Thoughts on the Ex Cop Car

[gijoe985]

Firstly, I am not trying to determine a value for this car. (Please don't send to "what's it worth" thread)

Ok, so at the local college auction there is a car that was owned by the chief of police, it used to have lights, so he obviously used it as a cop car (long idling...) It is a 1996 Talon Tsi AWD. It has 80k on it and starts right up. I can't drive it, but they say the tranny shifts ok.

They had every service record on it. A few things caught my eye. It has the check engine light on right now, I plan to bring my scanner to see why. I found it funny that in its 80k of life he's gone through about 5-6 batteries and 4-5 front and rear windshields... The concerning things was there was a record showing it was getting low oil pressure. To remedy this they just kept putting in thicker oil... So the last oil change it had they put in 2qts of 15-40wt and 2qts of 50wt.

My question- Anything else I should look for on this car before I determine what to bid. I think I might just flip it for a profit, cars usually go for cheap there... I just want to make sure I check everything. Again, it started right up, no smoke, looks pretty clean and straight minus paint peeling on roof and hood...

Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[805DSM]

you should ask if you can do a compression check see how it comes up to

 

[TalonTsi31]

does it smoke any? or burn any oil? usually people only use that think of oil to help with like bad rings ect.
but bring your scanner and read that code. low oil press could be bc of low oil due to it burniong it past the rings. as far as battery's that is odd, i would check to see if maybe there is a short somewhere or the battery cables are rust/ corroded and things like that

 

[Littlebeeper]

batteries went dead cause the damn thing has a shitty ass alternator that doesn't even pull 100 amps. with the electronics of a police car this would put most of the load on the battery as the alternator runs at peak even with stock electronics.
as for the oil issure, i'm sure they were going by what the oil pressure guage read and we all know those things read really low at idle. Chief reported as such and they ran thicker oil. the car should be just fine, but then again it was maintained by non-DSM experienced mechanics.

 

[DSM_PWR]

They used a 96 AWD Talon as a cop car?? Interesting ...

 

[lacroixdp]

I would plan on the thing being beat to death and probably needing an engine rebuild - it's a safe assumption until your tests prove otherwise.

 

[SrKegler]

Car has probably been maintained better than 90% of the older DSM's still on the road. I wouldn't necessarily think it's had the crap beat out of it is the chief of police was the one driving it. 80k is really low mileage. If it's a sealed bid auction, bid the amount you think would be a steal if you win. Maybe $1500 if the car is in great shape. If you get it at that price, you can always resell it for a profit if you find things wrong withit that you don't want to fix.

 

[->PrOjEcTGS<-]

Cops in general drive the shit out of their cars. Yes, it may have been maintained well but as the saying goes they "Rode it hard and put it away wet." I wouldn't complain if stuff starts breaking on you right off the bat. Police depts know when their cars are done and ready for auction.

 

[dsmfa9nutter]

Cops throw away cars whenever they get the budget for a new fleet, it doesn't matter if they're 10 years old and beat to hell or 2 years and mint condition. Buy it for cheap and do the 6 bolt swap, flip it for twice what you put into it.

 

[ricktb]

I thought the cops prefer the bigger displacement engines in their cars, like a mustang. Maybe it was more for show, or an undercover car

 

[sik4g63]

I would definately bring your scanner to get the code and see if you can do a compression test. Its kinda odd hearing a police force using a talon. Then again I have seen a vid on youtube(i think) of a highspeed chase where they used a talon to bring the car to a stop(PIT manuver).

 

[MOTOR-RX]

I always see police beating the hell out of there cars, but then again i beat the hell out of all my cars too!

 

[qnz]

the replaced rear windshields could be bad guys shooting at popo when he rides up and steals their drugs.

 

[TermTrky]

. Oh God. +1 shooting at popo.

O Man, I would laugh so hard if I saw an undercover Talon. Never heard of it

(But I've seen undercover minivans, durangos, and even a buick century)

 

[gijoe985]

Alright, I'm off to put my bid in.

FYI, it was a campus chief of police...

I may bid 2k... seems worth it...

 

[sleeping95gsx]

If it was a campus chief of police, I doubt he was beating on it going around campus. The low mileage seems to be explained being that a campus car isn't doing much highway driving. +1 on bringing your scanner, but even 2k seems like a good price for a low mileage DSM considering what we paid for some of ours. Good Luck! Let us know what ends up happening with it

 

[bnr32_coupe]

If its a campus police car then go for it. They wont drive very far. Regular police cars go through a lot of abuse.
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[gijoe985]

OK, I'll be honest, I prayed about the price... Ended up bidding 2356.56... Silent auction... So I'll get if for that price, or not...

One thing to note, didn't see a timing belt in the, very complete, service records. Might need one...

 

[joe sobo]

OK, I'll be honest, I prayed about the price... Ended up bidding 2356.56... Silent auction... So I'll get if for that price, or not...

One thing to note, didn't see a timing belt in the, very complete, service records. Might need one...

why such a odd number to bid??????????

 

[gijoe985]

why such a odd number to bid??????????

Well, a key to silent bidding, and ebay, is to bid odd numbers... So your 5.01 will beat somebody's 5.00... Eventually I found that my 5.51 was beating people's 5.01... Now I just bid random numbers... Something a few bucks and a few cents above what I think someone might bid, basically just knocked up 2350 a little bit...

 

[joe sobo]

so when do you find out

 

[gijoe985]

Monday I think... Maybe today...

 

[knochgoon24]

Who says the car was used just at work?

I'd never buy a car driven by my girlfriend's dad. He's the president of the local volunteer ambulance crew. All of his cars have lights/lightbars, but he doesn't haul people to the hospital in them. That thing gets driven worse then the ambulances, because there isn't someone with a broken neck already in it.

It's just like all the firefighters running around with blue lights. They may drive like a grandma, but chances are the thing had very rough miles put on it.

 

[rush2252]

I dispatch and RECENTLY begin taking over maintenance on all of our "units" If that car has 80k miles I wouldnt even begin to try guessing the amount of idle time on the engine. If your looking for a dependable DD I would not touch it. I wouldnt pay more than 1500 for it regardless. I say this bc it sound like the motor is already going to need rebuilt.

Good Luck
Kolby

YOUR GOING to literally "get more than you bargained for.. I can GUARANTEE no college student is going to give $2350 for that car..." Congrats If you consider it an accomplishment I guess.

My BEST advice is do ALL of the maintenance on it, pull the motor and go through it fix everything right the first time. Youll never break even on the car but youll enjoy it more if you fix it right before driving it TRUST me mines been sitting for months because I JUST learned this..

 

[xioca]

I hate how cops drive. Just two nights ago me and my friends were following a cop car. It turned on its blinker to change lanes, and these two cars didn't make room. She proceeded to turn on her cherries and berries and pull the car in front over. We were behind this cop for awhile and the car it pulled over was neither speeding, no tail lights out, ect. (If anything you'd think she'd pull over the car that was riding this guys ass so she couldn't get over). Anyways she was obviously being a dick cop because it wasn't even called in. (we thought maybe she ran his plate for something at the light)