Woodgate

http://www.autowired.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=3746

A TOTAL of six UK police forces are now using Subaru Impreza turbos. Latest forces to join are Nottinghamshire, North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Humberside. The latter is the UK's first police team dedicated to targeting car thieves.

Cumbria Constabulary was the most recent to take delivery of an Impreza Turbo saloon. North Yorkshire Constabulary, meanwhile, has introduced four saloons to its traffic wing since the beginning of the year. Nottinghamshire Constabulary was one of the first forces in the country to use the all-wheel drive Subaru Impreza Turbo as an unmarked car, primarily for dealing with speeding motorists. Following its success, the force has now added five more to its fleet - four saloons and one five door version.

Cumbria traffic police sergeant Steve Lambert said: "With no motorway sections and a lot of rural roads, the Impreza is ideal for us because it is relatively small and incredibly agile. "From a safety point of view, the police officer is not having to put himself under pressure when driving at speed. Officers only need to push the Impreza Turbo about 70% of the extent to which they need to drive other, larger patrol cars, to exceed their performance capabilities." He added: "What is also important is that the car gives us real credibility. We find that people having seen it tend not to want to get involved in a pursuit in the first place."

Nottinghamshire police's traffic division, inspector John Busuttil, said: "The Subaru Impreza is smaller than our normal patrol car - the Volvo V70 - and is very responsive. It has an outstanding reliability record and with its all-wheel drive capability is proving an excellent tool for traffic policing."

The UK domestic police forces are not the only ones to have realised the potential of the Subaru product range as ideal police vehicles. The Ministry of Defence Police is now using a fleet of nineteen, 2.0 litre all-wheel drive Subaru Foresters. It topped the sport utility vehicle category in this year's J.D. Power And Associates/'Top Gear' Customer Satisfaction Study. It was selected by the MOD Police as the ideal all-terrain police car.

Italian traffic police, meanwhile, have taken delivery of 600, 2.5 litre Subaru Legacy Estates, following extensive testing against rival cars from other manufacturers. The Legacy, which like all Subarus is all-wheel drive and owes much of its development to Subaru's rally-bred expertise, was chosen because of its exceptional handling, road-holding and performance.

billythekid

"The latter is the UK's first police team dedicated to targeting car thieves."

Not sure I agree with that, trying to think now but Manchester had an XR3 with a camcorder on a tripod in the back in about 1986 I think it was. Then went onto XR3is, 209GTis,, XR4x4i, Cosworths etc. AFAIK they were the first team dedicated to car crime - the first car I know of was based out of Bolton as this was the worst area on the force back then.

Currently have a couple of scoobies, dark met green WN52*** is the one you will see most often around North manchester. Latest toys include Audi A3 3.2DSG and others...