The California Highway Patrol retired its last Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors from active service in late 2020, a trend most police forces across North America were following for some time prior; Ford stopped production of the fleet service "P71" Crown Victoria over a decade ago in 2011, bringing an end to the long and accomplished career of the automotive world's most faithful public servant.

The Crown Vic has finally eased into a well-deserved retirement.

But what made the Crown Victoria such an effective police car? Why did it win over so many police departments across the continent to become the default law enforcement vehicle for decades? We find out what makes it one of the best, used cars available on the market.

UPDATED MARCH 2022: We take another look at the Victoria Crown to see what values they hold on the second-hand market and what the common police car models are in 2022.

The Ford Crown Victoria Is Big In Size And In Character

1999 Ford Crown Victoria police car, front quarter view, outside
Via: AmericanDreams

The Crown Victoria was one of a handful of vehicles built on Ford's Panther platform. It shares its underpinnings with the Mercury Grand Marquis (and Marauder) and the Lincoln Town Car. This was a full-size, body-on-frame platform not too dissimilar to a truck frame, and as such the Vic was a hefty beast.

It's not the biggest Panther car, that honor goes to the long-wheelbase "Executive L" Town Car, but it still measured 212 inches in length and weighed just over 4,000 pounds, not including police equipment.

Its trunk is massive, meaning officers had more than enough space to store all their equipment, and the back seat has enough space for two miscreants to be taken "downtown" in relative comfort.

Upfront, police-spec Crown Vics were designed around the occupants, which is to say they had special bucket seats with no bolstering to allow space for officers' utility belts, and the space between the seats could be used for center consoles built to each individual police department's needs.

Civilian Crown Victorias have three-person bench seats in the front, which for obvious reasons would have been less practical for police purposes.

Part of the reason the Ford Taurus intended to replace the Vic failed with police departments (and has now been phased out in favor of Explorers) was because it didn't meet those basic needs as effectively. It was harder to see out of, the front seats were too cramped for utility belts, and the trunk was smaller.

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Ford's Crown Vic Is Supposed To Be As Tough As The Streets

Ford Crown Victoria police car, front quarter, driving
Via: Mecum Auctions

This is where we discuss the "P71" package that Panther people love to praise.

They do so with good reason: by bulking up and modifying the Crown Vic for police use, Ford accidentally created one of the most dependable and durable workhorse vehicles of the modern era. It's no wonder so many of these ended up as taxis.

For starters, the P71 package includes a larger, higher-capacity alternator to run the electronics and external oil coolers for the engine and transmission to keep driveline temperatures down even under heavy use, say, in a high-speed chase or patrolling at low speeds for hours in the hot sun. It also includes stiffer shock absorbers and slightly higher, longer-travel suspension, which makes it sit nearly an inch higher than a civilian Vic - useful for hopping curbs or chasing a suspect through tougher terrain.

The P71 package also included a stainless steel exhaust system without the resonators you'd find on a normal car, though it's not exactly a high-flow performance exhaust. It's just enough to coax a few more horsepower out of the 4.6l "Modular" V8, which produced somewhere around 250 horsepower.

All of these changes to the car to optimize it for police use coincidentally created the perfect second-hand daily driver for harsher climates. It may lack 4WD, but everything else installed on these cars makes them phenomenally durable and reliable, and they can last for hundreds of thousands of miles of hard use. With some tweaking, these things can be surprisingly potent sleeper cars, though you'll constantly be fighting the car's weight no matter how much power you throw at the problem.

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This Car Was Good For Its Era, Now It Is Outclassed By Modern Machinery

Ford Crown Victoria, blue, front quarter, parked
Via: Ford Authority

The average sedan has in most ways surpassed the capabilities of the Crown Victoria, rendering it less effective as a police vehicle. It is however not useless, and arguably there is still plenty of life left in the Panther platform.

Most ordinary cars now have much more horsepower than they used to.

Sure, weight has increased as well, but the average car today is quite a bit faster than the average car of the year 2000. A mid-range sedan like the 2022 Chevrolet Malibu costs from $34,000 for the top-tier, 250 hp / 260 lb-ft model, which is also relatively economical thanks to its 2-liter turbo-four engine.

SUVs are ubiquitous in 2022 though, and crucially, police Explorers are fast and capacious.

They're equipped with Ford's 3-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 (related to Ford's 2.3-liter Ecoboost as seen in the Mustang) which produces 400 horsepower - over 100 more than the Crown Vic - and sends that power to all four wheels, there are other engines in use too including hybrid units.

Also in use by various police forces in 2022 are the Chevrolet Tahoe, Dodge Charger, and Durango, Ford's own Mach-E; but what if you are feeling nostalgic and want a piece of the Crown Vic pie?

We checked well known used car sites and found a slew of affordable cars, like this 2011 one on CarGurus for $5000 with only 75,000 miles and that 4.6-liter V8 under the hood, alternatively on Hemmings.com there's another late 2011 one (2011 was the last year of Crown Vic manufacture) with 110,000 miles for $12,000, but it looks to be in great condition.

There are many more cars for sale, but it looks like now is the time to cash in on the low prices commanded by the Crown Victoria on the used market, with so many available with low mileages and from just $5000 this could be the cop car of your own personal movie.