Police cars: Crown Vic vs Dodge Charger Hagerty article

[1978 NYB]

I'd still feel safe in a Town Car. Or a NYB.

Especially in a Formal NYB...

 

[goldfish65]

My brother was a deputy for 31 years in phoenix Until 2012. He loved and drove the crown Vic until 2008, when he got a new Charger. He didn't like the size, but overall good marks. he then had a horrible crash on duty driving the charger, but he walked away with minor Injuries. The shift captain and Investigators, after looking at the car later said if he had been in the Vic, he would be dead. He was sold after that.

While Mopar offered only fwd, for many years I owned Crown Vics. The '87 was by far the most comfortable and in an accident (not my fault) just the headlight frame broke while the other car was totaled. The '97 I drove for 12 years.

That being said, the Charger being based on a Mercedes, having the German engineering with crush zones to absorb the impact, it figures it would be safer in a crash.

 

[saforwardlook]

Not entirely true. The later ('92-newer) cars DO have a few differences in the frame and suspension over the earlier cars. You can not simply unbolt an early ('79 - '91) Panther body and place it on a '92-later frame. In 2002, Ford significantly changed the front and rear suspension, and went to the more modern offset wheels, as a result.

A similar example can be made for the '61 - '76 GM full-size platforms, and the '67 - '78 Mopar full-sized cars. True, there is a lot that interchanges within those groups, but there is a lot that does not. Going even further, you can take the '61 - '71 Dodge/Fargo trucks, '72 - '93 Dodge trucks, '67 - '87 Ford trucks, and '73 - '87 GM trucks.

You have it right Patrick, as the Crown Vics differed quite a bit in the areas you mentioned, and achieved some real improvements as a result in performance, comfort, handling and durability as the years progressed.

 

[saforwardlook]

While Mopar offered only fwd, for many years I owned Crown Vics. The '87 was by far the most comfortable and in an accident (not my fault) just the headlight frame broke while the other car was totaled. The '97 I drove for 12 years.

That being said, the Charger being based on a Mercedes, having the German engineering with crush zones to absorb the impact, it figures it would be safer in a crash.

I don't believe the Charger, starting with the 2005 models and even the later ones were based on any Mercedes, but were Chrysler designs. What they did use from the Mercedes was their 5 speed automatic transmission and the steering columns, and I believe some of the rear axle parts, but not much else. Chrysler was forced to use these components due to their German ownership, but they had to pay Mercedes a premium to use them which didn't help Chrysler, but enriched Mercedes. It was just part of the real motive for Diamler to buy Chrysler - which was to strip them of their cash hoard on hand at the time of purchase and use it to develop more Mercedes models and then force Chrysler to buy some of their expensive parts until Chrysler was building such cheap cars out of necessity that they eventally went bankrupt. The intent was evil from the beginning and I heard all the gorey details many times over from some of the engineers at Chrysler firsthand.

 

[goldfish65]

Thanks for setting the record straight. I had misinformation from a pretentious Charger owner who boasted it was "the previous-generation Mercedes underneath."

 

[polara66hardtop]

The Germans generally gave Chrysler old technology that wouldn't threaten their new models. When Daimler split, they were smart enough to retain a portion of the Dodge ram Diesel stock, as they knew that portion of Chrysler was a money maker. To this day those Bastards get a percentage for every Ram Diesel sold.,

 

[commando1]

Thanks for setting the record straight. I had misinformation from a pretentious Charger owner who boasted it was "the previous-generation Mercedes underneath."

That would have been the Chrysler Crossfire.