Michigan test archive
2003 Michigan State Police Patrol Vehicle Test
The Interceptor is rebuilt from the frame up, the Intrepid becomes the first Chrysler police sedan since the Diplomat — and the lap counting changes.
Nine vehicles were evaluated from September 21 to 23, 2002: four police package and five special service. The headline belongs to Ford, which had replaced the Police Interceptor mid-year in March 2002 — the pre-production version of this very car had been run at the previous year’s test, where its ABS failed twice. The production 2003 arrived with a new hydroformed steel frame, new shocks, springs and suspension, rack-and-pinion steering, an all-new brake system with ABS now standard, and a new Goodyear tyre. It lapped Grattan in 1:41.65, the quickest sedan of the year.
Michigan also records a piece of history in a single clause. The Dodge Intrepid, it notes, was the first police-package sedan entered by DaimlerChrysler in these tests since the Dodge Diplomat in 1989. Thirteen years off the board, and the Intrepid came back running 136 mph — the fastest vehicle in the entire test, faster than the rebuilt Interceptor by eight miles an hour.
And the way a lap time is earned changed this year. From 2003 each vehicle runs 32 timed laps in four eight-lap series, and the score is the combined average of each driver’s five fastest — the twenty best of thirty-two. Every earlier page in this archive uses the older method of sixteen laps scored on the fastest twelve.
The police category
| Vehicle | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed | Dynamics | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) | Ergonomics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dodge Intrepid | 9.14 | 24.80 | 136 | 1:42.07 | 26.69 | 145.1 | 199.14 |
| Ford Police Interceptor | 9.14 | 25.58 | 128 | 1:41.65 | 26.05 | 148.6 | 196.90 |
| Chevrolet Impala | 9.25 | 26.73 | 126 | 1:44.25 | 29.12 | 133.0 | 196.32 |
| AM General Hummer | 20.65 | never reached | 85 | 2:00.87 | 22.76 | 170.1 | 154.40 |
Gold row: fastest vehicle in the test at 136 mph, and quickest to 100. The Intrepid and the Police Interceptor recorded identical 0–60 times of 9.14 seconds — the Ford then took the lap by four tenths, the Dodge took the top speed by eight miles an hour, and the Dodge stopped three and a half feet shorter. On the numbers this is the closest the archive has ever come to a genuine two-horse race between a Ford and a Chrysler.
The Impala’s braking is the year’s outstanding single figure: 29.12 ft/s² and a computed 133.0-foot stop, the shortest since the 2000 Volvo wagon and the third-shortest in this archive. It stopped fifteen feet shorter than the Ford.
Against that, the rebuilt Interceptor’s brakes tell an awkward story across the two phases. Its first six stops averaged 26.38 ft/s² over 145.97 feet; after the four-minute heat soak the second six averaged 24.34 over 158.45 feet. Twelve and a half feet of degradation, the largest phase-to-phase drop among the sedans, in the first year of an all-new brake system.
The special-service vehicles
| Vehicle | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) | Ergonomics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Tahoe (4WD) | 9.31 | not reached | 98 | 25.31 | 153.0 | 219.69 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe (2WD) | 9.34 | not reached | 98 | 25.69 | 150.7 | 215.59 |
| Ford Expedition (4WD) | 11.27 | 35.83 | 100 | 24.76 | 156.4 | 202.73 |
| Ford Explorer (2WD) | 11.75 | 37.87 | 101 | 26.70 | 145.0 | 179.44 |
| Ford Expedition (2WD) | 12.30 | 40.91 | 100 | 25.36 | 152.7 | 202.73 |
Printed as found, with one oddity left standing: the two-wheel-drive Expedition is slower than the four-wheel-drive at every increment — 12.30 seconds to 60 against 11.27, and more than five seconds adrift at 100 mph. The bulletin offers no explanation, and notes separately that no information was available from Ford at press time regarding the Explorer and Expedition. The two Expeditions share a single ergonomics score in the source.
What the manufacturers changed for 2003
Ford rebuilt the Police Interceptor and introduced it as a mid-year replacement in March 2002. The frame is new hydroformed steel, which Ford’s engineers said would improve strength and front-end crash performance; the shocks, springs, suspension and rack-and-pinion steering are new; the brake system is all new with ABS standard; and the tyre is a Goodyear Eagle RS–A Plus. A variable-speed electric cooling fan and a knock sensor to handle low-octane fuel were added. Inside: a higher head restraint for whiplash protection, side air bags standard from July 2003 production on power-seat cars, adjustable cup holders, a new power point, and a power distribution box with ten fuse locations standard in the passenger compartment and optional in the trunk. A CNG version was to be available in January 2003, but Ford elected not to submit one for testing.
Chevrolet raised the Impala’s fuel cut-off to 129 mph and made standard four items that had been optional: an engine oil cooler, an external transmission oil cooler, low-frequency radio interference suppression, and the UT7 ground stud for the electrical system. The Tahoe gained standard power windows and rear air conditioning.
DaimlerChrysler left the Intrepid largely unchanged but said the power steering and ABS had been enhanced over the 2002 car, with side air bags and remote keyless entry newly optional.
AM General submitted the Hummer again as a police-package vehicle with no significant changes. Its ergonomics total of 154.40 is identical to the figure published for 2002.
A discrepancy worth recording
The 2003 Police Interceptor appears in two consecutive books. The pre-production car evaluated in the 2002 tests scored 223.08 on ergonomics and communications — the highest police-category figure in this archive. The production car evaluated a year later scored 196.90. That is a 26-point swing on the same nominal vehicle, scored by different panels of officers a year apart. I have no explanation for it beyond the obvious one that these are human judgments averaged across a changing group of evaluators, and I am recording both figures rather than choosing between them.
What 2003 settled
Ford answered the previous year’s embarrassment with metal. The Interceptor that had failed its ABS twice and missed the braking requirement came back on a new frame, with new suspension, new steering and a new brake system, and took the fastest lap of the year. Whether the brakes were actually fixed is a fair question — the second phase of its stops fell away by twelve and a half feet — but the car that would carry American policing for another decade had found its final shape.
And a name returned to the tables. The last time DaimlerChrysler had entered a police-package sedan at Michigan, it was a Dodge Diplomat and the year was 1989. Thirteen years later the Intrepid ran 136 mph, matched the Ford’s 0–60 to the hundredth, and out-stopped it. Chrysler was properly back — for exactly two more model years.