Unmarked cars that Plod are using

[Nictrix]

The Police seem to be using more unmarked vehicles these days but I saw one this evening in Colchester that caused me to raise an eyebrow. I heard a siren approaching from behind me and moved over to see a black Vauxhall Corsa VXR go by with the usual blue lights fitted in places that would go unnoticed unless in use.

I’ve recently seen an unmarked Police Focus ST, Volvo’s and various vehicles from the VAG range but nothing as small as a Corsa before. Has anyone else seen them using similar small hot hatches?

Lots of weird and wonderful things are blue light equipped and not necessarily Police vehicles

Senior Fire and Ambo officers use their own vehicles to respond and these are blue light equipped

Numerous other agencies use blue light equipped vehicles that are out of the norm

None of these would be any way interested in pulling you for a traffic offence

Traffic cars marked/unmarked are core fleet vehicles and have to come from the contracted fleet supplier

They are with, very odd exceptions the same make and models as the liveried fleet

Forces can go outside the purchasing framework for specific roles

Therefore if you see something unusual it will invariably be a surveillance or specialist unit such as the Counter Terrorist Unit vehicle .. If indeed it is a Police vehicle at all

It could be Customs/National Crime Agency or other civil or even Military use

Some charitable organisations or even private companies even use blue lights

Unless things have changed over the years this cant be right.
A few years ago the A77 had an unmarked SAAB as a traffic motor, never seen the police use SAABs as a normal police car.

 

[earthdweller]

The Police seem to be using more unmarked vehicles these days but I saw one this evening in Colchester that caused me to raise an eyebrow. I heard a siren approaching from behind me and moved over to see a black Vauxhall Corsa VXR go by with the usual blue lights fitted in places that would go unnoticed unless in use.

I’ve recently seen an unmarked Police Focus ST, Volvo’s and various vehicles from the VAG range but nothing as small as a Corsa before. Has anyone else seen them using similar small hot hatches?

Lots of weird and wonderful things are blue light equipped and not necessarily Police vehicles

Senior Fire and Ambo officers use their own vehicles to respond and these are blue light equipped

Numerous other agencies use blue light equipped vehicles that are out of the norm

None of these would be any way interested in pulling you for a traffic offence

Traffic cars marked/unmarked are core fleet vehicles and have to come from the contracted fleet supplier

They are with, very odd exceptions the same make and models as the liveried fleet

Forces can go outside the purchasing framework for specific roles

Therefore if you see something unusual it will invariably be a surveillance or specialist unit such as the Counter Terrorist Unit vehicle .. If indeed it is a Police vehicle at all

It could be Customs/National Crime Agency or other civil or even Military use

Some charitable organisations or even private companies even use blue lights

Unless things have changed over the years this cant be right.
A few years ago the A77 had an unmarked SAAB as a traffic motor, never seen the police use SAABs as a normal police car.

Most likely ...SAAB pushed hard to get forces to take cars. There were a few 9000 then 95’s that hit Traffic fleets, but only a handful

They proved very popular within certain covert units though

There used to be an “Approved list” that forces could buy off . They had to pass the fabled “Met brake test” to get onto the list

There was then a lot of competition to get forces to buy or even take cars

Now there are tender processes and purchasing frameworks

One of the frameworks involves 28 Forces and is currently

Core fleet ;


Unit Beat (Panda) and CID cars — Peugeot.. with choice within but normally 308 hatch

High Performance— BMW mostly 3/5 and X5 both liveried and plain

Van - Transit

For specialist roles and low volumes forces can deviate .. for instance RIot vans

Covert vehicles are not subject to sane restrictions but are normally nondescript and bought new

 

[Paulwirral]

Merseyside used to have a blue rs4 a few years ago as well as a lowered Peugeot 306 , obviously seized , I saw it a few times usually sat on the side of the road behind another hot hatch of some description!
A mate of mine is in the force at Durham and they have a couple of 330d saloons .

 

[Monkeydonkeyratmagic]

Audi SQ7 this morning. My tax bill is being put to good use lining German pockets. I wouldn't mind if they bought RRs at least they'd be funding jobs in the Midlands.

 

[Nictrix]

Audi SQ7 this morning. My tax bill is being put to good use lining German pockets. I wouldn't mind if they bought RRs at least they'd be funding jobs in the Midlands.

That's actually a really good point, all police cars should be cars that are built in Britain. It should probably go even further than that and all government vehicles should be from Britain.

 

[Newbers]

Come Brexit they probably will be. I believe European legislation demands that government agencies publish procurement opportunities Europe wide.

 

[Buckz]

Audi SQ7 this morning. My tax bill is being put to good use lining German pockets. I wouldn't mind if they bought RRs at least they'd be funding jobs in the Midlands.

most of those super high performance cars are repossessed from criminals. Recently saw a tweet of RS6 going to plod after it was used by criminals...

RR's reliability is beyond s**t so I can see why they'd stick with german/jap/korean cars.. even tho some RR's are around.

 

[Jaw]

best qcar I've seen EVER was in reading. I was in a modified TT supra, accelerating up the slip road. A Blacked out, Black Audi RS6 V10 accelerated faster. Just as I was about to give it a go, He guns it, and puts on Blues and fekkin twos. Still can't beleive it, not a sign that it was a police car between the 20" rims and limo tint windows.

 

[Buckz]

best qcar I've seen EVER was in reading. I was in a modified TT supra, accelerating up the slip road. A Blacked out, Black Audi RS6 V10 accelerated faster. Just as I was about to give it a go, He guns it, and puts on Blues and fekkin twos. Still can't beleive it, not a sign that it was a police car between the 20" rims and limo tint windows.

yup they're getting harder and harder to identify.. you can often see cutouts in bumpers for cameras I saw a CLA AMG in blue with a cutout in the bumper for anpr camera I believe it was, right on the side of it.. so it'd identify you as you go past and I guess if you had no tax/insurance = red flag, stopping time.

 

[ronk]

If there wasn’t as many bad boys about all this covert kit wouldn’t be required!

 

[coupedan]

Strangest I saw was a few years back - all in the same year, All undercover Surrey police. I saw a black Audi Q7, Bright blue Jaguar XK-RS.
A MK5 Golf, at a time when the MK7 was almost out along with the usual 3 and 5 series (Mainly 330d and 530d).

I have heard of a story about the TVP having a Nissan GT-R but don't know whether this is true.

Crazy!

 

[earthdweller]

Audi SQ7 this morning. My tax bill is being put to good use lining German pockets. I wouldn't mind if they bought RRs at least they'd be funding jobs in the Midlands.

That's actually a really good point, all police cars should be cars that are built in Britain. It should probably go even further than that and all government vehicles should be from Britain.

All cars purchased have to fit a role specific standard

The fact is sadly that very few UK built cars meet the required standards

It is also down in part to which manufacturers actually join the tender process, which given EU rules cannot just be for British manufacturers

But remember that when you see that SQ7 they paid absolutely no where near showroom prices for it .. in fact how little they do pay is quite an eye opener

 

[Anonymous]

Audi SQ7 this morning. My tax bill is being put to good use lining German pockets. I wouldn't mind if they bought RRs at least they'd be funding jobs in the Midlands.

That's actually a really good point, all police cars should be cars that are built in Britain. It should probably go even further than that and all government vehicles should be from Britain.

You mean assembled in the UK with parts from Germany/Poland/Korea/South Africa/Romania/Japan and plenty of others

 

[ronk]

Audi SQ7 this morning. My tax bill is being put to good use lining German pockets. I wouldn't mind if they bought RRs at least they'd be funding jobs in the Midlands.

That's actually a really good point, all police cars should be cars that are built in Britain. It should probably go even further than that and all government vehicles should be from Britain.

You mean assembled in the UK with parts from Germany/Poland/Korea/South Africa/Romania/Japan and plenty of others

And the profits going back to those countries!

 

[coupedan]

If you went to Goodwood FOS about 3 years ago, you would've seen these

 

[Anonymous]

That's actually a really good point, all police cars should be cars that are built in Britain. It should probably go even further than that and all government vehicles should be from Britain.

You mean assembled in the UK with parts from Germany/Poland/Korea/South Africa/Romania/Japan and plenty of others

And the profits going back to those countries!

And quite a lot were given tax advantages to keep assembly in the UK, in reality the factory labour are the only tax contributors in the business

 

[Nictrix]

That's actually a really good point, all police cars should be cars that are built in Britain. It should probably go even further than that and all government vehicles should be from Britain.

You mean assembled in the UK with parts from Germany/Poland/Korea/South Africa/Romania/Japan and plenty of others

And the profits going back to those countries!

At least it would keep people in jobs here.

 

[earthdweller]

With the mention of British built cars, really when you think about it there aren’t that many that would fit the bill !

For Panda cars ? Astra ( Ellesmere Port) Civic (Swindon ) are the only two that come to mind

Certainly the Astra is widespread and Wiltshire I do believe use some Honda’s


For vans .. there’s only really the Luton built Vivaro ?

For high performance cars I think that’s where you struggle, there’s only really Jaguar and a lot of their product isn’t really suited to the role

Range Rover have moved upmarket and I don’t believe are interested in the market

So I think you’d kind of struggle to buy British

 

[slick]

some Toyotas and Nissans are built in Britain too

 

[Clarkie]

Meanwhile in suffolk........ .