To protect and swerve

Exclusive: on the USA's mean streets in Holden’s police car.

We’re riding shotgun – literally – in Holden’s latest export hope, the US police version of the Caprice, which has made it all the way from Adelaide to America.

There are two giant shotguns jammed between the roof and the floor, strapped to the driver’s seat.

Even though there is a giant computer screen and keyboard between me and the firearms, I’m too scared to make a wrong move in case I bump something.

But I’m in safe hands. I’m surrounded by guns. And if these rifles aren’t enough to protect me, sergeant Don Tetzloff has a pistol strapped to his belt. And back-up is a radio call away.

After 18 years and more than half a million sales of the Ford Crown Victoria to police, the US cop car business is an open market.

Ford axed the Crown Victoria late last year, sending Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet scrambling for a chance win some of the 50,000 to 70,000 police car orders annually.

A little over a year after the big Ford’s demise, no clear favourite has emerged – but Holden is right in the thick of it. And after a slow start, sales are starting to climb.

Holden won’t supply figures because it’s Chevrolet’s jurisdiction. But according to sources in the US, after 1200 sales in the first 12 months or so, there are now more than 6000 Holden Caprices in police hands across North America.

To put that in perspective, that’s roughly five times more Caprices than are sold in Australia each year.

In automotive terms this is our Australian Idol making a high profile appearance on an international stage. In the course of its duties, Holden’s “Police Caprice” has already made a number of US TV news appearances and at least one Hollywood movie cameo. 

There are also a couple of Holden Caprices based at Los Angeles Airport, and about 200 were ordered by Detroit police, to patrol the heart of Motown. Talk about selling ice to eskimos...

Critics of Holden’s ambitious export program say the Caprice doesn’t stand a chance because it’s Made in Australia, and police equipment used across two decades in the Ford don’t fit in the new kid on the block.

But the police agencies in North America we spoke to said those were “non issues”.

“The roof lights fit, the computer fits, we just need to get a new mount for the computer terminal and a new back seat, and that’s it,” says Mike Fujita, who has fitted out six Caprices on his police fleet at Walnut Creek in northern California. He says he has more coming.

The ramp up of sales has been slow because police departments across North America have stretched out the life of their cars in an attempt to save money in lean economic times. Some agencies now run their police “cruisers” for five years or 100,000 miles (160,000km), at which point they’re junked or sold for as little as $2000.

Each car is replaced one at a time, and there are more than 1800 police agencies across North America who individually select the cars their officers drive. So there are no bulk orders in the thousands.

But as the word among police spreads, the popularity of the Caprice seems to be gaining momentum.

“Some of the bigger guys don’t like it because the seat’s a little smaller than the one in the Crown Victoria,” says officer Sean Dexter. “But that suits me, that means there’s always a Caprice available.”

Other officers say the Caprice can get to urgent jobs quicker. “The Caprice just feels better glued to the road, and on the freeway you leave the other officers in the dust,” said one.

“There was enough of a difference in power and performance that we had our officers do driver training and requalify for the Caprice,” says Tetzloff.

But back to our ride. When we set out to do this story we imagined dark alleyways, graffiti and gangs. Takedowns, pursuits and possibly a shoot-out or two would surely follow, just like they do in the movies.

What we got was neat, upper-middle class of America, with one of the lowest crime rates in the nation.

Walnut Creek is about an hour’s drive east of San Francisco and, coincidentally, just 15 minutes from the port where the Caprices dock after their journey across the Pacific.

In these parts, rather than walk around a corner and be confronted with gang members, we were more likely to be killed by kindness.

The only dangerous weapon the public seemed to carry was fast food that one day might give them a heart attack. The biggest risk to police here, it seems, is a paper cut.

“It’s a nice part of the world,” says Tetzloff. “We have our problems but it’s true to say some of younger officers leave because it’s not busy enough. I guess you could say that’s a good problem to have. It’s a safe community.”

The last time a gun went off was by accident – as an officer was emptying a firearm. So no shoot-outs today. Or the next, it would seem.

After four hours on the beat, and not a single ticket to be issued (the sergeant didn’t even hand out a warning, so well behaved was the community), we headed back to the station.

In the underground car park is a fleet of Ford Crown Victoria “black and whites” in various condition and age, all due to be retired in the next few years.

If the early reactions to the Caprice are a fair indication, there’s every chance that each of those Fords will become a Holden over time.

The half price Holden Caprice

Police in North America pay about $30,000 for a Holden Caprice – less than half the RRP in Australia. But it’s not the same car, and there are no luxury appointments apart from air-conditioning. The seats are vinyl, the floor has a rubber cover (not plush carpet) and it comes with the basic Commodore dashboard.

The one that got away

The Chevrolet Caprice is not available to the public in North America, it’s a government-only purchase. But in August 2011 an enterprising Chevrolet dealer in Maryland found a loophole that allowed him to sell the police-only model to the public – and there was nothing the long arm of the law could do about it. At least 13 vehicles are believed to have escaped the government-only net. General Motors lawyers have since changed the wording of the contract it has with dealers, to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

The next chapter

The Holden Commodore will once again be sold in North America from late next year as a high performance V8 sedan. The Chevrolet SS is due on sale in late 2013 but it will make its debut as a Nascar at the Daytona 500 next February, putting the Commodore in front of one of the biggest sporting audiences in the world. After the successful Monaro export program in the early 2000s, Holden exported the VE Commodore as a Pontiac in 2007 and 2008 but was phased out in 2009 after the brand was axed in the wake of the GFC.

At a glance

Holden Caprice
Price: $69,990
Engine: 6.0-litre V8
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Safety: Six airbags, five-star rating
0 to 100km/h: 5.5 seconds
Economy: 12.3L/100km