The manufacturers
Every manufacturer Michigan has tested
Twenty-two of them, from the three that built almost everything to the ones that turned up once and never came back.
Three manufacturers account for three hundred and ninety-seven of the five hundred and twenty-seven vehicles in this archive. The other nineteen share what is left.
Some of those nineteen are more interesting than their record counts suggest.
All of them
Gold rows have their own page. Shaded rows are motorcycle manufacturers, covered together on the motorcycles page. Every other name links to that maker’s entries in the results table.
| Manufacturer | Entries | Years | Span | Fastest recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford | 160 | 37 | 1978–2026 | 150 mph2013 |
| Chevrolet | 154 | 37 | 1978–2026 | 160 mph2000 |
| Dodge | 83 | 29 | 1978–2026 | 152 mph2012 |
| Harley-Davidson | 36 | 16 | 2007–2026 | 119 mph2026 |
| BMW | 25 | 16 | 2007–2026 | 141 mph2026 |
| Plymouth | 14 | 8 | 1978–1989 | 132.7 mph1978 |
| Jeep | 13 | 8 | 1993–2001 | 115 mph1993 |
| Volvo | 7 | 4 | 1997–2000 | 153 mph2000 |
| Moto Guzzi | 4 | 2 | 2014–2015 | 129 mph2014 |
| Victory | 4 | 3 | 2012–2014 | 120 mph2012 |
| AM General | 3 | 3 | 2001–2003 | 88 mph2001 |
| Buick | 3 | 3 | 1978–1981 | 113.1 mph1980 |
| Can-Am | 3 | 3 | 2015–2017 | 121 mph2016 |
| Chrysler | 3 | 1 | 1981 | 114.7 mph1981 |
| Yamaha | 3 | 3 | 2018–2020 | 147 mph2020 |
| Zero | 3 | 3 | 2016–2018 | 102 mph2018 |
| Buell | 2 | 2 | 2009–2010 | 108 mph2010 |
| Kawasaki | 2 | 2 | 2011–2012 | 131 mph2011 |
| Subaru | 2 | 1 | 1998 | 112 mph1998 |
| Honda | 1 | 1 | 2026 | 119 mph2026 |
| Pontiac | 1 | 1 | 1978 | 110.2 mph1978 |
| Ram | 1 | 1 | 2026 | 103 mph2026 |
The three that matter
| Manufacturer | The story |
|---|---|
| Ford | Present every year. Its fastest vehicle was a sedan, then a Mustang, and has been a sport utility since 2019. Its last police sedan was tested in 2018 |
| Chevrolet | Also present every year — and it killed the fastest police sedan in America twice. For ten straight years its quickest entry was a Camaro |
| Dodge | Absent for twelve years. Chrysler stopped building police cars after 1989 and did not return with a competitive one until the Charger in 2006 |
Two entries in this table that surprise people
Volvo recorded 153 mph in 2000. Seven entries across four years, 1997 to 2000, and that figure is faster than every Ford, every Dodge and every Chevrolet sedan ever tested here. It is beaten only by a Camaro and a Caprice. Almost nobody bought one.
The AM General Hummer managed 88 mph. Three entries between 2001 and 2003, and it is the slowest thing in the archive that was not a natural-gas conversion. It was in the test as a special service vehicle, not a patrol car, but it is a reminder that “police vehicle” once covered a very wide range.
A Volvo sedan was faster round Michigan than anything Ford or Dodge ever brought. It is not in a single argument about police cars, because nobody bought it.
The ones that came once
Pontiac has a single entry, in 1978. Honda and Ram have one each, both in 2026. Subaru brought two vehicles to 1998 and never returned.
Those single entries are worth keeping in the table rather than tidying away. A manufacturer testing once and not coming back is a decision, and the record of it is the only place that decision is visible.
Motorcycles are a separate market
Ten of the twenty-two manufacturers here build only motorcycles, and between them they hold eighty-three entries — as many as Dodge. Harley-Davidson alone has more entries than any vehicle maker except Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge.
They are covered together rather than one page each, because the interesting thing about them is that they are all measured against each other, and against the cars, by the same procedure — and they beat the cars on four measures out of five.