The programme
The vehicles that failed
Six vehicles are named in Michigan’s test results as thrown out for missing a minimum standard — all of them between 1978 and 1987.
Michigan does not only rank the vehicles that pass. It sets minimum standards, and the 1980 book explains what they are for: the programme “eliminates from the bid process those vehicles which are obviously inferior and gives the top-scoring vehicle or vehicles a dollar-and-cent advantage in the bid process.”
Only six vehicles in this archive are named as eliminated or disqualified: two in the 1978 book’s own words, three in the 1980 report’s and one in the 1987 results. No other document held here names one, although several vehicles missed a printed minimum.
The six
| Year | Vehicle | 0–60 s | Top mph | What the source says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Buick LeSabre | 12.26 | 110.1 | “The Buick and Ford were eliminated due to their inability to meet the established minimum acceleration requirements.” Its averages were 22.815 seconds to 80 mph and 46.390 to 100, against 21.0 and 38.0 |
| 1978 | Ford LTD II | 12.22 | 115.0 | The same sentence. Its averages were 21.988 seconds to 80 and 41.040 to 100, against 21.0 and 38.0. Both cars were inside the 12.5-second bar to 60, and the sheets mark both as meeting the 110 mph minimum |
| 1980 | Buick LeSabre | 13.45 | 113.1 | “Due to their inability to meet the established minimum acceleration requirements, the Buick LeSabre and Chevrolet Impala were eliminated from the bid process on full-size vehicles.” Its averages were 13.445, 24.478 and 49.383 seconds to 60, 80 and 100 mph, against 13.0, 23.0 and 43.0 |
| 1980 | Chevrolet Impala | 12.96 | 110.4 | The same sentence. Its averages, from a re-test the preface explains, were 12.955, 23.803 and 46.165 seconds: inside the bar to 60 only |
| 1980 | Ford Fairmont | 15.93 | 111.6 | “The Ford Fairmont, for the same reason, was eliminated from the bid process for mid-size vehicles.” Its averages were 15.925, 29.245 and 49.130 seconds to 60, 80 and 90 mph, against the mid-size class’s 14.5, 25.5 and 34.5 |
| 1987 | Dodge Diplomat 318-4 | 12.72 | 116.9 | 0–80 in 23.25 seconds against a 23.0-second minimum. The car “failed to meet our established minimum acceleration requirements, and was consequently eliminated from our bid process.” |
The 1978 wording is the preface of the 1978 book (November 1977), and the averages are from its acceleration sheets, both read in the book. The 1980 wording and averages are the report’s own, read in the book (preface and acceleration sheets; bars from its two specifications). The 1987 wording quoted above is the full report’s, as the 1987 year page gives it from an earlier scan; that report is not among the documents re-checked here. The preliminary results the National Institute of Justice published in October 1986 say the same thing in their own words: “the Dodge Diplomat did not meet the minimum 23 seconds to accelerate to 80 mph, and therefore will not be considered by the MSP.”
1980, and the year the standards bit
Three vehicles went out in 1980: the Buick and the Chevrolet from the full-size class, the Ford from the mid-size. The full-size contract went to the Plymouth Gran Fury, which, the book says, was both the top scorer and the low bidder.
Michigan kept testing the eliminated cars anyway, as it had in 1978, “primarily in order to provide the data to other law enforcement agencies whose requirements for acceleration and/or top speed differ from ours.” In the same test the federal-specification Dodge St. Regis recorded 122.7 mph. The California cars that became known as dog cars were a different specification and are not in Michigan’s book.
1987, and the Diplomat
Michigan tightened the 0–80 requirement for 1987 to 23.0 seconds — the 1984 and 1985 tests had asked for 24.0 (the specifications of September 1983 and September 1984) and the 1983 book for 26.0, though the 1980 book’s full-size bar had been 23.0 and the 1978 book’s 21.0; the 1986 time is not held — and one Dodge Diplomat missed it by a quarter of a second. The Plymouth Gran Fury, with the same body and the same four-barrel 318, passed at 22.09.
The next year’s bulletin printed easier qualifying times — 60 mph in 13.6 seconds, 80 in 24.3, 100 in 43.2, with the note “The qualifying times changed this year” — and the 1988 Diplomat four-barrel cleared all three. Chrysler’s police sedans then left the tests for more than a decade: the 2003 bulletin calls the 2002 Dodge Intrepid the first police-package sedan DaimlerChrysler had entered “since the Dodge Diplomat in 1989.”
Missed a minimum, but never named
Some vehicles fell short of a printed standard without the book saying they were out. The 1982 book lists two of them in its raw-score table but leaves them out of the weighted scores and totals. These are not disqualifications and are not counted as such.
| Year | Vehicle | What it missed |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Buick LeSabre 252 | 0–60 and 0–80 in 17.51 and 36.26 seconds against 14.5 and 26.0, and never reached 100 or 105 mph (97.1); absent from the book’s competitive tables |
| 1981 | Ford Fairmont 255 | 0–80 and 0–100 in 27.15 and 65.79 seconds against 26.0 and 48.5, and 4.60 miles to reach 105 mph against the three allowed; also absent from the competitive tables |
| 1982 | Ford Fairmont 255 and Chevrolet Malibu 305 | 57.04 and 49.73 seconds to 100 against a 48.5-second minimum; listed in the raw-score table (Table 8) but left out of the weighted scores and totals (Table 9) |
| 1983 | Ford LTD Crown Victoria S 302-CFI | 0–80 and 0–100 in 26.34 and 69.01 seconds against 26.0 and 48.5, on a run sheet that prints the requirements. The preface says it was tested only for acceleration, and it was not scored |
| 1984 | Chevrolet Celebrity 173 | all three times: 13.90, 25.81 and 61.54 seconds against 13.5, 24.0 and 45.0, and 5.7 miles to reach 110 mph against the three allowed. Not one of the four cars the book scores, and its data sheet leaves the time-requirement column blank |
| 1984 | Plymouth Gran Fury 318 two-barrel and Plymouth Reliant 2.6 | 25.36 and 28.23 seconds to 80 against 24.0; the Gran Fury 60.75 to 100 against 45.0, the Reliant no average to 100, one of its runs not reaching it within two miles; neither reached 110 mph (106.2 and 105.3). The preface adds that the Reliant’s brakes “would not lock in the final phase of the braking evaluation and consequently failed to meet our brake specification requirement”. Neither is among the cars scored |
| 1984 | Chevrolet Impala six, Dodge Aries four and Ford LTD Crown Victoria S 302 | 18.57, 14.85 and 14.39 seconds to 60 against 13.5 and 43.22, 32.09 and 27.62 to 80 against 24.0, no time to 100 within the two-mile runs, and none reached 110 mph (101.0, 101.9 and 100.5). Run for acceleration and top speed only, and not scored |
| 1986 | Ford Crown Victoria 5.0, Chevrolet Caprice 4.3, Plymouth Reliant 2.5 and Dodge Aries 2.2 | never reached 110 mph (106.1, 107.8, 103.0 and 101.0) against the preliminary bulletin’s rule of 110 within 3 miles; the bulletin prints no acceleration time allowances |
| 1987 | Plymouth Gran Fury 318 two-barrel | All three times: 14.65, 25.73 and 52.44 seconds against 12.9, 23.0 and 42.3, and 2.87 miles to reach 110 mph against the two allowed. Tested for information only, not bid |
| 1987 | Chevrolet Caprice V6 | All three times: 13.94, 27.27 and 59.22 seconds, and it never reached 110 mph (best 106.0). Tested for information only, not bid |
| 1987 | Ford Crown Victoria 302 | 0–100 in 43.47 seconds against 42.3, and it never reached 110 mph (best 109.2). Tested for information only, not bid |
| 1987 | Plymouth Reliant 153 | 0–60 in 15.04 and 0–80 in 31.31 seconds, no time to 100, and it never reached 110 mph (best 100.4). Tested for information only, not bid |
| 1988 | Chevrolet Caprice V6, Dodge Diplomat and Plymouth Gran Fury two-barrels | all three missed all three of that year’s printed qualifying times |
| 1990 | Chevrolet Caprice 4.3 and 5.0, Ford Crown Victoria 5.0 | the 4.3 Caprice all three times (13.41, 25.86 and 53.09 seconds against 12.5, 22.2 and 39.3) and 6.08 miles to reach 110 mph against the two allowed; the 5.0 Caprice 22.34 to 80 and 42.60 to 100, and 2.46 miles to 110; the 5.0 Crown Victoria inside the times but never reached 110 mph (107.3). Police-package cars; the book scores only the Caprice 5.7 and the Crown Victoria 5.8, fills in the time-requirement column for those two alone, and prints no pass or fail |
| 1991 | Chevrolet Caprice 5.0, Chevrolet Caprice Station Wagon and Ford Crown Victoria 5.0 | the Caprice all three times (12.86, 22.96 and 41.84 seconds against 12.3, 20.8 and 37.4); the wagon all three (12.63, 23.94 and 42.23) and it never reached 110 mph (109.00); the Crown Victoria 21.65 to 80 and 40.98 to 100, and it never reached 110 (107.60). The two 5.0 sedans are police patrol package cars and the wagon a special service car; from the federal results bulletin, which prints no weighted or overall scores and no pass or fail |
| 1992 | Chevrolet Caprice 5.0 (3.08:1 and 2.56:1 axles) | the 3.08 car 21.03 seconds to 80 and 35.53 to 100 against 20.3 and 35.1; the 2.56 car 11.75 to 60 and 36.40 to 100 against 11.7 and 35.1. Police-package entries; the bid specification names the Caprice and the Crown Victoria, engine at the maker’s option, and the book scores only the Caprice 5.7 against the Crown Victoria |
| 1992 | Chevrolet Lumina | all three times: 12.06, 22.61 and 41.87 seconds against 11.7, 20.3 and 35.1 |
| 1992 | Jeep Cherokee (4WD) | 20.40 seconds to 80 and 40.39 to 100 against 20.3 and 35.1. A special service entry; the book applies the times to all vehicles submitted (page 6) and names none as failing, while Ed Sanow’s article in Law Enforcement Technology (February 1992) lists the Cherokee, the Caprice 5.0 and the Lumina as failing the acceleration requirements and adds that “any vehicle that fails to meet any of the MSP performance standards is disqualified from the MSP bid process” |
| 1994 | Chevrolet Caprice 4.3 and Ford Taurus | the Caprice 10.69 seconds to 60 and 30.18 to 100 against 10.1 and 29.6; the Taurus all three times (10.47, 18.72 and 31.82 against 10.1, 17.5 and 29.6), 1.04 miles to reach 110 mph against one, and 2.06 miles to reach 120 mph against two. The book scores only the Caprice 5.7 and the Crown Victoria, and its run sheets print the time requirement for those two alone (“NA” for the rest) |
| 1994 | Ford Explorer (4WD) and Jeep Cherokee (4WD) | all three times (11.85, 22.44 and 44.28 seconds; 10.41, 19.22 and 34.99), 110 mph only after 8.93 and 1.13 miles against the one allowed, and neither reached 120 (110.0 and 114.0). Special service entries |
| 1994 | Ford Taurus (non-ABS) | 24.15 ft/s² against the specification’s 24.2 braking minimum. Submitted for brake testing only |
| 1996 | Ford Explorer (4×4) | 49.23 seconds to 100 against the 44.0 printed on its own sheet |
| 1997 | Ford Crown Victoria | all three times: 10.05, 17.63 and 28.99 seconds against the October 1996 bulletin’s 10.0, 17.2 and 28.2. A police-package entry |
| 1997 | Chevrolet Tahoe (2WD) | 23.99 ft/s² against the 25.0 braking minimum, and 28.90 seconds to 100 against the bulletin’s 28.2 (the bulletin prints one set of times; the 1999 book set the Tahoe 32.0 seconds, so whether 28.2 applied in 1997 is not settled). A police-package entry |
| 1997 | Chevrolet Lumina | all three times (11.09, 19.74 and 36.11 seconds), 24.96 ft/s² against 25.0, and top speed 113 mph, so it never reached the stated 120 mph mark. A police-package entry |
| 1997 | Ford Crown Victoria (CNG) | all three times (12.51, 20.82 and 37.70 seconds), and top speed 107 mph, so it never reached the stated 110 and 120 mph marks. A police-package entry |
| 1998 | Ford Crown Victoria (CNG) | all three times (11.79, 19.88 and 36.47 seconds), top speed 104 mph, so it never reached the 110 and 120 mph marks, and an alternator failure that stopped its brake test |
| 1998 | Chevrolet Lumina and Chevrolet Tahoe (2WD) | both police-package entries, both under the 25.0 ft/s² braking minimum and over the bulletin’s 28.2 seconds to 100 (for the Tahoe, whether 28.2 applied is not settled: the 1999 book set it 32.0 seconds) |
| 1999 | Ford Police Interceptor (CNG) | missed all three printed acceleration minimums |
| 1999 | Jeep Cherokee (4WD) | 36.66 seconds to 100 against the 35.0 printed on its sheet |
| 2000 | Jeep Cherokee (2WD) and Jeep Cherokee (4WD) | police-category entries: the 2WD 17.41 seconds to 80 and 31.08 to 100, and top speed 111 mph, so it never reached 120; the 4WD all three times (10.24, 19.30 and 35.32), and top speed 108 mph, so it never reached 110 or 120. Against the bulletin’s one set of times (10.0, 17.2 and 28.2); the 1999 book had set the Cherokees 11.0, 21.0 and 35.0 seconds, so whether the bulletin’s times applied is not settled |
| 2002 | Dodge Intrepid and Ford Police Interceptor (2003 model) | braking scores of 25.92 and 25.03 ft/s² against the minimums printed on their brake sheets, 25.96 and 25.87 |
| 2018 | Ford Police Responder Hybrid Sedan | 0–60 in 9.05 seconds against the stated 9.0, and top speed 119 mph, so it never reached the stated 120 mph mark |
| 2018 | Ford F-150 Police Responder EcoBoost 3.5L | top speed 100 mph, so it never reached the stated 110 and 120 mph marks |
| 2019 | Ford Police Responder Hybrid Sedan | all three times: 9.24, 15.07 and 26.00 seconds against the stated 9.0, 14.9 and 24.6, and top speed 119 mph, so it never reached the stated 120 mph mark |
| 2019 | Ford F-150 Police Responder EcoBoost 3.5L | top speed 106 mph, so it never reached the stated 110 and 120 mph marks |
| 2019 | Dodge Durango Pursuit 3.6L and 5.7L | top speeds 117 and 118 mph, so neither reached the stated 120 mph mark |
| 2020 | Ford Police Responder Hybrid Sedan | all three times: 9.06, 15.45 and 27.91 seconds against the stated 9.0, 14.9 and 24.6, and top speed 117 mph, so it never reached the stated 120 mph mark |
| 2020 | Ford F-150 Police Responder EcoBoost 3.5L | top speed 105 mph, so it never reached the stated 110 and 120 mph marks |
| 2020 | Dodge Durango 3.6L and 5.7L AWD | top speeds 117 and 118 mph, so neither reached the stated 120 mph mark |
| 2021 | Dodge Durango 3.6L AWD | 0–100 in 24.72 seconds against the stated 24.6 |
| 2021 | 2020 Ford F-150 Police Responder EcoBoost 3.5L | top speed 105 mph, so it never reached the stated 110 and 120 mph marks |
| 2022 | Ford F-150 Police Responder EcoBoost 3.5L | 24.07 ft/s² against the stated 25.79 braking minimum |
| 2023 | Ford F-150 Police Responder EcoBoost 3.5L | 23.87 ft/s² against the stated 25.79 braking minimum |
| 2023 | Chevrolet Silverado Z71 and Z7X | top speed 112 mph, so neither reached the stated 120 mph mark |
| 2024 | Ford F-150 Police Responder EcoBoost 3.5L | 24.25 ft/s² against the stated 25.79 braking minimum |
| 2024 | Chevrolet Silverado Z71 and Z7X | top speed 112 mph, so neither reached the stated 120 mph mark |
| 2025 | Dodge Durango 3.6L AWD | all three times: 9.03, 15.14 and 25.14 seconds against the stated 9.0, 14.9 and 24.6 |
| 2025 | Ford F-150 Police Responder EcoBoost 3.5L 4WD | 25.50 ft/s² against the stated 25.79 braking minimum |
| 2025 | Chevrolet Silverado Z71 and Z7X | top speed 112 mph, so neither reached the stated 120 mph mark |
| 2026 | Chevrolet Silverado PPV Z71 and Z7X | top speed 114 mph, so neither reached the stated 120 mph mark |
| 2026 | Ram 2500 6.4L 4WD | 22.76 ft/s² against the stated 25.79 braking minimum, and top speed 103 mph, so it never reached the stated 110 and 120 mph marks |
Nine that were never disqualified
An earlier version of this page listed fourteen rows: the six above, the 1987 Diplomat a second time, and seven of the vehicles below. The other two below, the 2015 Tahoe and the 2026 Ram, carried the same mistaken flag in the database behind the page. None of the nine is called disqualified by its book. They are listed here so that nobody repeats the error.
| Year | Vehicle | The book |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Chevrolet Geo Tracker (2WD) | Its time-requirements column reads “NA”; the book does not assign it a category |
| 1998 | Ford Crown Victoria (CNG) | Braking not completed, because of an alternator failure |
| 1999 | Ford Police Interceptor (CNG) | Missed the minimums; the book never says it is out |
| 2001 | AM General Hummer | Requirements not applicable; 88 mph, limiter-marked |
| 2002 | AM General Hummer | Listed in the police category |
| 2003 | AM General Hummer | “Submitted … as a police-package vehicle” |
| 2008 | Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3L (4WD) | Listed under “Not designed for high speed or pursuit driving”, with an F-150 and a Suburban |
| 2015 | Chevrolet Tahoe 5.3L 4WD | Left the track in the dynamics test and was retested |
| 2026 | Ram 2500 6.4L 4WD | Below the stated braking minimum; the book does not use the word |
What a minimum standard is, and is not
A vehicle eliminated from the bid could not win that year’s state contract, and other agencies read Michigan’s book. But the department is careful about what passing means. In the 2025 book’s words, “Meeting the above criteria does not certify a vehicle as being pursuit rated, rather it justifies a vehicle can perform the job function the MSP requires in a police vehicle.”