Discontinuation and Future
On March 12, 2010, Ford Motor Company introduced the 2011 Police Interceptor as a rebadged and reengineered version of the current Taurus. This new vehicle is on a front-wheel drive unibody platform (with optional all-wheel drive), and it bears no relation to the rear-wheel body-on-frame Panther platform that underpinned all previous Police Interceptors.
In response, police departments like that of Austin, Texas, are buying reserve supplies of the last Crown Victorias to allow them to maintain a fleet of reliable police cars into the future. The police department in London, Ontario which had been stockpiling extra CVPI's noted that while potential replacements may use less gasoline, the CVPI may be easily and cheaply converted to run on propane, giving it lower running costs than its competitors and the Taurus that Ford is touting as a replacement. Others have reluctantly shifted to other models and manufacturers.
On September 15, 2011, the final built Crown Victoria, a civilian model destined for Saudi Arabia, rolled off the assembly line at 12:30 PM, concluding assembly operations of the St. Thomas, Ontario plant.
Read more about this topic: Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)