Fun Police in pursuit Caprice

Police pursuit drivers in the USA need more spice in their lives. And it's that very fun factor in Holden's rear-drive Caprice PPV that is leading American law enforcement agencies to look at it as a successor to the Ford Crown Victoria.

This view comes from Holden's Executive Director for Engineering, Greg Tyus, who shared a Caprice V with the Carsales Network during the VE Series II drive program in South Australia last week.

"What I first noticed when I came here in '07 -- after spending a lifetime in North America driving front-wheel drives since the 1970s, 80s? Driving was fun again," he said. This 'fun' is something police drivers want from their vehicles too.

"What police like about rear-wheel drive is that connection with the road, your turning, braking and pursuing -- there's a certain skill in getting the car to do what you want to do -- [and] you won't get that as much in front-wheel drive.

Tyus contended that police in the US are well aware of the distinction between front- and rear-drive, having driven both.

"You go from 'commuting' to 'driving' again," he explains. "The police really have never wanted to leave the driving experience. That's why they held on to a 20-year old car [the Ford Crown Victoria]."

There's also an aspect of taking pride in one's work, says Tyus -- and work for a police pursuit driver in America is about finding a vehicle's dynamic limits in a safe way. That level of skill comes from not only years of on-the-job experience, but advanced driver training in the first instance.

Many law enforcement agencies in the US base their advanced driver training entirely around the rear-drive Ford Crown Victoria and, more recently, the Dodge Charger. It's a point that's often forgotten, but if the vast majority of the country's police units operate rear-drive cars in high-speed pursuits, then that will inform the type of training provided to aspiring pursuit drivers.

In spite of this, it has oft been suggested that the Caprice won't appeal to police agencies in the American 'snowbelt'. Tyus makes the point that police units in Michigan are still operating the Ford, production of which has been discontinued from this year.

"One of the things you can do -- that's skillful -- is skid around the corner in ice and snow, and have that sense of the back end [sliding] and bring it back just in time. It used to be a sense of pride that you could drive in the wintertime. And if I translate that to the police, that's the kind of thing they've been longing for, even when front-wheel drive became the predominant type of vehicle in North America."

But really, what about the snow?

"That's three months out of the year," he succinctly responds.

Driver training for American coppers isn't just about keeping the car in check driving in snow, it also encompasses high-speed driving, including that highlight of late-night television, the PIT manouevre (Precision Immobilisation Technique).

Says Tyus: "I've never tried it -- and don't try it today either..." but he has no doubt that the Caprice will be as effective in employing this tactic as the Ford, the Charger or Ford's upcoming Crown Victoria replacement, the Police Interceptor. The new Ford is a front-wheel/all-wheel drive product based on the Taurus.

"The evaluations -- that are being conducted... by the customer... and the people representing the interests of the customer -- [show the car in] good shape, really good shape. It's just a matter of making sure we've got the right features in the car, at the right time.

"The feedback is that we should do very well."

Tyus makes no comment as to whether those customers have had an opportunity to assess the Caprice PPV against the new Ford, but they have been able to make a direct comparison with both the elderly Crown Victoria and the much more modern Dodge Charger.

"These are people that own the Ford Crown Victoria and they actually do service runs in the [Dodge] Chargers and things today. So they have a chance to evaluate our vehicle [and] they're wonderfully surprised, pleasantly surprised."

One problem Tyus foresees is that the people evaluating the Caprice and praising it are not necessarily the same people who make budgetary and capital purchase decisions.

"Now does that translate to a sale? I don't know. It's like us taking the Commodore to motoring enthusiasts and [they say] 'oh this is great, your company ought to go on a lease program' and the people that run the business go 'I don't know'. The two don't necessarily connect."

Tyus scotches one other stumbling block mentioned in online forums: the prospect that the Caprice can't be sold into the private market by police fleets. The argument goes that the Caprice PPV doesn't meet US federal standards and can't legally be on-sold after its life in black and white (or white and blue) is concluded, meaning it would have to be scrapped rather than sold into the private market. That is completely false, says Tyus, and explains why.

"You cannot sell any car in the US, unless it's legal. As an OEM [Original Equipment Manufacturer], you can't get away with that.

"You just don't do this to American police, for sure... you don't want people getting injured in your police car because it's not meeting federal specs. That does not fly."

Tyus agreed that it's technically possible the operational car may not meet full American automotive design standards, depending on the aftermarket fixtures fitted by a third-party outfitter for police duty, but that problem goes away once the vehicle is decommissioned and the aftermarket gear is removed prior to the vehicle's sale.

"In terms of anything that an outfitter does to a vehicle, we don't have any control over that, but as a base vehicle, on public roads, that thing has to [meet] all safety requirements and everything else," says Tyus.

"The content they add themselves, that may be true, but if that vehicle was sold in the resale environment, that content is taken off. And then you've got the base vehicle; that vehicle, delivered to them [outfitted], is acceptable to them.

"The government typically [doesn't] hold the aftermarket people to those same standards they hold an OEM to..."

"I can't speak on [behalf of] the police, because I'm not sure what certification they go through for modifications they're making, but as far as the vehicle we sell them, that's not an option for us to meet those standards."

"If you look at the amount of scrutiny... what OEMs get versus what aftermarket get, they get to fly under the radar on a lot of stuff that we cannot."

Tyus queried the validity of the source for this suggestion, that the Caprice can't be on-sold in the private market in the US.

"At the end of the day, unless that person is in the procurement business with police, we do not care what he or she says. It's all just stuff that readers like to read...

"It has no bearing on whether a contract is signed or not... it has no bearing on that vehicle meeting the police specifications and testing, it has no bearing on all the engineering work we do and all the negotiations around that."

So while Holden is keeping its powder dry on the subject of a new Caprice exported for the American retail market, at least American consumers will be able to purchase the car once the police have finished with it. Jake and Elwood, your new Bluesmobile is about three years away.

Further to comments from Holden MD Mike Devereux last week, that the Caprice PPV could potentially sell in the thousands, Tyus explained that selling the car to police fleets wasn't the same as selling a car to private buyers. In selling to retail consumers, new cars typically sell in an initial flurry of buyer interest before settling down to a steady flow. For the Caprice, the situation may well be very different indeed, with perhaps no sales at all in the first months, but with potentially thousands in any subsequent month.

"It's a different type of process; it's a tender process," says Tyus.

"The first set of auditioning you do -- in terms of the product static reviews, dynamic evaluations -- just go to get you on the bid list or tender list; a right to bid for the business...

"You've gotta earn the right to be purchased, [so] in our business... there's a buffer in there called dealers' ordering stock that they hope to be able to sell. This one, they don't buy it, you don't sell it, you don't make it."

And that is the beauty of the Caprice PPV business model for Holden. If it doesn't sell, the Elizabeth plant doesn't have to build it. A handful of demonstrators on the ground in the US will accommodate test-drive interest and the fleet sales process bypasses the need for dealer stock.

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