Even worse than that, the Royal Mail is currently updating it small / medium van fleet…… to PEUGEOT…!!!
There were thousands of them in the import yards in Avonmouth recently - British postal service, France vans!!
At least if they’d gone for a Ford Transit, the engines are still made here, maybe if they’d ordered Transits they wouldn’t have shut Southampton assembly lines down.
bazza123:
It might be worth remembering CF that Essex use Mitsubishi Evo’s (they’ve been on the telly!) and I believe a lot of emergency bikes are Honda’s. They’re hardly crap are they?And I’m sorry CF to say it, it pains me to say it, but most Old Brit cars were [zb].
Hillman Imp, Vauxhall Chevette anyone?
An Evo isn’t exactly in the same league as an unlimited XFR would be which is what I’d prefer as a police driver and back in the day when the Brits ruled the law didn’t exactly go chasing anyone with an Imp or a Chevette. 
Carryfast:
Andydisco:
I’m surely not the only one who’s surprised that carryfast has not decided in his wisdom that the old bill should be using rear wheel drive yank motorsIf I was a police driver I’d be happy with either the Charger or the Caprice.
motortrend.com/roadtests/sed … ewall.html
No doubt the Brits would only want the poverty spec fwd 288 hp version of the Taurus though.
typical yank cars , they will be cutting the verges or clearing the pavement of people when a bend comes along
hence why the rear wheel drive ■■■■ is not popular over here with joe public let alone the police 
might have a chance with the AWD though
No doubt we can build some world class cars, Toyota, Nissan, Mini,Honda al done minus British management and crackpot unions.
The police buy vehicles based on price and fit for purpose anyone who believes a Jag is better than a 5 series needs help.
mike68:
No doubt we can build some world class cars, Toyota, Nissan, Mini,Honda al done minus British management and crackpot unions.The police buy vehicles based on price and fit for purpose anyone who believes a Jag is better than a 5 series needs help.
I think you mean we can assemble Jap cars using Jap components with neutered unions hence why incomes are now falling while prices are rising and if a Toyota,Honda or a Mini fits your definition of a ‘world class car’ that just proves how much that the establishment has managed to lower the expectations of the British car buying customer base.But look on the bright side that’s still probably better than a bicycle which will inevitably be the next step in convincing the working classes is the best they can have as incomes continue to fall in real terms in the interests of ‘competitiveness’ in the global free market economy.
As for a Jag not being better than a 5 series anyone who believes that they could ever get the equivalent car from BMW,for the same money,as a Jag,especially the further back you go in time,needs help.
I’d say its the case with all blue light services. Fire service going with Scania, Volvo and Merc, the Ambulance service going with merc and Renault.
SB
Well here are the prices for BMW and Jaguar
Generally speaking the BMW’s are cheaper than the Jag’s, when faced with budget cuts etc, which police chief is realistically going to choose a Jag over a BMW??
Where are Dorset police’s Landrovers built then?
Carryfast:
There probably isn’t such a thing as an all British made car now as there would have been on the police fleets during the 1970’s in the case of Jaguar/Rover/Triumph.A British assembled car containing lots of foreign manufactured componentry made by a foreign owned firm is about as close as it gets now.Ironically ever since Thatcher effectively closed down our manufacturing industry helped in large part in her election victories by the Sun.
Nothing to do with the unions then that kept forcing their members to go on strike for whatever reason that came into their heads, trying to convince the workers ( their high paying members) that it was for their benefit. ■■?
Don’t remember her having anything to do with the closure of the old docks in London, Liverpool , Southampton etc., Was it her that was involved in the demise of the motor manufacturing industry in England. ? A lot of the causes that ended the once great manufacturing industry, here in England, can only be blamed on the unions
nickyboy:
Current UK Car manufacturers:
AC (1908-present) Maltesers
Ariel (1999-present)
Ascari (1995-present)
Aston Martin (1921-present) Kuwaiti
Bentley(1919-present) German
Berkeley(1956-1961) (1991-present)
BAC (2009-present)
Bristol (1946-present)
Brooke (1901-1913) (1991-present)
Caparo (2006-present)
Caterham (1973-present) Malaysian Owner
Connaught Motor Company (2004-present)
Daimler (1896-present) German
Farboud (2004-present)
Ginetta (1957-present)
Grinnall (1993-present)
Invicta (1900-1905) (1913-1914) (1925-1950)(2004-present)
Jaguar (1945-present) Indian
JZR (1989-1998, 2000-present)
Land Rover (1948-present) Indian
Lea-Francis (1903-1906; 1920-1935; 1937-1952; 1980-present)
Lister (1954-1959; 1986-present)
Locost (1995-present)
Lotus (1951-present) Malaysian
McLaren (1969-1970; 1993-1998; 2005-Present)
MINI (1959-2000) (2001-present) German
MK Indy (1996-present)
Morgan (1910-present)
Noble (1998-present)
Nova (1971-present)
Prodrive (1984-present)
Radical (1997-present)
Rolls-Royce (1904-present) German
Trident (1965-1978) (1999-present)
Triking (1978-present)
TVR (1954-present) Russian
Ultima (1992-present)
Vauxhall (1903-present)
Westfield (1982-present)Out of that list how many do you think are actually suitable for use as Police cars? Those that are are already used by Police forces.
Forces choose their cars for price, reliability etc.
BMW heavily discount their cars, a 5 series is cheaper than the list price for an Astra for example. Big manufacturers can afford to do that. Those manufacturers that sell a lot of cars to Police forces also have designated specifications from the factory for police vehicles. Vauxhall used to for the Senator.
I have added a few notes.
Volvo had, maybe still have a specialist Police Department, from there you could order a saloon or estate car with bullet proof glass, gun safes and uprated suspension, they also came with additional wiring and an upgraded charging system. Humberside Police use to source their vehicles through my brother, the actual cars were serviced in-house but came to him for warranty work or PDI
Carryfast:
mike68:
No doubt we can build some world class cars, Toyota, Nissan, Mini,Honda al done minus British management and crackpot unions.The police buy vehicles based on price and fit for purpose anyone who believes a Jag is better than a 5 series needs help.
I think you mean we can assemble Jap cars using Jap components with neutered unions hence why incomes are now falling while prices are rising and if a Toyota,Honda or a Mini fits your definition of a ‘world class car’ that just proves how much that the establishment has managed to lower the expectations of the British car buying customer base.But look on the bright side that’s still probably better than a bicycle which will inevitably be the next step in convincing the working classes is the best they can have as incomes continue to fall in real terms in the interests of ‘competitiveness’ in the global free market economy.
As for a Jag not being better than a 5 series anyone who believes that they could ever get the equivalent car from BMW,for the same money,as a Jag,especially the further back you go in time,needs help.
I don’t hear of Honda in Swindon paying crap wages or Nissan in Sunderland doing the same all of the marques I mentioned are superior to several of the other European makes made elsewhere in the E.U as for the components the majority of the foreign makes use parts produced within the E.U.
There were a multitude of reasons why the British motor industry went bust or is now foreign owned, the biggest one was the fact that the cars were total and utter rubbish. I own a Toyota and if Rover were still going and I had the choice which one to own, not difficult is it.
The main thing is, does it really matter what cars/vans the police use?
Hampshire police seem to be trailing Volvo - the had a marked one with AE61 ■■■ plates…
Besides, you know you’re in a different area when the make of car changes 
As to fire engines, Hampshire fire and rescue have used Volvos for donkies years and the ambulance used to have Transits, then Mercs with a few Ivecos now it’s all Mercs…
Perhaps if there was one national purchasing department rather than individual forces buying from manufacturersm then they might have more buying power, and get more of a discount??
But the senior plod would miss out on their trips abroad and other perks.
Where I used to live, the ambulance fleet was suddenly and unaccountably replaced with Dodge ambulances, which were based on a bonneted light truck platform. The crews hated them, and maintained they were unsafe at over 30 mph.
But it tuned out the guy who signed off the order had a nice trip over that Atlantic to ‘see them being PDI’d’ with a tour of Niagara Falls and other nice things thrown in.
I may be wrong, but I think in the end the things were weighed and found to be very overweight, hence they were a bit wobbly at speed.
I think one of the reasons Sprinters are now used as emergency Ambulances is, quite simply, they are very fast and sure-footed.
Dennis Fire engines seemed to be a casualty of the split between Dennis bus division (now Alexander Dennis Ltd - ADL) and Dennis Eagle.
The cabs were made by Dennis Eagle, and the chassis by Dennis bus, with the bodies made by another company called John Dennis.
So I guess they were nobody’s baby; Volvo and Scania seem to have benefited the most, although there are some specialist crash tenders on DAF LF chassis and some heavy stuff made by MAN to deal with chemical incidents etc.
bazza123:
Well here are the prices for BMW and JaguarGenerally speaking the BMW’s are cheaper than the Jag’s, when faced with budget cuts etc, which police chief is realistically going to choose a Jag over a BMW??
I actually said Jaguars are cheaper on a like with like basis compared to BMW’s.So I can have 313 hp from BMW or 340 hp from Jaguar for around the same price or 510 hp from Jaguar for under £20,000 extra unlike BMW.
jaguar.co.uk/xf/pricing-specs/at-a-glance
carpages.co.uk/guide/bmw/bmw … -guide.asp
Although as I said the value for money of Jaguars v BMW’s is nothing like as good now as it was during those days of British Leyland ownership and so called militant unions.
smokinbarrels:
I’d say its the case with all blue light services. Fire service going with Scania, Volvo and Merc, the Ambulance service going with merc and Renault.SB
All of which are probably leased
I worked in the motor trade in the late 1970s. I seem to remember long waiting lists for Rovers & Jags, because on paper they seemed very good value for money for what they were.
And yes they were cheap: because each one that rolled off the line was subsidised by the British taxpayer, most of whom could not afford to buy a new luxury car.
But, and here’s the rub, people who got sick of waiting went to BMW instead…and were amazed by the quality, comfort, performance, reliability etc. A bit like die-hard ERF customers of the time, who tried a Scania and never looked back.
“My God, it starts first time on a winter morning,the cab is water-tight and draught-free, it doesn’t pea oil everywhere, the seat won’t give me piles and it doesn’t lay a smokescreen like a WWII destroyer.”
All of those were thought to be ‘givens’ on the ‘real lorries’ of the time.
“those foreign motors, they won’t last, you know”
Probably the most under-rated British car of the time was the Triumph Dolomite Sprint. My boss raced a BM with some success in British Production Saloon Cars at the time, and the one car he genuinely feared was the Triumph Dolomite Sprint. You could even get them in ‘BL Damson’ which us biker boys knew was Amaranth Red: one of the great original Triumph Motorcycle colours.
Wheel Nut:
smokinbarrels:
I’d say its the case with all blue light services. Fire service going with Scania, Volvo and Merc, the Ambulance service going with merc and Renault.SB
All of which are probably leased
Very much so: local authorities capital expenditure is very tight.About half of all new Merc CV’s in the UK are leased from Daimler Finance. the likes of Daimler, Paccar etc have their own banks to keep their factories running in tough times like these.
iDriver:
I can’t help feeling the FOI request has been used to highlight the wrong issue. Ok so the 43 forces in England & Wales have fleets the are made up from an assortment of mainly none British built cars, vans and motorcycles, so what?The real issue it highlights is that each of the 43 forces has fleets mad up of completely different vehicles… WHY?
Doesn’t a normal patrol car in Devon & Cornwall do the same job as a patrol car in North Yorkshire?. Do Merseyside vans no carry prisoners just like a Kent van? Doesn’t a traffic car in ■■■■■■■ have to do the same speeds as a traffic car in West Midlands etc?
So why are each force wasting time and reducing budgets having fleet user meetings then buying limited numbers for their own force ? Instead they should be buying their fleet collectively for all 43 forces at a massive discount. The money they save from their individual fleet budgets could then go back into funding police officers on the front line rather than cutting their numbers as thy are doing.
Absolutely correct iDriver! But then there would be 42 fleet buyers looking for a job, and 42 less fleet buyers not getting vastly inflated bonuses each year for “cost savings”.
Completely absurd!
Why whinge when hardly any of us own British made vehicles. Does it really matter anyway? How many of you drive British trucks? what was that, nobody? well hang your heads in shame.
