Michigan test archive
2004 Michigan State Police Patrol Vehicle Test
Two Interceptors separated by one axle ratio, a Kevlar-lined trunk, and the Intrepid’s last stand.
Eight vehicles were evaluated from September 20 to 22, 2003 — four police package and four special service — and Ford submitted two Police Interceptors that differed in exactly one component. One carried the standard 3.27 rear axle, the other the optional 3.55. Ford told Michigan in advance what the trade would be: better acceleration, and a maximum top speed reduced to 119 mph. The measured result was 8.25 seconds to 60 against 8.44, 22.52 to 100 against 23.30 — and a top speed of 118. The manufacturer’s prediction was out by a single mile an hour.
Ford had also raised the Interceptor’s output to 250 horsepower with a new air induction system, and added an item that belongs in the record without editorial: Ford’s Trunk Pack, a drop-in high-density polyethylene shell with a DuPont Kevlar lining on its forward face, which Ford stated would reduce the risk of trunk-mounted police equipment penetrating into the back seat or the fuel tank in a high-speed rear impact.
And this was the end for Chrysler’s return. DaimlerChrysler confirmed at the test that 2004 would be the last year of production for the Intrepid police package, and that a completely new, yet-to-be-announced police-package vehicle would follow for 2005. The Intrepid went out running 135 mph — still the fastest vehicle in the test, as it had been in each of its three years.
The police category
| Vehicle | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed | Dynamics | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) | Ergonomics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford Police Interceptor (3.55 axle) | 8.25 | 22.52 | 118 | 1:41.98 | 25.74 | 150.4 | 199.50 |
| Dodge Intrepid | 8.56 | 23.56 | 135 | 1:42.02 | 28.18 | 137.4 | 196.70 |
| Ford Police Interceptor (3.27 axle) | 8.44 | 23.30 | 128 | 1:42.09 | 25.89 | 149.6 | 199.50 |
| Chevrolet Impala | 9.00 | 26.42 | 123 | 1:44.70 | 28.85 | 134.2 | 206.78 |
Gold row: quickest to 60 and to 100, and quickest around Grattan — but seventeen miles an hour slower than the Intrepid at the top end, and ten slower than its own 3.27-geared twin. The three fastest cars finish within 0.11 seconds of each other over a two-mile lap. That is the tightest spread in this archive, and it says more about how completely the police-sedan formula had converged by 2004 than any single figure on the page.
The braking column reverses the order entirely. Both Interceptors sit at the bottom — 149.6 and 150.4 feet — while the Impala stops in 134.2 and the Intrepid in 137.4. The slowest car in the test out-stopped the quickest by more than fifteen feet, and it also took the ergonomics column at 206.78. As in 2000 and 2001, the front-drive Chevrolet loses the arguments that make good television and wins the ones that decide contracts.
The special-service vehicles
| Vehicle | 0–60 (s) | 0–100 (s) | Top speed | Brakes (ft/s²) | 60–0 (ft) | Ergonomics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Tahoe (2WD) | 8.58 | N/A | 99 | 27.19 | 142.4 | 217.40 |
| Ford Explorer (2WD) | 8.90 | 28.25 | 107 | 27.30 | 141.8 | 210.98 |
| Chevrolet Tahoe (4WD) | 9.20 | N/A | 99 | 26.61 | 145.5 | 217.40 |
| Ford Expedition (2WD) | 10.11 | N/A | 100 | 27.09 | 142.9 | 187.67 |
The two-wheel-drive Tahoe reached 60 mph in 8.58 seconds — quicker than every police-package sedan in the test except the 3.55-geared Interceptor, and quicker than the Impala by nearly half a second. It is classified special service, not rated for pursuit, and Michigan is one model year away from putting a pursuit-rated version of exactly this vehicle into the police category.
One printed figure does not survive scrutiny and is flagged rather than repeated as fact: the bulletin gives the two-wheel-drive Tahoe’s 0–50 time as 4.36 seconds, which is quicker than its own 0–40 of 4.43 and impossible against its 8.58-second 0–60. It is evidently a typesetting error for something near 6.36. Every other figure in its ladder is consistent.
What the manufacturers changed for 2004
Ford fitted a new air induction system raising the Police Interceptor to 250 horsepower, an increase of eleven, and offered the optional 3.55 rear axle — stating openly that it would improve acceleration and cut top speed to 119 mph. A 200-amp high-output generator and a trunk-mounted power distribution box became standard. Stand-alone side air bags could now be ordered without the power seat package, and laminated security side glass was optional. The Trunk Pack — a Kevlar-lined polyethylene shell intended to stop trunk equipment intruding into the back seat or fuel tank in a high-speed rear impact — was new. A CNG Police Interceptor would be available in January 2004, and Ford stated it would be the final year of production for that version. The Excursion was in its last year as well.
DaimlerChrysler gave the Intrepid new rear brake pads, which its police vehicle engineering team said would help prevent premature front brake wear, and confirmed that 2004 was the Intrepid police package’s final year, with an unnamed replacement due for 2005.
Chevrolet offered the Impala in both 9C1 police and 9C3 unmarked packages with New England and California emissions available if specified at order. The Tahoe carried over. The turnkey equipment installation programme run through Kerr Industries was expanded to include fold-down equipment trays and trunk organisers, low-profile deck lamps, an accessory power distribution centre and full-size wheel covers.
What 2004 settled
The police sedan had converged. Three cars from two manufacturers, one of them the same car twice with different gears, finished a two-mile lap within eleven hundredths of a second of each other. There was no longer a wrong answer among them and no longer much of an argument — which is a strange thing to say about a programme built entirely on finding differences.
What separated them was the axle ratio, and Michigan measured that trade to the mile per hour: 3.55 gears bought three tenths to 60 and cost ten miles an hour on top, exactly as Ford had said they would. It is the same experiment the programme ran with two Caprices in 1993 and would run again with two Interceptors in 2005 — the one variable in a police car that no amount of engineering can make free.
And the Intrepid left the way it arrived: fastest thing in the test, 135 mph, with a replacement promised and not yet named. It turned out to be a Dodge Magnum, and it would come back the following year classified as special service.