I would never buy anything (especially sight unseen) that has a history of being in upstate New York. Even in New Jersey I see some undercarriage rot on models as new as 2009 at auctions, and I would say that upstate NY cars rot out at least 5 years faster than a Jersey car would.

Get a kick out of this....

Some Onondaga County sheriff's deputies drive rusty old cars with holes covered by street signs

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2...street_sig.html

I've seen under some NYSP troop cars that would make a hardened mechanic weep
just as bad as these sheriffs cars

Actually

State Police say their fleet of vehicles is too old

http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-local/a...too-6413976.php

They're hoping to get rid of them by this year
Almost every troop car coming out at auction has at least 150,000 miles and 10 yrs of winter rust
It sucks but I wouldn't buy any retired NYSP troop car at auction

I looked at all the pics, and I consider myself an expert at spotting rust. That car is rotted, not rusted. Rust is paint flaked off that has turned to surface rust. Rot is rust that begins from the inside and works its way out which is what this car has. I can see it on the door seams and a little on the wheel wells. Not to mention the corrosion on the engine components.

Skip this car. I am not joking with you at all, I would buy a non rusted clean crown vic with 120k miles on it over a 40k mile rusty one.

You can fix the minor problems these cars have, you cannot fix rust. Plain and simple you cannot.

^^What he and the others said. ANY car from NY has the rot. As they do here in Detroit the amount of salt thrown on the roads is staggering.

Thank you everyone for your comments regarding the rust. I'm going to talk to the dealer and see what's up. I sent them a $1,000 deposit to hold the car (before I got my hands on these pictures) while they get around to inspecting it more thoroughly. I'd probably be happy just buying another (non-northern) CVPI from this dealer and putting the deposit toward that instead.

Copcarsonline is where my CVPI came originally came from. They generally sell very good cars because they buy them from all over the country, typically low milage, SAP cars. They bought mine similar at 5yr/50,000 retirement- Chief wanted a new car
I'm going to guess because low mileage SAPs like this are rare they went ahead and got it. Like I said, the rust is likely negligible to someone who wants "the last" of the low milage SAP cars I don't expect it to last long, at least you know where it came from in its original condition
Much luck hope you get a good deal on it- its low milage after all

Thanks for sharing this.

I also bought my first CVPI (a 2000 former unmarked car from a local sheriff's office) from CopCarsOnline and it was very clean. And I'm pretty sure that they have a good overall reputation as a company that sells clean cars.

I actually grew up in the same city that CopCarsOnline is based in and I can remember riding by all their cop cars for sale on my bike as a kid and thinking about how cool it would be to have your own ex-cop car to drive around.

There are a lot of reasons to trust what Mark and Jon say, in my opinion. They assured me that this car would be very clean and I tend to believe them when they say that. I think they have a very good reputation to maintain (such as their perfect eBay feedback history) and I can't see why they'd want to try and rip someone off now with a rotting CVPI from up north.

Call me naive but I'm going to go ahead and give these guys the benefit of the doubt and see what they come up with when they finally get around to giving the car its full inspection.

Thanks again for your input,
Dan

For sure, they take care of body work to finish it up well. They are not fly by night and will repaint/body/interior work if needed

Have you seen the museum?
Its impressive

Oh yeah, I've definitely toured the museum (in-person!). These guys are the real deal.

9k for an 09? even with the low miles that way too much!

I bought a 2009 P71 4 years ago from a kid in Ohio. It had just under a hundred thousand miles on it when I got it.

I had to replace the clock spring in the steering wheel right away and find why the horn still didn't work. Cop cars have a lot of extra wiring. I had bought a wiring diagram manual on Ebay for about $20 and needed it right away. The cops disconnect a bunch of things when they sell their cars. Turned out the only problem with the horn was a plug discoed in the front.

I had some other wiring issues last year but eventually got thru them thanks to the wiring manual. Had to wire in a new wire to the front turn signal coming from the turn signal switch. This was to cure a problem with the turn signal fuse blowing all the time. Also had to wire the headlights out of the LCM because mine was bad an Ford did not sell new ones, even at list price of $700.

I have replaced the front shocks and the wheel hubs.

Rebuilt the AC systems, complete. I have the tools to do all the AC work on my cars.

Intake manifold leaked coolant water. Replaced with a better one from a 2006 but that started leaking also. Now running with Barr's Leak. Used only 1/3 of the stuff. Will someday take the old manifold apart and glue it together with something that doesn't fail like the OEM. For these models for the problem mine has it is an easy fix. First time I took the intake manifold off my car it took 4 hours I think. I can do the job now in under 2 hours. But I'm an old an slow guy.

My 2009 turned past 200K this week. Don't know what the idle hours are. i idle a lot. I am a taxi cab driver in Washington, DC.

I'm sure I have left out a few things but all and all this car has been the best taxi I have owned or driven in 32 years.

Okay, so they finally had a chance to clean up the car and post pictures of it online. I talked to Jon, one of the two owners, today and he said the car is super clean -- like new. He said he totally understood our hesitation over the rust but that there was nothing to worry about. Normally coming from a car dealer, I'd call [censored] -- but with Mark and Jon, I'm willing to give them a lot more of the benefit of the doubt.

Here are the new pictures:
http://www.copcarsonline.com/vehicleimageall.aspx?cmb=0|267919523%20%20|327780

I sent them a $1,000 deposit on the car a few weeks back so the car is mine if I want it.

What do you guys think?

It looks very nice. If I had up to 9k to put on one, I'd do it but I think you can haggle lower.

On a side note, why the heck did they put those antennas on the rear q-panels like that?? It should have been roof or trunk deck. Looks hideous IMHO.

as expected
It cleaned up good
they sprayed the [censored] out of it any rust is no longer visible
90% of a good quick sale is cleaning up your turd
most craigslist sellers cant seem to get it

Based on input from a number of friends, as well as folks on here, I decided to pass on the 2009 and instead moved my deposit over to this car:

http://www.copcarsonline.com/2011_Ford_Crown%20Victoria_Largo_FL_268221111.veh