But the purchase price may be better on a RR than something smaller. After all it is public money, the Police force do have to justify spends. No point in buying a smaller car that can't handle the mileage.

There is nothing to say that the local force has bought that. We've got an ML55 AMG......Merc gave us that for nothing!

My RR cracked its block at 70k. Luckily i wasn't in pursuit at the time! ;)

A large UK force had to replace their fleet of traffic cars about 10 - 12 years ago. They had Ford Sierras at the time. They took 3 cars on trial. BMW 3 series, Ford Mondeo ST24 and Volvo S40. The drivers on trial liked the 3 series the most and also the finance dept wanted the 3 series as it was a lot cheaper (even though its not to the public) than the other 2. Great.

Anyway after a few months the powers that be decided to go against the decision made lower down on the BMW as it did not give "the right image" to the public. So, the attitude of "why do they use such expensive cars" actually costs you more money in some cases..

Alot of the time, car companies will give the police car's to test drive to try and secure a contract.

Ranger rover did it with Essex Police. They gave use 10 brand new cars to try for six months to see if we liked them. After the six months Essex police turned down the contract but bought the cars from Ranger rover for £3500 each, which is the same money we buy Ford Focus for.

Silly not to really.

I saw some program where the Police had to tow a lorry off the motorway and said the RR was he only 4x4 that could do it safely.

Seems a good reason to have them to me.

why the feck shouldn't the police have rangies??

If I were going to be stuck in a car all day wearing loads of uncomfortable body armour then I wouldn't want to be in some cr@p Ford Maverick which can barely move without loads of blokes and gear in it ... I'd wanna be driving a range rover.

Oh no it's a waste of public money I hear you scream ... so was the dome, so was the iraq war, so was that massive immigration centre that got burnt to the ground by all the people living in it and so (when all the costs finally get released) will this whole Olympics farce. My point being that the above cost many millions more than letting the cops have just a little bit of luxury in their days of dealing with the dregs of this country!

The Police Governing bodies decide what car's will be purchased and every batch bought has to be done via a "business plan" and costs are a big issue. However, the cars purchased by these governing bodies are usually bought for around 50% of the retail value.
Few vehicles are hired to the Police due to the abuse they get and complications with the service side of things.
Devon and Cornwall Police were offered a fleet of Merc's for their traffic department at the same price as Vauxhall Omega's. Everyone was going to be a winner, better vehicles at very low price and good advertising for Mercedes.
The idea was binned due to the public thinking the Police were wasting public funds buying flashey cars.
All is not what it seems sometimes:)

I know, how about the RAF binning those pricey Eurofighters and get old Northrop F5s which are much cheaper.

Don't want to give off the wrong image after all...

South Wales Police use a few 530d Estates (not to be discounted for uumph either) on the Variable Service and they are cheaper to run than the Ford/Mercs. Some are covering high 20k's before a service is needed. Will this save my CT bill???? No I think not but every little helps:thumb: