According to its ad, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Explorer is a former cop car and was city fleet maintained. Could that enticement, along with its price, make it the ultimate urban assault vehicle?
When you think of South American cats, there’s probably only one or two that pop immediately to mind, perhaps the Cougar and Jaguar. Remarkably, though, there are over a dozen distinct species of wild cats calling South and Central America home. According to the IUCN Red List, the populations of several of those species are considered “Near Threatened” due to habitat destruction, so that number may be whittled down if measures to save them aren’t actively taken.
We looked at one big Brazilian cat last Friday. Or, at least, a cool cat of a car named for one species of native South American feline. That was a 1987 Puma GTC, which is a limited-production sports car based on a VW platform, and sourcing many of its mechanicals from that German company’s Brazilian parts bin. The model’s extreme obscurity drove most of you to question just how quirky one would need to be to pay the $14,000 asked for the little drop-top. What resulted was a 70% No Dice loss.
Crown prince
Have you ever noticed how much cops hate to run? It really pisses them off to have to do so because the job requires them to carry a ton of equipment on their person, making any gait faster than a stroll a sweat-inducing endeavor. That’s one reason that cops like cop cars. The other reason is that cop cars are pretty dang cool to ride around in. At least in the front.
Seemingly on-scene since the Pliocene, one of the coolest of those cop cars was Ford’s Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. V8-powered and imposing in size, it became as closely associated with police work as a neatly trimmed mustache and using handcuffs for something other than sex play.
Having carved out such a solid niche in the law enforcement and government get-around department, Ford found itself in quite a pickle when the time came to retire the Crown Vic with no direct replacement in sight. The solution was to build heavy-duty versions of both the Taurus sedan and the Explorer SUV, with both then left to duke it out in cop land. A cursory glance around any neighborhood or police department motor pool will tell you that the Explorer won that battle, hands down.
Cop stuff
All those Interceptor Explorers going into police forces means that quite a few have now come out the other end once their duty cycle has run its course, with the aftereffect that many are now being offered for sale to mere civilians. The seller of today’s 2016 Explorer Interceptor has at least four on the market right now, although this one is the only one that rocks a bull bar. Other parts that set the Interceptor apart from your run-of-the-mill Explorer include a heavy-duty cooling system, uprated suspension and brakes, a re-mapped ECU that allows long idling and more aggressive performance, and, perhaps most importantly, a keylock for the rear hatch.
Two engine options were available for the Explorer Interceptor this model year: a 304-horsepower, 3.7-liter naturally-aspirated Cyclone V6 taken from the Mustang and a 3.5-liter, 365-horse twin-turbo EcoBoost V6. This one has the 3.7, backed by Ford’s 6F six-speed transaxle and automatic torque-vectoring AWD. According to the ad, the truck rocks 120,000 miles on the clock, has “Zero mechanical issues,” and “Runs and drives perfectly.”
Bull bar
Aesthetically… well, it sure looks like a cop car. Being painted black rather than a panda suit means it won’t be mistaken for Johnny Po-po, but it will stand out nonetheless. It has all four of its chrome center caps for the standard steel wheels but is missing both A-pillar spotlights. Those have been removed, but the stalks are left behind like on some cruelly blinded bug. The bull bar could definitely come in handy in traffic: not so much for actually bumping people out of the way, but for intimidating them to move, in the concern that a cop with an itchy ticket finger is behind the wheel.
The cabin is kind of a mixed bag. This is the most spartan Explorer imaginable, with rubber floor coverings and flat vinyl seats. There is no perp screen diving the cabin, but sitting between the front buckets are the skeletal remains of the cop console. Happily, that does have a pivoting armrest and a couple of cup holders, so it’s not like it’s medieval in here. And, as another plus, the interior could probably be cleaned out with nothing more than a garden hose and a rag.
A price worth exploring?
Per the ad, this Interceptor was once a police car and had its maintenance handled by its city’s fleet services. It currently sports a clean title and a gold star from the smog tester. It also has current tags and comes with an asking price of $6,900.
Now, as I mentioned, this seller seems to have won the jackpot when it comes to black cop Explorers since they have a bunch to sell. Those are all over the place when it comes to price and mileage, with this one mama-bearing it right in the middle of both those stats.
The question of the moment is whether that’s a decent deal or not. What do you say? Is this retired police Interceptor a bargain at that $6,900 asking? Or, considering the specs and presentation, is that price totally criminal?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
Orange County, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Don R. for the hookup!
Help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at [email protected] and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your commenter handle.
