The Met Police are getting Corollas

[Don Mac]

As per the title really, apparently Toyota's police sales drive has scored them some sales in London

https://www.jemcafleet.co.uk/post/metropolitan-police-order-toyota-corolla-touring-sports

 

Is it wrong that my first reaction was to worry that my order might get put back by this....?

[TonyHSD]

Nice , finally a sensible choice for a patrol cars. , efficient, clean, quiet and capable enough when you need it. 👍 These shocks be the police car choice since 2010 or 2015 with Prius or Auris hybrids. 

[Don Mac]

I would certainly be interested to know how they stand up to the sort of punishment they'll get as marked police cars. The Toyota hybrid drive is very clever, but police officers are famous for their ability to break motor vehicles.

[50p]

as long as they don't only do short journeys ...

[Cyker]

Judging by how often I see them pottering about or sat idling I think they'll be okay, but I hope they put in a beefier connecting plate or they might get the dreaded 'hybrid system malfunction' every time they are in pursuit of a crim!  

And at least they will be less at risk of randomly catching fire like the BMWs

If these are just for patrol and they're keeping their other high-speed pursuit cars then I think they'll be fine, and should save them a load of money on fuel too!

I hope they're getting the 2.0L ones...  

 

[flash22]

These cars go through as a fleet order, then sent on to the outfitters - they have had them on test since 2018 the Met and Kent already have a few, IIRC the commercial version may be a dog van

[SO8]

52 minutes ago, Don Mac said:

I would certainly be interested to know how they stand up to the sort of punishment ...... but police officers are famous for their ability to break motor vehicles.

Police officers break anything !   Not just cars 😆

[Cyker]

I sort of want to see a AutoWhatTopCarTrader-style test where they get all the various police cars they've had over the years and compare them, e.g. drag race, track time, manoeuvrability course, stupid challenges etc  

[FROSTYBALLS]

The Met have used hybrids since 2005 - starting with 94 Prius cars, which increased to 140 by 2009, 117 Civic hybrids ordered in 2006, etc.

[TonyHSD]

If these can survive Uber drivers should just be fine with police. 🚕🚓👌

[Don Mac]

56 minutes ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

The Met have used hybrids since 2005 - starting with 94 Prius cars, which increased to 140 by 2009, 117 Civic hybrids ordered in 2006, etc.

True (actually I think they had the Prius earlier than that) but, as far as I know, they haven't used them for the general patrol duties that the Corollas seem to be destined for (assuming that they'll be getting marked up like the one in the picture).

5 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

If these can survive Uber drivers should just be fine with police. 🚕🚓👌

Some years ago I visited a workshop which had a Met police patrol Astra in for repair. All of the transmission had been removed, it was knackered (as I recall the flywheel was in bits).

The car was only a year or two old.

Whatever you may think of them Uber drivers don't actively try to kill their cars.... 😜

[TonyHSD]

4 minutes ago, Don Mac said:

True (actually I think they had the Prius earlier than that) but, as far as I know, they haven't used them for the general patrol duties that the Corollas seem to be destined for (assuming that they'll be getting marked up like the one in the picture).

Some years ago I visited a workshop which had a Met police patrol Astra in for repair. All of the transmission had been removed, it was knackered (as I recall the flywheel was in bits).

The car was only a year or two old.

Whatever you may think of them Uber drivers don't actively try to kill their cars.... 😜

Agreed, they don’t except Friday and Saturday nights shifts, then they together with their passengers become a zombies 🧟 and some drives even worse than a police car in action. 

[FROSTYBALLS]

15 minutes ago, Don Mac said:

True (actually I think they had the Prius earlier than that) but, as far as I know, they haven't used them for the general patrol duties that the Corollas seem to be destined for (assuming that they'll be getting marked up like the one in the picture).

Not all marked up police cars are used for general patrol duties - example being the Aygos Nottinghamshire Police use:

[TonyHSD]

I bet the officers will come to this forum looking for flat Battery posts 😂👍 They tend to leave the patrol cars in acc mode and all the additional accessories on and the blue lights 🪫 🫢

[Don Mac]

1 hour ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Not all marked up police cars are used for general patrol duties - example being the Aygos Nottinghamshire Police use:

How cute! 

I was going to compare them to the BMW i3s that the Met had, but those apparently had light bars on, which suggests that they could be used for the odd "blues and twos" sort of thing?

The 'Police' Corollas have lights and look like the 2l version  

Which is why I thought they would be doing a bit of "lights, camera, siren..."

[Don Mac]

3 hours ago, Cyker said:

I sort of want to see a AutoWhatTopCarTrader-style test where they get all the various police cars they've had over the years and compare them, e.g. drag race, track time, manoeuvrability course, stupid challenges etc  

If you're of a certain age you might recall this

Fast forward to about 23:40 and there's something like the test you wanted...

[TonyHSD]

7 hours ago, Don Mac said:

How cute! 

I was going to compare them to the BMW i3s that the Met had, but those apparently had light bars on, which suggests that they could be used for the odd "blues and twos" sort of thing?

The 'Police' Corollas have lights and look like the 2l version  

Which is why I thought they would be doing a bit of "lights, camera, siren..."

2.0 hybrid, confirmed 👌