New patrol car idea

[Andy Taylor]

I am not a LEO, but I came across this and found it interesting. Just wondered what cops thought of this idea.

http://www.carbonmotors.com/

[yzErnie]

They are nice but cost prohibitive. And, they'd get beat to hell in a matter of a couple months.

[r3dn3ck]

I love all the forward looking statements. They haven't built it yet but they're 100% sure they'll manage to get all this crud stuck in it.

You know what makes effective patrol vehicles, parking them on a busy street and having the cop walk around the area. Drivers slow down and stop breaking laws, walkers know there's a cop nearby and relax and walking crooks go somewhere easier to work.

[biochembruin]

I love all the forward looking statements. They haven't built it yet but they're 100% sure they'll manage to get all this crud stuck in it.

You know what makes effective patrol vehicles, parking them on a busy street and having the cop walk around the area. Drivers slow down and stop breaking laws, walkers know there's a cop nearby and relax and walking crooks go somewhere easier to work.

Most departments would have to hire ten times more officers to put a cop on every corner. It's cheaper and more effective to buy patrol cars.

[Roddd]

I think he was suggesting that an officer's presence can be a crime deterrent. Obviously we need cars though.

[Falconis]

They are nice but cost prohibitive. And, they'd get beat to hell in a matter of a couple months.

I could be wrong here, but my understanding was that it was cost comparative to a crown vic with all the crap they stuff in their to begin with. The pricing difference comes in with base models plus add ons where the carbon E7, you're paying for everything or almost everything up front. In the end, it's pretty close from what I understand.

But yeah, either way, it is expensive.

[Ron-Solo]

I doubt it is deputy proof........

[Falconis]

I can guarantee it isn't rookie proof. There is a reason most agencies give rookies the oldest cars in the fleet.

[HarrisonS004]

I love all the forward looking statements. They haven't built it yet but they're 100% sure they'll manage to get all this crud stuck in it.

You know what makes effective patrol vehicles, parking them on a busy street and having the cop walk around the area. Drivers slow down and stop breaking laws, walkers know there's a cop nearby and relax and walking crooks go somewhere easier to work.

From my understanding crime stats do not drop in areas that have frequent foot patrol, only the perception of it being safer rises. I can look up the study that I read about this if you would like.

[AR-shogun]

It would look really nice sitting with all those other CHP cars that get crashed and are left in the back lots.

[Notorious]

The Carbon Motors E7 has been bandied about for a long time with minimal, if any, real steps toward producing a real car that can be sold to LE. It's vapor ware and it has been beat to death in other cop forums everytime someone who has never heard of it posts it up as the "new" thing.

[solanoshooter]

The Carbon Motors E7 has been bandied about for a long time with minimal, if any, real steps toward producing a real car that can be sold to LE. It's vapor ware and it has been beat to death in other cop forums everytime someone who has never heard of it posts it up as the "new" thing.

They have always said they are planning on starting production in 2012. It will be interesting to see what happens.

As far as it being cost prohibitive, it's not really if you are building a car from scratch. If you take a crown vic/taurus/charger/caprice put a cage in it, lights/siren, radio, console, computer, and anything you need on patrol, you're up near the price of the E7 which includes all of the above off the line. Reps from Carbon Motors told my DC at either CopsWest or a CalChiefs conference that they expect to come in between 40-50K. If they actually warranty the power train anywhere near the 250K miles they say it's good for, it could be a hell of a deal.

[Notorious]

Have they even decided on a power plant? I heard so many different variations from BMW powered to inhouse built that I can't keep up.

I still say it's vapor ware and even if they manage to make some, they will not be able to keep up with the realities of patrol.

250,000 miles? Good luck. How many patrol cars even get to 60,000 miles without someone destroying a transmission or making the interior look like he was hacking everything up with a machete?

The power seat and mirrors and windows will likely fail sooner than later too with the constant 24 hour adjustments and activations. You can build your car body to be heavy duty, but the interior electric switches and motors are still going to be sourced from the same crappy mass producers as GM and Ford.

As far as the costs of having equipment installed, most of that is sunk cost. When a new car is introduced to the fleet, usually the cage, radio and other stuff gets cannabalized from older units and put into the new units so there is no real cost other than the labor. Cages last almost forever. Radios can last almost as long until you switch technology.

2012 would be a good year though as any since the CVPI is coming off line and cages will not be transferrable to another car model if the PD is switching cars. However, if a PD has Chargers now or goes with GM, then the cages would be presumably passed down the line for those cars as well as the fleet cycles through vehicles.

[solanoshooter]

I agree about cannibalized parts and was thinking about it while writing the last post. Other than LED lights which have appeared on all our patrol cars in the last couple years, just about every other piece of equipment has seen multiple cars.

Hell, the siren in my take home sounds like it 40's air raid siren. It's pretty embarrassing considering it's a decent car.

I honestly don't know much more about the E7. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that they had pre-orders for 15,000. I know nothing about the industry or managing a fleet. I have know idea how many orders they'd need a year to be sustainable.

[Notorious]

Even our LED lights have seen multiple host vehicles... but the one thing that is lasting as long as the cage are the spotlights. Those things last forever!