The Crown Victoria may die in about a year's time, but that doesn't mean Ford is giving up on the rear-wheel-drive police car market. In fact, the automaker revealed today it would launch such a vehicle in 2011, making it perfect competition for the revived Chevrolet Caprice.
"We have heard the repeated requests from the law enforcement community to continue [our] uninterrupted support," said Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas. "Ford is answering the call with the new Police Interceptor -- engineered and built in America."
Frankly, we'd be surprised if Ford would leave the market altogether. Although the Crown Vic doesn't resonate with consumers, it does with cops -- Ford controls nearly 75 percent of the police pursuit market in the U.S. We're a little more surprised to hear the new car is being designed and built domestically, seeing as Ford's modern rear-wheel-drive sedan models originate from Australia.
It wouldn't be surprising if the Police Interceptor shares some of its structural design with the present Australian Falcon. Ford plans to reveal the Interceptor in the first quarter of 2010, and that timeframe is a little tight to completely engineer an all-new vehicle.
We won't have to wait too long to find out. Ford plans on ending production of the Crown Vic in late 2011, and production of the new Police Interceptor will resume "without interruption."