Having pulled 4 or 5 RWD police cruisers out of the snow and ice over the last year with my Jeep, I can’t imagine the northern states not opting for an AWD solution.
During heavy snow storms, RWD can be a complete PITA. But, once the roads are clear, and especially during fair weather, I prefer the RWD. My personal car is FWD. I just think that RWD allows for better handling, especially when you are responding in emergency mode.
The one thing I like about the AWD option is that my wife used to have a Mitsubishi Eclipse with AWD and a turbo in it. That car handled like a dream (the few times she let me drive it). Not sure if Ford can get it right or not.
What kind of preventive maintenance do you need to do to a turbocharged engine that you do not need to do to a normally aspirated engine?
Not talking repairs. Just maintenance. What user serviceable parts need more frequent replacement?
If you are talking breakdowns, that’s just piss poor engineering and/or assembly.
European cops have successfully patrolled large cities, suburbs, countryside, and (real) high speed freeways in FWD and AWD for a couple of decades now.
American cops can figure it out and get used to it…It ain’t that hard.
Premium oil, filter and fuel; strictly adhering to oil change scheduling; strictly adhering to coolant changes and levels, too. Everything is more critical with the higher stressed (both thermally and mechanically) powerplant. Those stresses will be carried through the driveline as well. Transmission gears and syncros, halfshafts and CV joints also have to deal with the increased loads. It’s all doable, but look at the maintenance intervals for, say, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII, IX and X… It aint pretty.
Yes, it’s probably the best up until this year. EVO magazine announced that the Renault Megane 250 is slightly better. I’d LOVE to drive one…
I have the 09 Tahoe and love it. Faster than my old Crown Vic and a lot more room. My department is going away from the Tahoe due to maintenance cost (more expensive maintenance, not more maintenance). Interested to see what 2011 will bring.
I’ll grant you the frequency of engine fluid replacement.
But if the driveline needs more maintenance, or suffer more repairs, because it is attached to a turbocharged engine; then we are talking about piss poor engineering.
If you hook up a driveline to a turbo engine, design and engineer the drivetrain to deal with the worst possible stresses that it could endure.
Making excuses is par for the course for Detroit…
I think a lot of people are missing the point: it’s a fucking Taurus. Sorry, but Taurus has always been synonomous with POS.
A Holiday From Wishful Thinking
Beyond the Top 10
Here are some of my biggest letdowns this year:
- Ford Taurus
Looks are deceiving for the Taurus, whose modestly handsome styling disguises the most disappointing car I tested this year. The Taurus could get the award for World’s Biggest Small Car: it seems enormous on the outside, claustrophobic on the inside, with poor exterior sightlines and an paucity of rear legroom for taller adults. The final backhand came from my wife, taken aback by the Taurus’ old-fashioned, floaty road manners. “I thought America stopped making cars like this,” she said.
So - Ford is pushing a FWD V6 on us . . . . again. Luckily, the interior will be too small and visibility will be reduced to make up for the lack of durability and handling problems inherent with the drivetrain (technical garbage aside, the last time Ford pushed the FWD taurus, they said all th same things - it was a piece of shit then too). Awesome.
Go suck a dick, Ford. With all due respect.
Then you don’t understand. No one will reengineer an engine block, add a forged steel, shotpeened crank, same with conrods and forged Al pistons, upsize or improve the alloys and material properties of the entire driveline for such a small production run. You simply could not afford it. If it cost within $5k of a BMW 335i which would YOU purchase? Yeah, me, too…
Part of what makes the Euro cars so damned pricey is because of the engineering that has gone into them. Line up a Lincoln LS, BMW 5 Series and a Lexus GS300 and then have engineers do a thorough cost analysis and assume equal production numbers and the BMW will have about 6 grand more engineering than the Lexus which will have a similar position over the LS. We did that study and it was a bit larger than what I’ve outlayed.
Check out the maintenance requirements for a Subaru
SRi, Mitsubishi EVO, Nissan Skyline GT-R and any other high performance car. It’s insane.
I understand alright. All the way to the bank.
As someone working in the Japanese auto industry, it pleases me to see that Detroit is still Detroit.
I’m witholding judgment until I drive one. Watched the press conference from Friday over at: http://www.fordvehicles.com/fordpoliceinterceptor/
Direct link to video (about a 20 min long presentation):
http://www.fordvehicles.com/asp/modules/fordpoliceinterceptor/video.asp
It’s nice to see Ford addressing specific LE needs for those who drive the car on a daily basis. For example, maintaining the 9" space between driver and pass seat/center console allow you to retain your radio/light box and/or long gun racks that mount between both front seats. The red and white interior (assuming “dome” style) lights will be handy for map reading/report writing/etc.
The USB port will probably come in handy during report writing (copying/pasting, pre-filling documents like search warrants, etc). The pre-existing wire looms for electrical wiring and grommets will help prevent garages/fleet techs from butchering up installations (hopefully LOL).
Basically, Ford is incorporating all the stuff that a PD would want in a police package (in theory). Sounds like a good package so far.
The 365 HP / 350 TQ power specs of the twin turbo Ecoboost engine is quite appealing for those working traffic on the highway IMHO. 
Also came across an article that details the “tech” side of Ford’s TT Ecoboost engine:
http://autospeed.com/cms/A_111422/article.html
The engine doesn’t seem too “maintenance heavy” either - water cooled turbos rated to 150K miles during testing, etc, etc.
YMMV
Ford knows something about fed handling, the euro focus rs with revoknuckle is proof.
It is nice but harsh from reviews in evo magazine and from Vehicle Dynamics engineers, though. I would still like to have access to one though.
Then u understand the intensive maintenance schedule and costs
associated for the Subaru STI, Mitsubishi EVO and Nissan Skyline GT-R perfectly well then. The same is true for ALL of the higher end performance cars, too. It’s also the reason that I don’t lust for the Porsche 997 Turbo, Skyline, EVO or STi
nor even Ferrari’s latest incarnations. I would be content with another Honda Integra Type R, S2000 or Lotus Elise. There is a small herd of cars like this in Europe
that are rudely mechanical yet don’t fail to excite. Driver’s Cars for those who don’t get it.
A mildly turbocharged Taurus is not even close to being in the same performance league as those cars.
Don’t forget to let the turbo get cooler oil run through it, even modern designs with good oil will coke up if you go from loaded WOT to off. Considering the fact that police sometimes must shut the car off in those situations it would mean a oil circ system of some sort designed into it.
I am so disappointed thus far. Its all up in the air at this point. What were they thinking. I guess we will have to wait and see some of the bigger departments get their hands on them and test them out a bit. Right now, give me the Hemi Charger or the Caprice road rocket with the six liter RWD. My department has already said that it comes down to 2 things. How long ford’s warranty will be for and price. Bottom line.
Ky Cop
Evidently you did not read the link to the 3.5 liter EcoBoost torture testing, which included nearly 1500 cycles of WOT for 10 minutes followed by immediate shutdown.
The test ran EcoBoost at maximum boost flat out for a 10-minute period. Then the engine and all cooling were abruptly shut down and the turbo was left to “bake” after this high-speed operation. This process was then repeated 1,500 times without an oil change. After the 1,500 cycles, the turbos were cut open for detailed technical examination and proved to be fine.