2016 Ford Mustang GT Fails Australian Police Car Trial

Late in February, we talked about how the New South Wales police force in Australia had taken delivery of a 2016 Ford Mustang GT for considering in their efforts of picking new pursuit vehicles. The NSW police force has traditionally relied on the high performance variants of the Holden Commodore and the Ford Falcon, but with both of those vehicles both leaving the production lineup this year – the cops need to find new chase vehicles.

One of the vehicles included in the selection and testing process was the 2016 Ford Mustang GT, wrapped in the eye-catching livery of the NSW police force. Figure that if the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore served as useful pursuit vehicles, the new Mustang GT will most certainly meet their needs – right?

Unfortunately, not.

Mechanic Issues During Testing
According to Business Insider Australia, the 2016 Ford Mustang GT performed beautifully in the initial braking tests of the New South Wale police force and the team had moved onto a series of highway maneuvers when the automatic transmission overheated – forcing the Mustang GT into the low-performance limp home mode. The police limped it to a dealership for repairs, but the damage had been done. The Mustang GT officially failed the test and because of that, it has been removed from consideration for the NSW police force.

The braking test is reportedly the toughest portion of the process to pass, so when the 2016 Ford Mustang GT made it through that – things were looking very good for the pony car to be Australia’s next police car. When the transmission failed, which is a relatively freak incident considering the abuse faced by these cars in the hands of American owners, it was instantly out of the running.

While I understand why the Mustang GT failed the test, it seems odd to me that a car that had a freak mechanical issue would be so quickly thrown out of the running. According to Business Insider Australia, the final contenders for the new NSW pursuit vehicles are the Volkswagen Golf R and the Volvo S60 Polestar. Those are both great vehicles, but let’s be honest – in a high speed pursuit, do you want to be in a Golf, a Volvo sedan or a Ford Mustang GT?

Unless you are a big Volvo or VW fan, your answer was “the Mustang, of course”, but since the Ford ran into a mechanical problem during testing, the Aussie police are going to be stuck with one of those two smaller, slower cars.

Source: Business Insider Australia
Image Source: New South Wales Police