No more BMW police cars

[bigegg]

LS250 would be the one I'd look at, unless GS prices drop a bit more. Would be petrol and probably autobox since well specc'd manuals seem very thin on the ground. Are the autos (with flappy paddles) reliable?

All that said, I'm hoping the e60 keeps me mobile for a while yet as it's got/does all I need, but a bit of forward planning/research never hurts.

It's an *IS*250, not LS.
IS is roughly equivalent of a 3-series
GS is 5-series
LS is 7-series
These are the _only_ "spec levels", AFAIK.
Older IS came with an option of half or full leather, and some LS came with a gold front badge - that's it.
eg: Any "LS" will have exactly the same spec as any other (of the same year)

In general, only the IS200 came with a manual box. (Might be different on newer models - I stopped looking after 2005)


RX is equivalent of the Xseries. (X5?)

The numbers correspond to engine size:
250 is 2.5L
300 is 3L
600 is 6L (!)
h suffix means petrol/electric hybrid.

d suffix is diseasel. (They only made one - the IS220D. Don't buy one - it's no worse than other marque's diesels - which means its not as reliable as a Lexus should be.)

There are other prefixes - ES, NX, CT. I don't know anything about them.

You do _NOT_ have to buy a new one
Even a 10 or 15 year old one will be as good as a new one - and with a private numberplate no-one would know the difference.
People will assume it's a private numberplate, even when it isn't.

My gearbox is smooth as anything - auto, flappy paddle (actually just buttons on the steering wheel), 20 years old. 250,000miles.
I had issues with the previous (GS) - previous owner had the auto gearbox oil replaced with the wrong stuff, and it was thick, brown, and gloopy.
Full drain/flush/refill fixed that problem: it's 23 years old now, 180,000 miles, and still "on the road" with it's new owner.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

It's an *IS*250, not LS.

It was a typo (note to self, proof read more diligently ).

I appreciate the clarifications/distinctions , I'd be hoping to get into something around the 10 > 12 year-old range.

It's many years since I had an autobox and was going by the ease of getting a fix if the box packed up, hence my preference for manual to date. I'd go auto with Lexus though as I've not read of any box failures in the IS range.

 

[bigegg]

It was a typo (note to self, proof read more diligently ).

I appreciate the clarifications/distinctions , I'd be hoping to get into something around the 10 > 12 year-old range.

It's many years since I had an autobox and was going by the ease of getting a fix if the box packed up, hence my preference for manual to date. I'd go auto with Lexus though as I've not read of any box failures in the IS range.

I think I've said this before:
I've only ever read one bad review, and the reviewer said "the ONLY bad thing about a Lexus is that once you've owned one, you will NEVER be happy with a different make".
I've had two in 14 years.
I only got rid of the first, after 10 years, because I needed an estate and regretted it pretty much instantly.

 

[sickpup]

The Police cannot be seen as selling off vehicles with engines they perceive as dangerous, opens them up to liability so they hole the cases. What the seller does after that is up to the seller. If they did sell them off complete it would be questioned why.

Virtually all Police vehicles, even most of the sneaky beaky ones have a software based service history which you can request as part of a Freedom of Information request from the owning force. System runs much the same as the Merlin military system.
These records do not get wiped on sale of the vehicles, they are permanent records and are held on live and backup systems.
Generally these records contain all work done to a vehicle and the mileage when the work took place. Sometimes the records even include daily checks including mileage but I have only seen this on motorcycles. The vehicle log (for Met Police) also used to require the mileage to be recorded at every fill up, don't know if it still does so even if the service record was destroyed the mileage information was still held in accounting records.

Most Police vehicles used to be sent to auction with a limited service record, I wonder if this stopped just to get the final price up?

 

[Shox Dr]

The Police cannot be seen as selling off vehicles with engines they perceive as dangerous, opens them up to liability so they hole the cases. What the seller does after that is up to the seller. If they did sell them off complete it would be questioned why.

Virtually all Police vehicles, even most of the sneaky beaky ones have a software based service history which you can request as part of a Freedom of Information request from the owning force. System runs much the same as the Merlin military system.
These records do not get wiped on sale of the vehicles, they are permanent records and are held on live and backup systems.
Generally these records contain all work done to a vehicle and the mileage when the work took place. Sometimes the records even include daily checks including mileage but I have only seen this on motorcycles. The vehicle log (for Met Police) also used to require the mileage to be recorded at every fill up, don't know if it still does so even if the service record was destroyed the mileage information was still held in accounting records.

Most Police vehicles used to be sent to auction with a limited service record, I wonder if this stopped just to get the final price up?

I bought an Ex-Police Volvo S60T5r. Had loads of paper work with it; a set of tyres in a fortnight and discs and pads could be weekly. Went like a very fast cat.

Problem was (hindsight) they ate Turbos. Or rather they didnt like the boobs ragging off them combined with no over run when stopped, cracked the hot side. You could only buy full turbos with no exchange.

Problem with these [BMW] vehicles is the parts will become hard to find and expensive.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

A chap I knew locally worked for the police and was based at the station in town. Police had recovered a (modern, undamaged ,sports ) bike and it was held in their impound basement while they tried to trace the owner.
The chap let the impound staff know he would like to buy it if/when the police had to dispose of it.
After a while it disappeared, chap asked what had happened - had the owner been traced or had it been sent to auction ?
Staff told him they hadn't been able to trace the owner so the frame had been sawn into pieces to make sure the bike never went back on the road again - no reason why was given.

This was 30+ years ago so it was before the whole "sue everybody" culture where good machines are destroyed just to avoid any insurance claims, I'm sure they are even more cautious now about selling anything in case they get sued (I understand why they have these policies but to me it's wrong on so many levels)

We get police seizures in at work for the mechanic students to butcher. There’s a lovely mk1 r1, I’ve tried all ways to buy it but when it leaves us it’ll be crushed. Same with a Mazda 6, top spec and immaculate.

 

[skotl]

It's not hidden, Brightwells listing quitely clearly states the "Engine seized/holed" and is done 100% deliberately

Just browsing through the auctions - what a waste

 

[Onoff]

My old tatty 55 plate Corsa

I'd love a new car like yours!

 

[AVI_8]

I’ve run BMW 3.0 D engines for the past 18 years, currently got 2 of them on my driveway, ones got 167 thousand miles, the other 112thousand, and I’ve had many others, always solid engines, can’t say a bad thing about them, they just go on and on, look after them with regular (10k max) oil changes and they’ll last a crazy amount of miles, the best and most reliable engine I’ve ever come across. ……. But it’s a diesel, it’s not fitted to a Porsche so just don’t drive it like so!!
My X3 is re-mapped, 650 NM of torque and 380 HP, but I only did that for the low Rev torque, try getting that from a 5.7 litre petrol engine

 

[prepman]

Bring back the Sierra Cosworths

View attachment 381110

Or delete the engine option

View attachment 381111

Nice to see phasing out of fossil fuels......

 

[prepman]

My neighbour bought an Audi recently and it broke down on the motorway and had to be lifted. Less than 2000 miles on the clock and it needs a complete new engine.but there aren’t any available because they have a fault in them.
So his car will sit at the dealership until such time as a “fault free” engine can be obtained. Gathering dust, getting scratched and depreciating.
Meantime he’s having to pay for it.
I think it would come under the not fit for purpose Lemon umbrella and he should be able to get all his money back.
Anyway, don’t buy an Audi.
All my other neighbours with new cars have had big problems. Tesla, BMW, Audi,Volvo,Toyota, Nissan. Mostly the cars just refuse to go anywhere without notice.
My old tatty 55 plate Corsa that has been scorned by them, is suddenly not so shabby when they urgently need a lift. It starts first time, every time, has a heater and a radio. That’s more than I need. I do smile.

Reminds me of the joke about Russian produced cars.....16 valves .......all in the radio.

 

[AVI_8]

Nice to see phasing out of fossil fuels......

Had a Cosworth back in the day, nothing other than a super car could touch them back then, nowadays you get that level of power in an entry level hot hatch.

 

[northwest]

Had a Cosworth back in the day, nothing other than a super car could touch them back then, nowadays you get that level of power in an entry level hot hatch.

I was running a group five car in the forests, spent a fortune, thousands on it not counting the hundreds of hours prepping it, one day I needed to go get a LSD for it down at Motoscope in Northallerton, pal of mine had a "spare" car, a Mitsubishi Colt turbo. I took off for Northallerton, when I finally got back I looked at the car through new eyes, sold it and bought a Mitsi. Needed nothing spending on it and no time, went like stink AND stuck to the road, when it didn't it was predictable.

 

[AVI_8]

I was running a group five car in the forests, spent a fortune, thousands on it not counting the hundreds of hours prepping it, one day I needed to go get a LSD for it down at Motoscope in Northallerton, pal of mine had a "spare" car, a Mitsubishi Colt turbo. I took off for Northallerton, when I finally got back I looked at the car through new eyes, sold it and bought a Mitsi. Needed nothing spending on it and no time, went like stink AND stuck to the road, when it didn't it was predictable.

Talk about sticking to the road, I think I’ve been to that place in Northallerton, re-shelled an Integrale back in the 90’s and it was Northallerton where I got the shell.

 

[Robotstar5]

Had a Cosworth back in the day, nothing other than a super car could touch them back then, nowadays you get that level of power in an entry level hot hatch.

In the 90's a local guy had a couple of fully liveried Sierra Sapphiire Cosworths he used mainly for transporting organs and transplant teams around the midlands, he was taking a team to Birmingham airport on blue lights when the engine let go at 120 mph on the A45, he said he was going to complain to Ford as the specs said it should do 140+ mph

 

[armalites]

Just browsing through the auctions - what a waste

View attachment 384915

It is absolutely mind blowing to see

 

[skotl]

It is absolutely mind blowing to see

Imagine the write-off costs across the police forces... I presume BMW would have paid something but that's a lot of hardware to scrap

 

[Shox Dr]

Imagine the write-off costs across the police forces... I presume BMW would have paid something but that's a lot of hardware to scrap

They had a choice

 

[GRW]

Imagine the write-off costs across the police forces... I presume BMW would have paid something but that's a lot of hardware to scrap

It's us that's footing "The Bill"

 

[brightspark]

Talk about sticking to the road, I think I’ve been to that place in Northallerton, re-shelled an Integrale back in the 90’s and it was Northallerton where I got the shell.

got all of my tuning racing stuff of dave owen who owned mororscope .i wired his brand new shop and garage up at standard way in exchange for all my bits and he rolling road tuned my stockcar