Motorists traveling Virginia's interstates will see unfamiliar silver-gray and blue police cars on the road this fall as Virginia State Police begins the largest transition of its fleet in two decades.
The Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor -- which has reigned as the king of police fleets across the country for 20 years -- is being phased out with Ford's discontinuation of the line. The last one rolled out of Ford's plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, on Sept. 15.
But Ford didn't surrender its position as the nation's primary supplier of police cars. It developed the Ford Taurus Police Interceptor, and a 4.6-liter V-8 version of the car will begin replacing the state police's aging Crown Victoria fleet when the current batch of trooper trainees graduate later this year.
State police have ordered 119 marked and 25 unmarked 2012 Ford Taurus Interceptors, which will be used for traffic enforcement, for about $24,000 a piece. At 250-horsepower, they get an average of 14 miles per gallon in the city and 21 mpg on the highway.
The department's first and only fully equipped Taurus was unveiled Friday at a family-day event for the 118th Basic Academy class. The new troopers "will be the last class to be issued Ford Crown Vics and the first class to be issued the new Tauruses," state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. "We have more trooper trainees than we do Crown Vics."
The public should see the first of the new Ford Taurus cruisers on the road in October, when the current academy class of about 90 trainees graduates, Geller said.
The department currently has about 1,110 Crown Victoria cruisers on the road -- all of which will eventually be replaced by Ford Taurus Interceptors, unless a better police car package is introduced in coming years.
"We'll still have the Crown Vics on the road for several years, because you basically got to run it into the ground before you get another car," Geller said.
Troopers roll up about 130,000 miles on their cars before turning them in, and the vehicles are then handed down to police supervisors and driven 40,000 more miles before being retired, Geller said.
State police also ordered and received seven unmarked Chevrolet Caprice Police Patrol Vehicles, which had been the Crown Victoria's main competition until General Motors discontinued the line in 1996. The police version of the Caprice, imported from Australia, was reintroduced in 2009 and became available to law enforcement agencies in the U.S. last year.
One Chevrolet Caprice will be sent to each of the department's seven field offices and used by troopers for traffic enforcement. At $26,200 each, "the Caprices cost more, and that's why we've only purchased seven," Geller said.
The department also has a smattering of other makes and models, including Chevrolet Impalas, Dodge Chargers and Dodge Intrepids.
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