1994 Ford Crown Victoria P71 Police Interceptor 4.6 L V8 from North America

Summary:

High performance with room and luxury

Faults:

I needed to replace the rear bearings at 118,000.

State Patrol replaced the brakes before they sold it.

General Comments:

This car is performance. Very good handling for a big car, and good power. The 3:27 gears are very high, so the car is top end. The state trooper cars go 150 mph, mine won't unless I put the high pro chip back in that takes of the governor. I may be dropping 3:73 gears into the rear end and I should be down to under 15 sec. on the quarter mile with that. I've won races against Intrepids, Camaros, Luminas, Berettas, and stupid modified imports. I've lost to a S-10 with a 400, and 2 corvettes (I just raced them for fun).

This car is very reliable, gets 20 mpg. Even in Wisconsin, it's good in the snow. It weighs 4,000 pounds so it's able to get the rear wheels in contact with the pavement, and if you start to slide, it's easy to recover.

The locker is awesome for getting off the line on pavement, or traction in snow. I'd recommend a Police Interceptor Crown Victoria to anyone, normal Crown Vic's are good too, but they don't have the same performance. My friend's folks '92 Crown Vic just died at 200,000 miles.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 17th December, 2001

18th Jan 2002, 17:34

So you think the stock police interceptor with a gear change of 373s will drop you into the 14s.. maybe low 15s or mid 15s, that's about it..

9th Aug 2003, 14:33

Your old police car will never see 15's. Even with 3.73 gears it will likely only see mid to low 16's. Your car doesn't even have PI heads and it certainly won't reach 150 MPH. You wish you had a car that did that. Also, I wouldn't beleive that your old PD car would beat a Camaro, maybe a V6 Camaro, but still...

1994 Ford Crown Victoria 4 door notchback 4.6L OHC V8 from North America

Summary:

A slow ripening lemon

Faults:

Usual maintenence, also the transmission blew after the third year and the entire locking system needed replacement. In addition, there have been numerous oil leaks.

General Comments:

This isn't a bad car.

It's big, comfortable, and powerful. However, dealer service is horrible and after five years, everything seems to go wrong with the car.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 25th November, 2001

1st Aug 2007, 02:12

I wonder how it can be a "ripening lemon" with 0 miles on it.

1994 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor V-8 from North America

Summary:

A real loser but with so much invested, I have to keep it

Faults:

After owning the car for about 8,000 miles the Check Engine light came on. The dealer ended up replacing the engine. I should have known something was wrong when the dealer voluntarily offered to pay half the $4800 price without any prompting from me.

The next major thing to go wrong was the transmission at about 58,000 miles. I did not like the dealer's attitude when working on my engine, so I went to an independent transmission specialist. The transmission would fluctuate (downshift/upshift) when decelerating (by coasting) through the 38-42 MPH range. This infrequently happened around 70 MPH as well. No other speed ranges seemed affected. This took 3 visits to fix the problem. The problem has since re-occurred aroung 94,000 miles.

The next problem was that the car wouldn't start. The starter was replaced and this didn't help. The problem occurred about four times. Once the car started up about a half hour later, 2 times the car was towed (once to the dealer and once to a local gas station). Once the AAA guy just banged on the starter and this worked. The problem was found by the local gas station. When the car was put up on a lift, there were sparks from wires that could only be seen from under the starter. The wires were replaced and the problem has gone away.

The current problem involves the front driver's seat. Two front bolts and a read bracket have detached. The front bolts are normally attached the the underside of the upper portion of the seat. A 1 1/2 to 2 inch circle of steel has pulled out of the upper portion of the seat leaving both front bolts detached. Since then, one of the rear steel brackets has snapped. The seat is now held together by one rear bracket. The dealer has offered to weld the seat for $400. I will be seeing the dealer shortly. I don't see any other option.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 23rd November, 2001

18th Dec 2003, 23:23

Have you ever seen how a policeman takes off in his Police Interceptor? No cop treats his own car that way. Some of these cars have to be ready for the wrecking yard. Yet, if you read the glowing reviews in this section from people who have purchased former police cars, you will see that the Ford Crown Victoria is the most reliable American car made.