Chrysler 300 SRT V8 police cars axed, so what will replace them?

The NSW Police highway patrol is in pursuit of a new vehicle to supplement its fleet, after the iconic Chrysler SRT V8 reached the end of the road overnight.

While NSW Police highway patrol generally operate a mix of vehicles – to suit various locations and to give them cover if one car brand is forced off the road due to a safety recall – the Chrysler 300 SRT V8 has represented about 30 per cent of the mix, with the balance spread across BMW 530d diesel sedans and the Toyota LandCruiser 200 Series for remote areas.

The end of right-hand-drive production for the Chrysler 300 SRT V8 – confirmed out of the US overnight – means police fleet representatives have already embarked on a new search for suitable replacement vehicles.

While some police hierarchy – outside of the highway patrol – don’t like the “optics” of police driving BMWs, independent experts deem the BMW 530d diesel sedan to be one of the most suitable options, in the absence of being able to adapt US police cars and given the demands on vehicles for road policing and highway patrol work.

Supporters of highway patrol say officers need appropriate equipment that is up to the task of road policing.

“Water police have jet skis and boats because that’s what they need to do the job,” said one officer speaking on condition of anonymity. 

“Specially-trained police have the right tactical equipment for their job, and mounted police have specially-trained horses. The highway patrol needs a vehicle that can withstand the repeated daily demands of highway patrol work.”

Another officer said: “The highway patrol does so much more than write speeding tickets these days. We were on the front line with COVID patrols, we can be deployed to trouble spots across the state at a moment’s notice, and we are often the first police off at the scene of a violent domestic, a hold-up, or some other emergency.”

The first police officer to attend the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney, for example, was a highway patrol motorcyclist.

Number plate recognition cameras fitted to highway patrol cars have been used to find wanted criminals, outlaw motorcycle gang members, and missing persons. 

Victoria Police also chose the BMW 530d sedan as one of the replacement vehicles for its Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon pursuit cars after local manufacturing ended in 2017.

Missing from the debate about highway patrol vehicles is the high demands on braking performance, the room required for technical equipment (among the highest-equipped police cars in the world), seating to convey a drunk or drug-affected driver back to the station, and the savings in fuel bills thanks to diesel power.

The fuel bill for highway patrol cars was cut in half after the switch from Holden Commodore V8s to BMW 530d sedans. Over the 100,000km tenure of a highway patrol vehicle, this adds up to a saving of up to $12,000 per vehicle, depending on the cost of fuel.

Here’s the maths: Holden Commodore V8s were slurping up to 16L/100km during a shift, and the BMW 530d sedans are averaging closer to 8.0L/100km (country cars dip under this, given the time spent open-road cruising).

The fuel consumption difference of 8.0L/100km between the Holden and BMW can add up to $12,000 over 100,000km using a price of $1.50 per litre as a guide. Sometimes the savings were greater, police say, when diesel was up to 20 cents a litre cheaper than petrol. 

Drive understands BMW also provides police in NSW and Victoria with generous discounts on the 530d amid declining sedan sales globally, in a bid to keep BMW’s production lines moving.

The discounted buy price – which was redacted from a freedom of information request made by a rival media outlet – is understood to be about $70,000, not much more than the final Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon pursuit sedans.

Ex-highway patrol BMW 530d sedans also fetch more at auction than the historical prices for Holden and Ford police cars.

However, Chrysler’s decision to end right-hand-drive production of the SRT V8 has once again given NSW police fleet operators the task of finding suitable alternative replacements.

Drive understands up to 10 vehicles are under consideration by NSW Police fleet management.

While we wait and watch for the outcome with interest, here are the cars – and the issues – police will be wrestling with to find a suitable replacement vehicle.

But first, let’s address one car unlikely to make the cut: the Kia Stinger twin-turbo V6 sedan.

Although the Kia Stinger has been selected for highway patrol use in Queensland, West Australia, and the Northern Territory, it was not chosen by the two biggest highway patrol fleets in the country (NSW and Victoria) because it was not deemed suitable based on earlier tests.

Furthermore, the Kia Stinger is past the halfway mark in its global model cycle, so fitting one out now would not be financially viable as it likely has only a couple of years left to run. 

And at this stage Kia is unlikely to continue with the Stinger in its current guise (it could even become an electric car) because the current model has not sold in sufficient numbers globally.  

In the meantime, here is Drive’s Top 10 list of possible highway patrol vehicles.

It works, so let’s keep it in the mix, especially if the price is right. It’s the police car of choice in its homeland Germany, so it has the ancillaries for law enforcement work, ready to go.

Officers say, although performance from the BMW 530d could be a little better (it does 0-100km/h in about six seconds in our testing), the brakes are excellent, reliability is good, and the car is in better condition at 100,000km than a Ford or Holden used to be after the same level of service.

But BMW could help its own cause by making windscreen replacements, brake replacements, and tyre replacements more affordable.

Victoria also runs BMW 530d wagons, which are great for carrying extra specialist equipment.

Police in Victoria have begun rolling out more BMW X5 xDrive30d models. This is a smart move.

BMW is reportedly offering VicPol the BMW X5 at the same price as the sedan, but the X5 will fetch more money at auction once it has retired from service.

Further, the performance of the BMW X5 xDrive30d is almost identical to the sedan (though a touch slower 0-100km/h due to the extra weight, but identical engine). 

But in a BMW X5, police officers are sitting up high, which gives them better crash protection if struck by another vehicle – and a better vantage point to spot seatbelt and mobile phone offences.

Although it is a large SUV and all-wheel-drive, the BMW X5 would be better suited to alpine regions, city and suburban use, and major highways, rather than harsh outback dirt roads.

This is a curveball but police in the ACT already have one of these, and it could be the sweet spot between performance and SUV practicality and safety.

Powered by a turbocharged six-cylinder engine, it can do 0-100km/h in about the same time as a Holden Commodore V8 (5.0 seconds on our timing equipment) but also has excellent braking power.

The BMW X3 is a touch smaller than the BMW X5 but still gives officers a high vantage point for spotting other traffic offences – and to better protect them if struck by another vehicle.

Constant all-wheel-drive grip would make this ideal for alpine regions in NSW and inner city and suburban areas where all-wheel-drive can make light work of tight corners.

As with the BMW X3 M40i, the BMW M340i xDrive has a perky petrol-powered engine, a 3.0-litre turbocharged six-cylinder.

It’s a touch smaller than the BMW 5 Series currently in use, but it has brisk performance (zero to 100km/h in five seconds on our timing equipment) and excellent brakes. Plus it has razor-sharp cornering capabilities.

This may seem an odd choice, but we reckon it’s a smart choice for rural highway patrol work.

The new twin-turbo V6 diesel in the new Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series is no slouch (zero to 100km/h in 7.5 seconds on our testing equipment) and braking performance is sound for a car of this size.

Most importantly, the Toyota LandCruiser is safer than a sedan in an animal strike, and it is also at home on rough dirt roads should the need arise.

There were already about a dozen Toyota LandCruiser 200 Series V8s in the NSW highway patrol; here’s hoping common sense prevails and they are eventually replaced with the new Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series.

With all-terrain tyres, the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series would be too heavy and too cumbersome for slippery and wet alpine roads, but it would be great in the outback.

This is Germany’s Holden Commodore, but roomier and more efficient – and in 206kW guise, available with all-wheel-drive.

Under the bonnet of the 206kW version is the same turbo 2.0-litre four-cylinder as the VW Golf R hot hatch, though in a Passat body it’s a touch slower (zero to 100km/h in about six seconds on our timing equipment). (General duties police are assessing a 140kW front-drive version of the VW Passat, pictured above).

The cabin and cargo hold of the VW Passat (sedan or wagon) are huge and accomodate a full-size spare wheel and tyre. The Passat is also used as a police car in Germany, so VW is well aware of the demands placed on the vehicle.

The brakes are excellent and handling is stable. The only potential downside, according to those who’ve driven the Passat for police work, is the twin-clutch automatic transmission. There’s a touch of hesitation on take-off (a trait of this gearbox design, not exclusive to VW) which can take some time to adjust to, especially when making split-second decisions from a standing start.

In unmarked form, the VW Passat is the ultimate understated sleeper.

There’s a new Subaru WRX around the corner (in sedan and wagon body styles), and the speedometer accuracy fiasco that ended the WRX’s time on the force 20 years ago is behind us.

Police now have access to an all-wheel-drive dyno to calibrate the vehicle’s speedo. And, for the record, the tickets issued by police in a WRX 20 years ago were still valid because the radar also monitored the patrol speed (the police vehicle’s speed).

But speeding drivers had their fines wiped on a technicality because the radar patrol speed needs to correlate with the vehicle’s built-in speedometer.

Suffice to say, police now know how to calibrate the WRX speedometer if it is to be used again. The only thing holding the Subaru WRX back from a return to the force could be public perception.

This car – made by Hyundai’s luxury offshoot Genesis – might not even be on the consideration list, but perhaps it should be. It’s a Kia Stinger (with the same twin-turbo V6) in a Genesis body. It's available as a sedan or wagon (though the V6 is only offered in the sedan).

The only question is: would Genesis do a deal to put hundreds of these on the road when it is trying to establish its luxury image locally?

This would presumably need to be under a special trial program and would only be for city or suburban use because of the limited driving range and the time needed to fully recharge.

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is likely not yet on the consideration list, but it has Holden Commodore V8 acceleration (zero to 100km/h in about five seconds in our tests), excellent braking, and a roomy cabin and cargo hold.

It might sound like a silly suggestion today, but it could be worth a look as a toe-in-the-water exercise in the lead-up to the electric-car era.

VicPol has had a Tesla Model X for a couple of years, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 could form the basis of a NSW Police electric vehicle trial.

For the same reason the Hyundai Ioniq 5 might be part of an electric-car trial in limited areas, NSW Police would be well advised to deploy a Tesla Model 3 Performance edition for long-term evaluation for highway patrol use.

The performance is mind blowing (zero to 100km/h in about four seconds in our testing, or 3.3 seconds claimed by Tesla) and braking is excellent, even though vehicle build quality is variable from car-to-car.

But at least the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Tesla Model 3 Performance would give some great insights into how electric vehicles might be able to be used for highway patrol work in the future.