!

Is the Magnum wagon the only passenger vehicle Chrysler offers the Hemi in? I think if they would drop a Hemi in the 300 M sedan they would have a great police package. I wouldn't say the wagon couldn't be useful in patrol work either though. I mean this vehicle is not bulky like the full size station wagons of the past.

If Chrysler wants to have any of these in use, they will submit the Charger for testing and use, not the Magnum. There is a very, very limited use for a station wagon in police work; no use in patrol work. If they want to capture any of the patrol market, they need to submit a sedan. Since a good part of this unit is Mercedes-Benz, it should be a great unit. But you need to submit it in a package that is useful for police work. A station wagon is not suited for patrol duty.
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Chrysler has a few other issues with this vehicle platform they're going to have to work out first. An electronics glitch caused a complete braking failure on one of the test cars at the Michigan State tests last month and a Magnum wagon crashed thru a barrier at over 100mph when it was unable to slow down into a turn on the test track.

Ooops....

Greg
copcar dot com

It was the Hemi. On some of the other shots you can see the badging on the driver's front quarter panel more clearly.