Until fleet sales were discontinued recently, the Ford Crown Victoria was the police car across the United States. I know there were other police cars for sale by other manufacturers, but none of them seemed to be anywhere near as common as the Crown Vic. How did this car first come to be adopted by police departments, and how did it become so widespread in police use?
The Chevy Caprice was the defacto standard for much of the 80s and to 96 upon the ending of the B-body platform.
Chrysler exited the full sized RWD market in 1989, which left the Ford and Chevy RWD offerings to the police markets.
The FWD based offerings by all 3 automakers were not met with any enthusiasm and lacked the durability of the RWD cars in a police environment.
That left the Ford as the last player standing till the end of the Panther platform in 2011.
It was also the last body-on-frame car on the market, which made body repairs much less expensive than any unibody car.