One old cop car equals a new one

By JAMES GARDINER

It is a money-for-nothing plan so cunning you would think it was criminal. But the police came up with it.

They will sell all their cars within three years of purchase - and expect to get back almost as much as they paid for them new.

Police Minister George Hawkins yesterday announced an $87.6 million spend-up on 2550 new vehicles over the next three years.

Police Commissioner Rob Robinson said that from mid-2006, the purchase of up to 850 police vehicles a year would be funded almost entirely from the sale of vehicles that are three years old.

Mr Robinson said the police, like other bulk buyers of new motor vehicles, got substantial discounts from car companies and would now be buying nearly twice as many cars each year.

He would not reveal the size of the discount; neither would Holden New Zealand.

But the figures suggest the police buy Commodores for about $34,000, nearly $10,000 below the usual retail price.

Whether they can sell three-year-old cars with 78,000km - police cars average 26,000km a year - on the clock for more than $30,000 remains to be seen.

Car dealers yesterday suggested $26,000 was a more likely figure.

"There's good economic reasons to do it this way," Mr Hawkins said, "and there's good health and safety reasons. If you're involved in a high-speed chase and using very old cars, that's not so good."

But Mr Hawkins rejected the idea of upgrading to cars with V8 engines.

Some Auckland motorway police officers say their cars are not fast enough to catch many of the hotted-up engines on the roads.

"I think a lot of police would like V8s," Mr Hawkins said. "Wouldn't we all."

Holden is in the middle of a three-year contract to supply police cars, with a two-year right of renewal next year, and company spokesman Aalbert van Ham welcomed the news of the big buy-up.

But Ford NZ's managing director, Richard Matheson, is keen to regain the business, and says his company's cars "offer safety enhancements and features over and above" the vehicles police now use.