and a bit more room in the back seat to toss a few criminals

The Crown Vic with a cage in it provides the maximum amount of room when transporting criminals, over any other adaptation of vehicle on the police market. Most departments prefer SUV'* though.

A lot of chase cars are mustangs and firebirds, since the chase car will not haul away criminals.

And you have to remember that the crown vic comes from the FACTORY prepared to be beat to hell. I mean i was reading a brochure for the 06'* and they even come with ballistic panels in the doors now if you order them. I don't see any GM fleet vehicles with that option... Not to mention the ford parts are cheap and the poilce fleets get a huge chunk of change cut out of them. There'* also the fact that the crown vic'* are just bigger, aka more weight for ramming and spinning out run-away'*. Add onto that they come with reinforced frames... heavy suspension... silicon radiator hoses... aluminum driveshafts... beefed tranny'*... higher capacity alternator... EVERYTHING a cop needs from the factory. GM would have to spend big $$$ to compete with any of their FWD cars. Not to mention we all know any FWD GM tranny would nowhere near handle police abuse on a daily basis without being completely reworked. That'* something the fleets don't have time to do. Crown vics are really good cars to beat on for cops, besides they only hang on to them for about 100k before selling them off at auction.

Not at all. Police departments don't use the "lowest bidder" approach for their cruisers and interceptors, or they'd be driving Corollas.
Departments use a set of guidelines to choose their vehicles that measure durability, ground clearance, interior usability, ease of entrance/egress, performance, and utility.
Only a few vehicles will meet their guidelines and they choose from that list.
When the Caprice went away and PD'* were stuck with lackluster Vics, they experimented around with various FWD vehicles, all of which, including the Impalas, failed to display the durability and utility of the Crown Vic, which Ford was also updating and improving hugely to recapture that market. Simply put, the Vic can take hits and hop curbs that would sideline ANY FWD vehicle, and that far overshadows any performance concerns.
Now that Chrysler is offering Dodge Chargers and Magnums with Police and Interceptor packages, Ford may have some competition for highway cars, but the Vic will still be the main "in-city" police car because of ground clearance issues with Chrysler'* platform.

Remember that the SS'* got the L67 in 04, putting them 10hp up on the 230hp Vic cruiser and equal to the chipped Interceptors.

250 hp on the c.v.

https://www.fleet.ford.com/showroom/...cPoliceInt.asp

Exception to every rule, and anyplace in LI is going to be doing massive orders, too, so lowest bidder probably works best for them for them, but I'll bet they still restrict their bidders to one or two models of car.

And, yeah, the Dippy was hard to kill. One reason that it'* the most coveted car for demo derbies, they're f*cking invincible!

Hmm... that'* a nice and long-overdue bump in HP...I haven't looked in a while
Looks like they also eliminated the "Law Enforcement Package" that didn't get the beefed up motor...


I want in here...
https://www.fleet.ford.com/showroom/...ew/default.asp

my dad has the Ford fleet book and thumbing though it awhile back i saw the stats. I would love to get one. unfortantly they remove the radio now on the police packages so i would need to get something after market

Elberton got an Impala a couple years ago, and the cops still fight over who gets to drive the Impala.