Monday, March 23, 2009

A Cop's Cop Car

After hearing about hospitals designed without the input of those who actually take care of hospital patients, and seeing homes built by people who clearly never planned to live in them, The Jaded Consumer is happy to see someone buck the trend. Carbon Motors Corp. has designed a police cruiser with the input of thousands of police officers, to solve the myriad problems associated with the existing converted-from-family-car fleet of police vehicles.

Although they don't confess a particular price, this isn't too surprising: they don't yet have a manufacturing location, either. Presumably the police cars, which are designed to last a quarter of a million miles of police service use, will have a price tag that is designed to be appealing on a per-mile basis even if the per-unit price invites sticker shock. If the cars are safer (resisting collisions and gunfire), they may also improve non-vehicle expense profiles, not to mention morale.

Clean-burning 300HP Diesels with sub-7-sec 0-60 would be a relative novelty in a fully-equipped police car, and the ability to get in and out without adjusting a weapon belt will make it hard to work in anything else after.

Coming to a department near you in 2012, maybe.

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