Well, apparently UK’s Police force are fed up with rubbish Vauxhalls and Volvos and decided to treat themselves with some nicer set of wheels! So they picked BMW to supply all 52 Police forces around the country by the National Policing Improvement Agency. The vehicles include BMW 330d Saloon and Touring, 530d Saloon and Touring, all variants of X1, X3 xDrive20d, X5 xDrive30d and xDrive40d, and the R1200 RF-P Police bike.
Among these cars, the BMW 330d Saloon Interceptor which is specially modified dubbed as a High Performance Pursuit Vehicle. And it’s not just performance, they say it’s also very environmentally responsible. The latest 5 Series is also a very interesting car for the British law enforcement.
So, the crooks of Britain, be advised!
Tim Abbott, Managing Director of BMW UK, said: “This is excellent news for BMW and shows the breadth of appeal of the products we sell. We have a very strong commitment to the ‘Authorities market’ throughout the world and have a very close relationship with the UK’s Police forces. Orders for BMW Police vehicles started as long ago as the mid 1970’s in the UK. This latest news reaffirms our commitment to 21st Century policing.”
Of the 52 UK Police forces, virtually all operate BMW Authorities products of one form or another, while two thirds operate high-levels and nearly half of those operate with a near BMW High Performance only fleet. When the above models are added to the rest of the BMW Authorities range of specialist vehicles, such as medical and fire tenders, considerable savings through economies of scale can be made in training, tooling and parts.
BMW is unique in offering production line installed special equipment packages for Emergency Warning equipment which importantly can be supported by BMW Service Centres throughout the UK with a three-year BMW warranty. Ordinarily vehicles are built by manufacturers only to be disassembled for the retrospective installation of such equipment. The RESPoNSe (Responder EMERGENCY SERVICE Package official eNabled Systeme) package provides vehicles with a high-level of emergency service role-equipment pre installed allowing for a near ‘Plug & Play’ car, thus significantly reducing the time into service and the need for third-parties to start cutting into the vehicle’s wiring harness.
BMW operates a dedicated department with a team of specialists based at the BMW Group International – Special Sales Competence Centre. This specialist department is responsible for all BMW Authorities specification vehicles sold and operating as Emergency Service vehicles including cars, motorcycles, MINI and ballistically protected BMW Security and High Security cars.
