The programme
The vehicles that failed
Fourteen vehicles have been disqualified from the Michigan test since 1978 — thrown out for failing a minimum standard, and unable to be bid at any price.
Michigan does not only rank the vehicles that pass. It sets minimum standards for acceleration and braking, and anything that misses them is out — no score, no ranking, and no place on the state purchasing contract that year.
Nobody has ever collected the failures. They are more interesting than the winners, because a manufacturer does not submit a car it expects to lose.
All fourteen
| Year | Vehicle | 0–60 s | Top mph | 60–0 ft | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Buick LeSabre | – | 110.1 | – | Two of the six cars tested that year went out. Michigan had just begun comparing every bidder rather than taking the cheapest |
| 1978 | Ford LTD II | – | 115 | – | A 400 cubic inch V8 with a two-barrel carburettor, making less power than Chevrolet’s 350, in the heaviest car in the field |
| 1980 | Buick LeSabre | 13.45 | 113.1 | – | Both General Motors entries eliminated in the same test |
| 1980 | Chevrolet Impala | 12.96 | 110.4 | – | The other one |
| 1980 | Ford Fairmont | 15.93 | 111.6 | – | A compact submitted during the downsizing panic. 15.93 seconds to sixty |
| 1987 | Dodge Diplomat 318-4 | – | 116.9 | – | Michigan raised the qualification bar that year |
| 1987 | Dodge Diplomat | 12.72 | 116.9 | – | A quarter of a second ended the M-body’s bid. Chrysler stopped building police cars two years later and did not return for twelve |
| 1996 | Chevrolet Geo Tracker (2WD) | 16.29 | 99 | 146 | A special service entry, never a patrol vehicle |
| 1998 | Ford Crown Victoria (CNG) | 11.79 | 104 | – | Natural gas. Submitted to be measured rather than to win |
| 1999 | Ford Police Interceptor (CNG) | 12.4 | 106 | 145.4 | The same again, a year later |
| 2001 | AM General Hummer | 18.55 | 88 | 171.6 | 88 mph, 18.55 seconds to sixty, 171.6 feet to stop |
| 2002 | AM General Hummer | 20.03 | 83 | 173.8 | Slower still: 83 mph and 20.03 seconds |
| 2003 | AM General Hummer | 20.65 | 85 | 170.1 | Three years running. The only vehicle to be disqualified in three consecutive tests |
| 2008 | Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3L (4WD) | 9.14 | 97 | 173.7 | 173.7 feet to stop, matching the worst sport utility figure in the archive |
What the list is actually made of
Three groups, and only one of them is a real failure.
Cars that were meant to win and did not. The 1978 LTD II, the three 1980 entries, both 1987 Diplomats. Six vehicles, all sedans, all from the downsizing years, all submitted as serious patrol cars. This is the group that matters.
Vehicles that were never patrol cars. The Geo Tracker, the natural-gas Crown Victorias, the F-250, the Hummers. Submitted as special service entries or as experiments, measured out of interest rather than ambition. Counting them alongside the first group would be unfair to the manufacturers.
And a four-wheel-drive Tahoe in 2008, from a manufacturer that was otherwise winning. That is the odd one.
Five of the six genuine failures come from a seven-year window between 1978 and 1987. Everything since has been an experiment, a natural-gas car or a Tahoe.
1980, and the year the standards bit
Three vehicles went out in 1980 — a Buick, a Chevrolet and a Ford. Both General Motors entries were eliminated in the same test, which is why that year’s contract went to Chrysler almost by default.
It is also the year the federal-specification St. Regis recorded 122.7 mph while California’s version of the same car managed 85. The downsizing years produced both the worst police cars ever tested and, in the same showrooms, perfectly adequate ones.
1987, and the end of the M-body
Michigan raised the qualification bar for 1987, and both Dodge Diplomats missed it — by about a quarter of a second.
The car was not suddenly bad. The standard moved, and a design that had been in production since 1977 could not follow it. Chrysler stopped building police cars two years later and did not build another one for twelve years.
The Hummer, three years running
The AM General Hummer is the only vehicle disqualified in three consecutive tests — 2001, 2002 and 2003 — and it got slower each time: 88 mph, then 83, then 85, with 0–60 times of 18.55, 20.03 and 20.65 seconds.
It was a special service entry rather than a patrol vehicle, and nobody expected it to pass. But somebody kept submitting it, and Michigan kept measuring it and printing the result. That is the programme working exactly as intended.
What a disqualification actually costs
A disqualified vehicle cannot be bid. Whatever its price, whatever its other qualities, it is off the state contract for that model year — and other agencies read Michigan’s book.
That is the practical force behind the phrase “pursuit rated”, which Michigan itself says means nothing. There is no sanctioning body and no award. But there is a list of vehicles that failed a published standard, and it is this one.