The Police Package - General Motors Police Vehicles

General Motors Police Vehicles


Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile & Hummer Police Vehicles


General Motors Police Vehicles -  Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile & Hummer
Chevrolet was the main producer and best selling of police vehicles in the General Motors family, but other divisions of GM offered police vehicles over the years. 1978 would be the last year for Buick, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile police cars. General Motors, in an effort to same money, and keep divisions from competing for the same market share, GM made Chevrolet the only division to market police package cars after 1978.
Later, General Motors offered a police version of the Hummer H1 as a police special service package from 2001 to 2006. GM marketed the civilian version of the  Hummer H1 that was derived from the military Humvee both built by a separate company AM General. he 130-inch wheelbase,  4-passenger wagon is equiped with a 195 hp, 6.5L turbocharged diesel V-8. The Hummer has a 4-speed automatic, full-time 4WD and 4-wheel disc brakes and ABS Hydra-boost brakes.

Pontiac, Buick, and Oldsmobile all had police package vehicles from the 1950's until tha late 1970's, sharing their underlying platforms with the better selling Chevrolets, but each with their own unique styling and engine choices. These GM divisons did have some moderate success in capturing police department vehicle contracts over the year. The 1955 Buick Century and the 1967 Oldmobile Delmont 88 chosen by the California Highway Patrol  and the 1976 Pontaic Lemans (as the standard patrol car) and 1976 Pontiac Catalina (as  the highway patrol car)  chosen by the New York City NY Police were some of the examples. (1)

Buick also made police package vehicles starting in 1955,  with the Model 68 Century. Buick built 270 of these two-door sedans especially for the California Highway Patrol, 135 with manual transmissions and 135 with automatics. The body was from the lightweight Special, the lowest cost Buick, but  the engine was the 322-cubic inch V8 from the more upscale Century model rated at 236 horsepower, with brakes from the top of the line Roadmaster (2)(3).











(1) Sanow, Edwin J. Encyclopeida of American Police Cars, MBI Publishing, 1999
(2) https://www.fopconnect.com/article/recovery-from-the-storm/10-greatest-cop-cars/
(3) https://autoweek.com/article/car-news/1955-buick-century-broderick-crawford-special-and-lawman-growled-10-4





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