I have my eyes on a 2004 crownvictoria P71, what should I know?

Hey all, one of the cars I've always wanted is a crown Victoria police interceptor, probably from playing so many racing games lol, and due to annoying circumstances a family member crashed my truck, and it will get totaled no doubt (1994 chevy Silverado, it was really nice, but probably too old for SGI to say it's worth fixing).

Anyways, I'm still waiting to see what I get for it, but while looking for cars I found a 2004 crown Victoria P71, 267,000km, for $3200 CAD. It has a brand new white paint job less than a month old, has the spotlights on both mirrors, right one not working but the guy is getting parts for it to get it working, it's in beautiful shape, I'm going to get pictures of it next week, waiting to hear when it was retired. He only drove it during the summer apparently.

It has no bull bars, all the other lights have been stripped out, I'm not sure if it still has the rollcage or not, it does have all the cutouts for police equipment. I believe this is the one made for patrol, not unmarked duty (black grill, no chrome handles or anything, center cap wheels).

I'm wondering what I should know about buying one of these. Do you think the price is right for a car with that much mileage? What should I check before buying it?

I can post a picture from the ad when I am home later.

Way too expensive. Check craigslist listings from major cities around you. You should be paying around $2400 for that many miles. It's not going to last forever, it will need engine work someday soon. You should be getting a 2007 or 08 with just over 100,000 for that price!

I got my 2007 police interceptor at an auction for 1200 with some minor scratches and some paint missing from the gas cap and it had 228000 miles on it and still ran beautifully but if I were you I would ask if it had an engine raplacment at any point and when that was if it did, also check the brake pads and all the other things that are easy to check if they don't want you to for any reason then your gonna want to find someone else ask him if he can lower the price I think that's a little high as well if things don't go the way you want then try at your local auction.

Update: these are the only two police interceptors around here, someone posted a 2008, 148,000km for 3200, however, this one is missing that protective strip on the door on the front passenger side, I got barely any info from them and no extra pictures, they basically just said come on down, I feel like it's someone who just bought one and doesn't really care much about the car.

This one also has just summer tires from what I can tell, the winter studded on the 04 probably would do fine for winter even with summer-ish front tires.

It also doesn't have the spotlights which I really, really like, and it's probably tough to put them into a car that never had them. They not only look cool but could be handy if I was doing for someone and they didn't put their porch light on lol.

I don't think there is a local auction around here, and if there is I don't have the money for it, I'll get the estimate from SGI in a week or so and then we have to argue over the price.


The 2008 has a lot lower mileage (or kilometerage if that's the word for it lol), but it lacks the spotlights, I'd have to buy winter tires, and I know a lot less about it compared to the other one. I don't really know how to check brake pads and if I ordered an OBD II reader for y phone it would take a while to get here, probably too late before I went and checked the cars out but it would be good to have.

The 08 is tempting but I'm leaning towards the 04, it's just such a touch choice.

Something I just noticed looking at the ads, the 2008 has yellow on the sides of the headlights (further back than the turn indicators) whereas the 2004 has clear, which would be for strobes I imagine. Not sure if that has any significance.

Seems really high to me. Maybe cop cars are in high demand there, but that car shouldn't be more than $2-$2500 from everything I see. It seems like you're about to spend a lot of money on a car that you;re not at all sure about. Don't know brake situation, maintenance, tires... COuld add up to a lot in a hurry.

If your'e dead set on this car(It seems like you are), then I would negotiate. Not "Argue" about the price. Negotiation is just finding common middle ground. No one should be offended if you explain why you want to pay a certain amount for what they're offering. My $.02.

Either someone replaced the side lights with clear or the picture isn't showing it. (I have a 2009 and bought clears for it but to be legal it (even the police) has to have amber but the cops usually don't care. The strobes are mounted in the corner clears, the backup lights and the rear tail lamps. they usually leave them in place as it's too much work to remove them, besides it's up to the owner to make sure the police equipment isn't hooked up.
Mine has all the strobes (I am going to hook them to my alarm system) the siren/PA dual spotlights and a pushbar. The spotlights not only look cool (especially duals) put are really handy, back in the 50's lot's of hot rods had em!
The reason the right spotlight isn't working is there are 3 wires on that side so the driver can turn it on and off from the light control panel, it's an easy fix.
Mine has 71K miles on it and I bought it for $3400 It is black with white roof and front doors but soon it will be all black with 18 inch Mustang GT wheels. By the way, that door trim is an 'option delete' so the police can put their decals on it! I downloaded the window sticker and see they charges $60 to leave them off! If you are planning to remove the ones on the rear doors be forwarned there is a 3/4" hole behind it that was used when aligning the rear door at the factory, I happened to find a set of front and rear so I will replace them but you can do some bodywork and plug them.
Mine also has the fire suppression system (cost of option was $3800! not cheap huh?, the blue silicon radiator hoses was a $350 option but they will last the life of the car!
The P71's in my opinion is a great deal, according to the window sticker mine was sold to Avondale AZ police dept in late 2009 for $32,600 so I figured it was worth what I paid,
If you get the VIN let me know and I will shoot you an address where you can download the original window sticker.
Go for it, the newer ones have the best upgrades.