How To Buy a Half Price V8 Charger

Watch more videos from TFL Studios:

TFL Podcasts:

[Txpo]

As a former police officer I can tell you first hand — never ever ever ever ever buy a “retired” police vehicle. Those things are ran harder and for more hours than almost every car on the road. It might have 150k miles, but that thing has more engine hours than you can believe and is typically ran either balls out or idling in park for hours on end.

[SquawkCode]

Those cars get abused, driven over curbs, through fields, 0 to 100 all day and night when they're not parked idling for hours. No thank you!

[Bowjangls]

I got my 2011 v8 cop charger for $4500, all it needed was brakes. Still runs great.

[EyePatchGuy]

If you wanna buy a retired Crown Vic without putting a lot of work in it, go ahead, they're bullet proof. If you want to buy a retired Dodge Charger without putting a lot of work in: DON'T.

[djmegahurtz]

Next video “intercepter Charger blows up”

[JETZcorp]

Avoid any ex-fleet vehicle with the Hemi specifically. The oiling system on that engine relies on a bit of RPM to get oil splashed and splattered up to camshaft lobes. This is normal for all pushrod V8s, except the Hemi has a very high cam tunnel, so it doesn't get as much oil thrown from the crank as a more traditional layout like an LS or vintage V8. Normally this isn't a problem. But fleets, especially cop cars, can spend several hours straight at idle, leading to premature cam lobe and lifter wear. For a given number of engine hours, you probably want as many miles as you can get on a Hemi. They'll go down the highway until gasoline ceases to exist on the globe, but prolonged idling is their Achilles heel.

[fabianmier]

I bought a retired 2013 Dodge Charger police vehicle from a private sale about 15 months ago, who'd previously only owned it for 2 months after an auction.

It had 121, 000 miles, I purchased it for $9500. V6, 3.6L engine.

My honest take is it's a FUN car, but there's been expensive maintenance even with a good family friend offering good prices on the fixes.

Whay I enjoy is that it feels GREAT, drives amazingly, and it even has the FEINIX Typhoon police sirens still installed and programmed (plays the Bad Boys song, too). Of course, no lightbar or lights. But it has the pushbar, working spotlight, aftermarket wing, leftover decal numbers on the roof they forgot to remove ...

The downsides ... well, Ive had to replace the camshafts, lifters, and rocker arms..

Rear rotors & pads, front pads.

Bad strut arm.

Lower control arms were finished...

Recently the radiator fan exploded and I had to get a new fan and radiator.

It's come to about $5000 - which is on the cheap side considering the massive amount of fixes. I'm 'lucky.' Do I love this car? Oh, yes. Would I do it again? Maybe not..

[HagakureJunkie]

Weird comments. Everyone: “Steer clear of these”. People who actually own ex-cop cars: “Super reliable” 😂

[kotter]

150k on the clock of nothing but city miles you should check the idle hours😂. Most have been crashed 3 or 4 times as well. All depends on what you want to do with it.

[kevindavis]

It's not just the high miles you have to consider with these but the incredibly high idle hours they tend to have. There's a reason they're so cheap and the auctions aren't popular.

[clm]

How to get a clapped out 150k mile jungle wagon for HaLf pRiCe. Lmao.

[The_Master_Of_Bytes]

You paid 8600 for a vehicle with 150000 miles, not the greatest deal I've ever heard.

[connernielsen]

I drive an old 2009 retired cop car and got it off an auction for a little over 3k. Almost no repairs and runs very well.

[rxjim]

Yeah that will last you a week or so before you need 10K in repairs

[kyler]

It also has a transmission that is ready to blow at any minute, and the differentials are also on their death bed. At my department the vehicles run 24/7 for all 3 shifts every day none stop for their entire lives… do not ever buy these. Plus the 1st-3rd gears are usually absolutely destroyed from being abused in the line of duty.

[aggressivemediocrity]

It's not really a secret. Most of us car guys already know about these and tend to stay away from them, especially if they have 150 thousand miles and thousands of hours of idle time. Those cars get the crap beat out of them on the daily... you get what you pay for, and that's a soon to be 8k parts car or going to need a new engine and driveline soon.

[metalguy]

I bought a 2013 Cop charger for $9300.00, I got mine 5 years ago and it had 73000.0 miles, they installed new brakes and rear shocks and they installed a aftermarket console and they put challenger wheels and decent tires. Only problem is the vent system clicks for a while while changing the a/c system cause the plastic gear is stripped. It passed inspection and runs strong.

[mr.aNdErsOn]

didn't sound like a V8 but it had the V8 motor block and if it truly is AWD it may be worth building up.. Some people don't know how expensive if it is to get a V8 transmission to go AWD.. I know Mopar doesn't normally sell that combo for sure

[banger]

That engine and transmission already needs to be rebuilt or replaced it's not worth even $8k i tell this as a advise from experienced shop worker that seen high engine hours cars

[upshifter]

Wait wait they made AWD hemis for cops but not us?? Malarkey!