Buying

Buying a Vintage Police Car

The hardest part of buying an ex-police car is not finding one. It is working out what you are actually being offered, because the thing that carries the value is the paperwork, and the paperwork is the thing most often missing.

Start with the rarity problem

Police cars were consumed rather than preserved. A department bought a car to work it, ran it until it failed, and sold what was left into whatever came next — taxi service, a small-town fleet, a demolition derby, or a wrecker who wanted the driveline.

Survival rates are poor across the board and worst for exactly the years collectors want, because the desirable engines were worth more out of the car than in it. A 440 Magnum was worth more in a Charger than the whole car was worth as a Polara.

Two examples give the shape of it. Buick built 270 of its 1955 Century Model 68 for a single agency; the best account of survivors identifies four believed-original cars in California, while openly questioning their authenticity, and one of those had become a street rod. One long-time owner of a 1969 CHP Polara reports six years of searching to find a genuine car.

Read the claim before you read the car

The single most useful question is not about the car at all. It is: what does the provenance rest on?

You are listening for what kind of answer comes back.

• Documentation — build sheet, fleet records, a documented ownership chain. This is the answer you want.
• The identification tag — a photograph of the tag with the package code visible. Strong, and checkable by you.
• Hardware — “it has the heavy-duty suspension.” Suggestive, but it describes what the car has now.
• The paint — if the answer is the livery, it rests on nothing.

A seller who can photograph the tag and read the codes off it has done the work. A seller who answers by describing the suspension is answering a different question.

Tributes are fine. Descriptions are the problem.

A carefully built tribute car, described as a tribute, is a legitimate and enjoyable thing to own. Many of the best-known police cars at shows are tributes and their owners say so freely. There is nothing wrong with the car.

The difficulty is only ever description. A car sold as a genuine agency vehicle without documentation is a claim nobody can support — and the buyer inherits that problem at resale, when the next person asks the same question and gets the same non-answer.

If you want a tribute, buy a tribute and enjoy it. If you are paying for a documented agency car, get the documents.

Where the money and the risk sit

Three things, in this order.

1. Documentation. A well-documented ordinary police car is worth more, and far easier to sell, than an undocumented desirable one. The paperwork is the asset.
2. Correct equipment. Period-correct lighting and interior fittings are increasingly hard to source and are the first thing a knowledgeable buyer inspects. Getting the dates right matters: a badge or a fitting that is correct for the marque but a decade too young is a common and costly error.
3. Originality of the driveline. Restorable bodies are common. Correct, unmolested police-specification mechanicals are not.

Notice what is not on that list: paint, livery, and the light on the roof. Those sell the photograph. They do not hold the value.

A note on prices

You will not find values on this site, and the book does not print them either. A figure published today is wrong within a year and misleading for a decade, and the market for these cars is thin enough that a handful of sales can move it.

What does not change is the hierarchy. Documentation, then correct equipment, then driveline originality. Judge any asking price against those three and you will not go far wrong.

Before you commit

• Photograph the identification tag yourself, in place, and check the code against the model year
• Look for the physical scars of removed equipment: spotlight holes, filled roof holes, wiring runs under the dash
• Establish whether the driveline is the one the car was built with
• Ask what documentation transfers with the car, and get it in writing
• Check that period equipment is period-correct, not merely period-looking
• Be honest with yourself about which you are buying: a documented agency car, or a very good tribute

Frequently asked questions

Are ex-police cars a good investment?

This site does not offer investment advice, and prices for these cars move too quickly for any published figure to be reliable. What can be said is that value follows documentation first, correct period equipment second, and driveline originality third — and that undocumented cars are harder to sell on than well-documented ordinary ones.

How rare are genuine ex-police cars?

Rarer than most people expect. Police cars were worked until they failed and then sold into taxi service, small fleets, demolition derbies or the scrap trade, and the desirable engines were often worth more removed than the car was whole. One owner of a 1969 CHP Polara reports six years of searching to find a genuine example.

What should I ask a seller first?

What the provenance rests on. Not what the car has — what the claim rests on. Documentation is the answer you want; a photograph of the identification tag is the next best. If the answer is the paint, it rests on nothing.

Is it worth buying a tribute car?

Yes, if it is described as one and priced as one. A well-built tribute is a legitimate and enjoyable thing to own, and many well-known show cars are tributes whose owners say so. The problem only arises when a car is sold as a genuine agency vehicle without documentation, because the buyer inherits that problem at resale.

What is the most common mistake buyers make?

Paying for authentication the seller has not actually provided. Livery, a light bar and a spotlight look like evidence and are not. They can be added to any car in a weekend, which is precisely why they are so often present.