I bought an auction P71… did I get screwed? 

Cool: looking forward to to vids on this.

Nah, you did not get screwed, looks to be a solid car. Problem is you will end up spending at least what you already have into it getting it "up to par" for a daily driver. See you have other vids already posted, so need to see what you have done so far. I got a 2003 CVPI for my son for $2,250 earlier this year. 112,000 miles on it, not a patrol vehicle (appears to probably be a detective or such type vehicle). Have spent another $2,000 on registration, maintenance (fluids (engine oil, transmission, brake fluid, power steering, coolant, rear diff), filters (air, transmission, and fuel), serpentine belt, and spark plugs changed), new battery (old one seemed OK, but did not want to risk it on a daily), new center console (look at consoles made for Jeep CJ/YJ, I got a MOOSUN 31515 console for $110, fits great), rear calipers and brakes, tires, window motor, new ticket light cover (only like $12 off Amazon), new headlight housings and bulbs, and a bunch of misc. stuff. Paint is not quite as bad as yours is, but similar (and white). Have some color match paint that I plan on sanding down the rust, sanding down where it is peeling from and doing a 20 foot touchup. I also recently bough a 2011 CVPI, was also not a patrol vehicle, all cloth interior, front power drivers bench seat, carpet, cruise, CD player, keyless entry and such. It has 170,000 miles, but only 600 idle hours. Got it for $3,300. Have another $1,700 into it so far. Tires, registration window motor, window tint, shift solenoid, same maintenance stuff as the '03 . Black paint is in better condition. No paint peeling, but is rough on the roof. Both are now solid vehicles that I plan on keeping for a long time. Looking on facebook/craigslist, I have seen some for sale for less than I have in mine, but no idea what I would need to put into them to make the "daily" ready. I don't really think I could flip them at this time for profit, but that is not why I bought them.

I had no idea there was a way to track idle hours. You definitely know your stuff, Hank. This looks like a nice investment and I'll wager she can really move and handle too. Good luck with it!

I've had 4 and I can't say anything bad about any of them. My recent 08 CV I won by accident at auction and had to sell my other one because it had 100k more miles. This year in Sept makes 2 years I've had it. I got it with 145k now I'm at 186k no serious issues.

ALRIGHTY very cool some American v8 action my brother got a 07 taurus for$1300 120k same paint peel on trunk but over all good condition. noticed later fods got rid of the passcode feature.

With regular maintenance and care, these cars should do between 250k and 300k miles easy. You got a good buy.