The Last Drive Of The LAPD Crown Vic
The Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor left the LAPD fleet in late 2011 and early 2012 as part of a broader vehicle replacement cycle. The department transitioned to the Dodge Charger and the Chevrolet Caprice PPV, both unibody cars with more modern safety features and better fuel efficiency. The Crown Vic was not a bad car. It was a good car for its time, built for a different set of priorities. I worked with a few of these cars during my time. They were everywhere. The heavy body-on-frame construction absorbed impacts that would have rattled your teeth loose in a unibody. The 4.6L modular V8 had roughly 250 horsepower in its police-tuned configuration. Not fast by today's standards, but torque was available low in the RPM range and the transmission was built like a tank. You could run these cars well over 100,000 miles on scheduled maintenance and still be close to original. That durability is exactly why the LAPD kept them for as long as it did, even when other departments had already moved on. The retirement process itself was straightforward in theory but messy in practice. The LAPD issued formal notices to units that were transitioning, then scheduled the return of the older vehicles at designated fleet centers. Officers who had carried Crown Vics for years ended up with Chargers or Caprices after processing new paperwork and attending a short orientation on the differences in driving dynamics. The department did offer some optional training, but it was not extensive. Unibody cars handle differently. The front-end grip is sharper, the ride is stiffer, and the visibility out of the windshield changes noticeably. A lot of officers just adapted on their own during the first few weeks.
One detail that catches people off guard: the Crown Vic was not replaced with a direct successor. The Dodge Charger had a powerful HEMI option that drew attention, but the Chevrolet Caprice PPV ended up being the more practical daily driver for many units. Ford did eventually offer the Taurus Police Interceptor, but that came later and the department had already committed to the other two platforms for a while. There were also logistical issues with the retirement that nobody really talks about much. The Crown Vic used an air suspension option on some special units, and the parts for those systems are no longer manufactured. If you still have a Crown Vic in your personal garage and you are running the air ride setup, sourcing replacement bags or valves is difficult. I ended up converting mine to coil springs using aftermarket springs from a standard Crown Vic LX model. It cost about $400 in parts and a weekend of work, but it resolved the sagging issue that the old air suspension was developing after 180,000 miles. The department did not destroy the retired vehicles immediately. Many were auctioned off through state surplus channels, which is how most of these cars ended up in private hands. Others were stripped for parts and transferred to other municipal agencies that still had units running them in rural areas. The parts themselves hold value. The heavy-duty radiators, the upgraded alternators, the police-spec cooling systems, and the reinforced front suspensions are all still usable in remaining fleet vehicles or in the aftermarket scene.
From a maintenance perspective, there are a few things that matter if you are dealing with one of these cars now. The 4R70W automatic transmission is generally reliable, but it does have a known issue with the drum inside the front pump housing wearing out around 150,000 to 180,000 miles. You can buy replacement drums from Ford or aftermarkets like Wai Motors. It is a $200 part that saves you from a complete transmission rebuild. The fuel tanks on high-mileage examples can also develop stress cracks near the filler neck, which leads to a slow leak that is hard to spot until it becomes obvious. I found one on a car I was working on by following the smell and tracing it back to the rubber hose connection at the tank inlet. Replacing that hose and the grommet fixed it for under $40. The interior components are worth noting as well. The plastic dash trim tends to crack in sun-exposed vehicles, especially around the instrument cluster bezel. That is a common Crown Vic problem unrelated to police use. Aftermarket dash covers exist, but the most practical fix is just replacing the bezel itself, which you can find at junkyards for roughly $30 to $50. The retirement of these cars marked a real shift. The department moved toward fuel economy, better crash safety ratings, and better technology integration. The Crown Vic could not keep up with those demands no matter how tough it was on the street. It was simply built for a different era of policing, where durability and repairability mattered more than fuel efficiency and advanced driver aids. The cars that replaced it are better in most ways, but they also cost more to maintain once they leave the warranty window, and the simplicity of the Crown Vic design meant that even a mechanic with basic tools could keep one running.
Get the Full Details
If you are looking at buying a retired LAPD Crown Vic, check the service records if they are available, inspect the underbody for corrosion especially along the frame rails, and verify that the transmission has not been recently rebuilt with unknown parts. The police spec equipment added weight and stress to components that civilian versions did not see, so wear items like bushings, shocks, and brake components may have been replaced more frequently or may need attention sooner than you expect.
