Belt Auction

How much to police cars usually sell for when auctioned off by the local government of a large city?

I just saw an ad in the paper that Pittsburgh was auctioning off police cruisers and some other municipal vehicles. How much do the cop cars usually fetch at the auction? What kind of shape are they usually in? I'd like to know if it's worth checking out.

Public Comments

1. You can get some pretty good deals at police auctions and the cruisers are regularly maintained so they are in great shape. They usually look a little ugly cause all the decals and emblems have been stripped off. They are auctions, so basically how much they sell for is whatever someone is willing to pay. My dad got a Police Interceptor for only $500 and it was in great shape and ran like a champ.
2. About $2000.00 One site in Arkansas is arkansassurplus.gov. Each week they have a car for sale on there from the State surplus.
3. it all depend on how much money people are willing to spend on these cars. in most cases some taxi cab compamy will buy them all. for pennys on the dollar. 8hundred or less. and they are good cars. some time 15hundred at the most. they have other cars also. but be sure to go early and check the car out before you buy it. or have someone who know a little about cars check it out for you.
4. $1,000 at the most. They've all been beat to hell from the rough driving.
5. You usually can pick one up for $2000.00 or less. Yes they are maintained well by the department.....but they are driven really, really hard. Transmissions routinely give out or are damaged due to high acceleration, brakes are replaced 2 or 3 times during the life of the car and you may be getting a car that needs a total brake job. If you purchase a car from a department that patrols mostly expressways, that would be the ones to avoid......those are the ones that are driven hard and at very high rates of speed for long periods of time. A department that patrols city streets would be a better buy because they usually don't travel at high rates of speed for long periods and obviously are doing a lot of city driving. I know all this because my husband is a retired state police trooper that patrolled lots of highways around a big city. He tells me that by the time the patrol cars are pulled off the road, they are basically beaten up hulks and its only a matter of a short period of time before they die.
6. It depends on department policy on the vehicles. If you're really lucky, you can find one used by the captain or undercover officers, that looks relatively normal, but still have the heavy-duty parts under the hood, and often, still have police lights under the grilles, but disabled. Those may have relatively lower mileage than the actual patrol vehicles. The Crown Vics interceptors all have heavy-duty everything, extra sized transaxle, transmission cooler, radiator, shocks, alternators, and so on. Mileage is not the greatest, but if you drive them gently you MAY get 25 MPG on the freeway. Not bad for a vehicle that seats six. Actual price depends on the condition and mileage of the vehicle, but should be quite low, $5000 or less.