Seems like the lastest gen Tahoe is the only legitimate police vehicle being offered. Mixed reviews on the Durango. 2020+ Explorers seem to be absolute trash.
My Crown Vic was a used Carrol County MD sheriff's car that I purchased in 2010. It is at 192K miles and the only current problems are lower body rust and a shudder problem with the transmission. For the last two years I have been looking for a replacement car. I dislike the Ford Explorer due to the engine issue with the internal water pump that leaks coolant into the oil pan. I also dislike any of the other current vehicles that share this problem. Ford 4.6 engines were good engines. Average estimate shop repair costs for a water pump replacement for the Explorer currently exceeds $2000. This is something I really do not want to deal with especially since used car dealers think the Explorers are made of gold. Thanks for the video!
Yeah it was just a matter of building them more simple. Nowadays everything with these turbo engines are just cause for disaster. Here’s to the age of technology outweighing integrity!
The water pump problem isnt as common people make it out to be, as long as you change your oil consitently the water pump usually lasts the lifetime of the vehicle, youll catch the problem as soon as it arises anyway if youre doing consistent oil changes. But if youre close to 200k mile mark i'd get it replaced as preventative measure, I had 2 fpis's and a fpiu all in between the 100k-145k mile mark with no issues. Just tires,brakes, and oil changes. The 2020 and newer fpius even fixed that problem by switching to a rwd based platform that allowed them to have an external water pump, the whole reason the fwd based platforms like the fpis's and 2019 and older fpiu's had internal water pumps was to save room in the engine bay as the primary dritrain and engine was housed i a tight space.
HELL No. Ford needs to bring back a body on frame, RWD, full size sedan, with a V8. Not twin turbo V6… V8!!! They hold up better and don’t have to work as hard, and get better mileage because of that anyway.
I test drove a 2017 fpiu with the EcoBoost and it was fun to drive but the handling was off to me. My 2018 ford taurus police interceptor is my pride and joy now since i sold my cvpi. I agree with everything you said, and I like to add a few things. On the vic I had I was getting 14 to 16 mpg in the city and 22 to 24 mpg on the highway. I saw the 2016 and up fpiu gets 16 city to 21 or 22 highway mpg for the 3.7 liters. Personally, the only upgrade I like about the fpiu over the cvpi is the stability control, traction control, and awd. The crown vic will always be the number 1 police vehicle and ford should of added the coyote engine and make it be a choice of rwd or awd.
you could get traction control for the vics but almost no department optioned them especially down south, been looking for a police interceptor vic with traction control for a good price near me for a while, seems like the only departments that had optioned them are mostly up north trying to make the vic better in the snow by optioning traction control. Its also hard to find police vics with the 3.27 lsd or 3.55 lsd almost every vic has the 3.27 open-dif, which doesnt speant both thires when traction is lost.
@@CarolinaCrown98 Oh trust me, I know. The 1998-2011 CVPI will probably go down in history as the greatest police car of all time. Those things could get beat repeatedly all to hell & still have that bulletproof reliability. Police cars today don’t even come close. Those Chargers have power behind them but every cop I’ve talked to has told me to avoid them like the plague. A. Because it’s a Chrysler product & B. They’re basically put together by bubblegum & duct tape & can’t take any shots without falling to pieces.
And this is why chases are abandoned 80% of the time and why some criminals get away on foot. the new patrol vehicles are just jokes at this point. I test drove a retired 2018 FPIU that only had 109k on it, Its handling absolutely sucked, it cant handle a 25 mph turn without the feeling sensation of a roll over. they cant get up to speed in a timely manner, Hell my 2012 beetle is only 175hp with a 5 cylinder engine and it can get 0-60 in less than 8 seconds and its a 5 speed. Ford really needs to take a look at its future of police fleet or the government should start looking to other companies.
wdym? The handling on those is their best attribute, I have had a taurus and a fpiu and they both handle way better than the chargers or caprice ppvs that ive also owned? I think you should really give it another shot in an open parking lot or on a track,cant really fix the shitty mpg or slowness though as almost no department options the twin-turbo ecoboost except highway patrol agencies because they have a huge budget, the underpowered naturaly aspirated engine option like you saw in this video is pretty ass, the hybrid on the new fpius is pretty decent though from what ive seen, havent tested it yet tho.
@calvin4319 My 2012 beetle has better handling, and it's a bubble shape. Hell even my motorhome which is a 40 ft bus has better handling. I don't own one of these ford's so I can't retry another, nor do I think I would want to.
@@Maibu-OReiley that’s also a way smaller lower to the ground car, police arent gonna use a beatle as a patrol vehicle, of course a smaller lighter car is gonna handle better, they prioritize room and storage space, police have never used anything smaller than a full size car for patrol in the last few decades,u act like the Tahoes aren’t yachts, and the Durango isn’t basically on par with the explorer. Where would they transport suspects with a beatle? How much room are you gonna have with a partition in a vehicle like that?
HMMM are you basing your MPG to include idle hours ? my 2017 explorer piu is getting 16 mpg around town. ( and it could use a tune up) of course I'm not sitting idle for hours like LE. additionally edmunds states 0 - 60 in 6.3 seconds, car and driver states 0 - 60 in 5.8 seconds. Maybe your maintenance team isnt the best... since I'm on the subject, the 2024 explorer piu with 3.0 eco boost boasts 400 hp. maybe its time to upgrade!! DISCLAIMER !! im a chevy guy.. just trying to give ford a fair shake !
Yeah Ford sucks ass now. I don’t care how fast it goes, it doesn’t last at all. 16 MPG is not even better than a Vic. Is that 1 mile difference? So after 12 years of experience, they improved by 1 mile per gallon of gas? 😂 there just simply isn’t any improvement for us. As from our experience they’re very slow.
I remember I smoked a ford explorer police interceptor (with real police actually in it only because i felt like they were on 2 me)with my crown victoria police interceptor parked the car on the side hit the lights and ended up seeing him just flash my car then just casually drives on by
I’m pretty sure on paper and in a drag race the police interceptor utility is faster it’s just perceived as slower because it’s shifting that extra gear to hit 60 vs the CVPI where the 4 speeds gears are spaced so far apart it pretty much only has to excecute an up shift once a week (and the shift speed takes about as long too)
However this doesn’t detract from the fact that I do agree with you and the fact that the handling on these newer cars and fords in general is quite sub par, back then you could walk into a ford lot and find lots of double wishbone suspension, body on game chassis, and V8’s now it’s all torsion beam, McPherson strut, and small turbo 3 and 4 bangers that eat head gaskets before 100k, no thanks.
@@CarolinaCrown98 agreed, really any new ford beyond 2011/2012 is a joke, I genuinely don’t know how their QC and Reliabiltiy has gotten so just openly so bad and people are so okay with it, in my personal opinion there’s probably like 10 different sedans from brands that handle, ride, and accelerate better then these semi tragic D4 platform Fords (Taurus, Explorer) another thing I forgot to mention too is another reason they handle and drive so bad is that it’s modified and ripped off Volvo chassis. So they handle pretty noticeably bad compared to the fact that ford was using much tighter, nicer and Sophisticated handling MAZDA chassis, that’s why the current gen Explorer went back to a RWD layout, because these chassis of ford were just kinda bad all around.
I walk my dog in a nearby industrial park next to my house , walk by a ford dealership at any given time i see 1-3 explorer police units in the maintenance parking . I saw a tech with the garage door open , he mentioned to replace 2 ecoboost turbo's $4500 to $6000 repair bill ? holy crap I had a 91 mercury grand marquis drove to 400, 000km , general maint , fuel pump , when the O/D went traded on an f-150 .
I know it’s such a shame the way these new vehicles are built. They use to do it tolerable. I can deal with the faulty brake light switch and intake manifold. You start getting in the thousands with these new vehicles and I’m lost.
you also gotta remeber this is a patrol vehicle in a video, idling makes your mpg average go down in real time. The epa estimates are just a combiantion of city and highway driving 0 idling.
I love the ford panther platform i own a 2003 mercury grand marquis and shes a fast car but not a race car either i drove both the 2017 ford police interceptor explorer vs my mercury grand marquis and my mercury is definitely alot faster 😎😎😎
@@BigBlockCheese This statement is very true. However, from idling and operating both patrol vehicles in my career, the improvement of efficiency is not there. I get no more in my shift out of the Explorer than I did my CVPI.
You have your opinion, and as a LEO I have mine. Lost many of pursuits to this slow ass dog. Plus at the end of the day, even if we give speed to the FPIU, at least my CVPI didn’t have to limp back to the city shop after the chase. 😅
A couple things; The mileage thing isn't going to be accurate as we don't know how much idle time is involved. The 2017 PI utility (3.7L AWD) does 0-60 in just a hair under 8 seconds per the Michigan Highway Patrol's actual testing. If you look at the tests for the 2011 P71, it's 8.8 seconds with the 3.27 rear end or 8.7 seconds with the 3.55 rear end. Of course the Ecoboost variant (which most departments tend not spring for) will be significantly quicker. Which one has more storage? Which one is more usable in inclement weather? Which one is safer in an accident? I'm sure the P71 has lower repair/upkeep costs
I speak from personal experience. These are slow as all get out at our agency. None of our staff like them. Regardless of it’s speed rating, it’s handling is not as comfortable either in comparison to a CVPI. Let’s not negate the fact that the trunk space in a Crown is far superior to any sedan on the market, and with that being said…. I’m a firm believer in a sedan only market for police. It’s way easier to operate at our speed. I am definitely a hater lol.
Keep in mind the testing Michigan does is with completely empty cars. No light bar, cage, push bumper, computers, trunk full of equipment etc. Most departments run shitty pump 87 which a modern v6 like fhe 3.7 wouldn’t tolerate as much as a low compression 4.6 in the crown Vic. The 2020+ up Ford seems to be even worse for durability, reliability, acceleration etc. Handling should be better with the RWD biased AWD system. External water pump as well. At the end of the day 285hp out of a 5000lb suv is too weak.
@@chrisiztheman1618 That's about the same power to weight ratio as a late P71. But the newer Explorer's have a 10 speed to keep engine in it's powerband. Probably why it's straight line performance is comparable to the late P71 as well. 0-60 in 7.9 for the Explorer 3.3L and 8.7 seconds for the 2011 P71. The 3.7L was designed to run on 87 octane. There's nothing exotic about it. The 3.3L is just a 3.7L with a smaller bore.
@@FoDaddy Ford PCMs(unlike Dodge) have the ability to advance and retard ignition timing in real time by using the instantaneous data collected related to knock. In the last 15 years(with the exception of 2024), all horsepower and torque ratings on the Ford website would have an asterisk next to them saying “numbers achieved on 93 octane”. A 305hp 10.5:1 dohc high revving V6 like the 3.7 cyclone will run as advertised on higher octane fuels. The 3.3 has a compression ratio of 12.0:1…. Even worse(much worse) on low octane. None of these engines were “designed to run on low octane” but rather can do so like I said due to the Abilties of the Ford PCM to advance and retard the ignition in real time. If you were to put either one of these motors on an engine or chassis dyno with 87 octane in them, neither would make the advertised power numbers. My theory is that due to the higher loads of road ready cruisers, these heavy v6 Explorers perform worse than how they did in Michigan due to those heavier loads on the small engine compared to a lighter crown Vic with the lower reving higher torque 4.6 sohc v8. A stock p71 will run at least half second quicker 0-60 with e85 in the tank… stock tune no mods.
@@chrisiztheman1618 Yes and no. Ford did quote power/torque/MPG ratings on 93 octane, but, it depended on the engine and the state of tune it was in. For example the Mustang GT's ratings were with 93 octane. But the F-150's ratings with the coyote were for 87 octane. The 2.3L Eco in the Mustang ratings were with 93 octane, but the 2.3L Eco in the Ranger was with 87 octane. The 3.5L N/A and 3.7L were always quoted with 87 octane. The 12:1 compression on the 3.3L may look daunting, but, it has both DI and port injection. DI engines can get away with higher compression and regular 87 unleaded, even with forced induction, due to the cooling effect in the combustion chamber afforded by direct injection. So it will run fine on regular unleaded. The 10.5:1 compression on the 3.7L wasn't especially high by the time it came out. Similar engines like the Toyota 1GR-FE, GM LFX, Chrysler Pentastar, and Nissan VQ35DE all had comparable compression ratios and all ran fine on 87 octane.
