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It's official: for police, the Ford Taurus and Explorer are the new Crown Vic

It's official: for police, the Ford Taurus and Explorer are the new Crown Vic

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Ford announced this morning that its Police Interceptor lineup, which includes tricked-out versions of the Taurus and Explorer, has hit 61 percent US market share. That's up from 55 percent in 2014, and just under 40 percent in 2012. Other popular police vehicles include the Dodge Charger and Chevy Caprice and Tahoe, but with these numbers, the precinct is now officially Ford's world; Dodge and Chevy are just living in it.

For anyone who's been driving for more than a couple years, "Ford" and "police" are inseparable concepts, anyway: The venerable Crown Victoria — which soldiered on as a zombie apocalypse car only available for fleet sales like cab companies and police long after it stopped being sold to the public — was the universal standard cop car for many, many years before its long-overdue discontinuation in 2011. Countless Crown Vics, basically indestructible thanks to their simple, old design and endless availability of scrap parts, are still on the road today, though many police departments have finally moved on to more modern vehicles. Since the Taurus is smaller than the Crown Vic was, Ford now uses the two-sizes-fits-all strategy: the Taurus sedan alongside the Explorer SUV.

All this is to say, if you haven't been watching out for Tauruses when you're going ten over on the highway, it's time to start.


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