2008 Ford Edge Limited Pano Roof Navigation White With Tan Leather 112k Miles on 2040-cars

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Ford Explorer is America's new favorite police car

There is a new vehicle that you should keep an eye out for when you're going a little too fast down the Interstate. Ford's Explorer-based Police Interceptor Utility was the bestselling new law enforcement model in the country last year, and signs show that won't be changing anytime soon.
Ford sold 14,086 Interceptor Utilities in 2013, up 140% from the year before, and 10,897 Interceptor Sedans, up 31%, according to USA Today. Overall, the brand's police sales were up 48 percent, and they were enough to boost the company's law enforcement vehicle market share by 9 points to nearly 50 percent.
The success comes just a few years after it made the decision to finally retire the long-serving Crown Victoria-based cruiser for two more modern vehicles. "We had to reinvent the category," said Chris Terry of Ford Communications to Autoblog. The automaker had to convince police departments that a unibody chassis without a V8 could perform better than a model that had been a law enforcement staple for years.

Hot Wheels' 2022 Green Speed cars bring EVs to small scale

With more and more EVs hitting the market, it was only a matter of time before the new breed of cars would find representation in diecast form. For 2022, Hot Wheels is coming out with a new Green Speed series that puts the spotlight on a diverse lineup of electric cars. The five-car series features a fun mix of EVs from different manufacturers and in a wide range of styles. Some are completely bone stock. For a traditional luxury sedan, there's a Lucid Air in silver, complete with glass (or in this case, clear plastic) canopy. For fans of Teutonic 4-door "coupes" there's the Audi RS e-Tron GT in Daytona Gray. Ticking the truck box is a Hummer EV in a yellow that can only be described as a throwback to the H3. But because this is Hot Wheels, there are "hot-rodded" variants in the lineup as well. Rather than just a regular Nissan Leaf, they've elected to cast the carbon fiber-bodied NISMO RC 2.0 race car. Likewise with Ford, instead of the standard Mustang Mach-E, they've gone with the Mustang Mach-E 1400 drift car. This isn't the first time Hot Wheels has put out a Green Speed series. The line debuted in 2016 but reflected the limited EV choices in the real car market at the time. The only non-fantasy cars in the series were a first-gen Tesla Roadster, a Tesla Model S, and Chevy Volt. Hot Wheels revisited the line again in 2019, this time adding a Tesla Model 3 and a Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo. Hot Wheels also makes other mini EVs that don't fall into this specific line of models. If you want to collect 'em all, there's the second-generation Tesla Roadster concept, Cybertruck, Jaguar I-Pace, Pininfarina Battista, Porsche Taycan, and a Volkswagen ID R. Similarly, Matchbox has released a version of the Tesla Roadster with sustainable packaging to boot. If you must have an old school gasoline burner, Hot Wheels has plenty of options for you too, like, say, this snazzy FJ60 Toyota Land Cruiser. The 2022 Hot Wheels Green Speed series should be on shelves at your local retailers now. Related Video:

Ford announces first non-pursuit-rated police car ever

Ford announced its first non-pursuit-rated Police Interceptor ever, based on the Taurus, which employs the smaller 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine in place of similar pursuit-rated Police Interceptors powered by naturally aspirated 3.5-liter and 3.7-liter V6s and the top-spec 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6. Officially called the Special Service Police sedan, the car was commissioned at the request of law-enforcement agencies that desire a more fuel-efficient vehicle for detectives, administrators and campus police, who don't necessarily need pursuit-rated vehicles.
The 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine produces 240 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque, but more importantly, it allows the SSP sedan to achieve somewhere in the neighborhood of 22 miles per gallon city and 32 mpg highway, which are the civilian 2.0-liter Taurus' official EPA ratings. Ford estimates that the SSP sedan will get 20 mpg city, 30 mpg highway and 23 mpg combined, with the help of Active Grille Shutters that open to allow more cooling air through to the radiator, or close to optimize aerodynamics and fuel economy. Those numbers compare favorably to the discontinued Crown Victoria-based Interceptor's 14 mpg city and 21 mpg highway and the newer Taurus-based cars equipped with V6s, the most fuel efficient of which gets 18 mpg city and 26 mpg highway.
If it was driven 90,000 miles over the course of three years, a 2.0-liter SSP sedan would save law enforcement agencies $5,042.92 versus the Crown Vic, Ford estimates. The EPA is expected to post official fuel-economy numbers for the SSP sedan in December. Until then, read the press release below for more information.