Whats the legalities on making a look-a-like...

[LivingMyBoostLife]

...foreign police car?

I was just wondering what the law says on painting up a car to make it look like another nations police car from yesteryear.

The car I have in mind is from the '80s and was used in its home country as a police car. Surely nobody is going to mistake a 25 year old car with a foreign word for Police on its side for a genuine UK copper?

[dodgerover]

Blue lights should be bagged when it can be seen on or from the public highway.
The police do have some older vehicles still in use (all be it very occasionally, there's a V8 SD1 that was in the a local papers a year or so ago) so I don't think age will really come into it

However if the colour scheme is such that it is unlikely to be mistaken by a normal member of the public as a police vehicle I doubt you would have much trouble

[ben711200]

I wouldn't want to try to use it in the country that it's a replica police car of, but I reckon you'll be fine as long as it doesn't say 'police' on it. I don't know what country/word you are intending, but you could always have a 'Polite' car ;D

[crazymonkey]

one of the car magazines (redline) made a replica volvo cop car for a bit of fun. but apparently it was legal because it used non-reflective decals.

as for a foreign cop replica, should be fine as long as you don't have blue lights going. always see plenty of them (although mainly pee-takes) on charity/banger rallies

[deano123]

a few years ago there was a 3 or 5 series round my way stickered up to resemble a german police car, had the full polizei on the side, green doors etc etc

he was stopped by the LAPD regularly but he did drive like an utter winnet at every chance

[waveman1500]

One of my friends' dads has a Volvo Amazon done up as a Swedish police car. I don't know whether he's ever gotten into trouble with it, but he's had it for years, so I assume not.

[uncle silvia]

I saw a genuine imported 2004 Impala NYPD police cruiser driving around my area recently! Very cool and not a replica!!!

EDIT: Same as this.............

[LivingMyBoostLife]

Ok I'll tell you the car in mind now.

cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300680784374




It's a lowly 2ltr 8 valve, non turbo, 3 speed auto with 215,000 miles. I've only bought it as I've got a few more weeks with my leg in a cast and unable to drive a manual.

It would look cool as a police car, or 'Polis'... But then maybe it deserves to stay as it is...

[Brian Damaged]

Mine. ;D

Never had a problem with plod, even when the local God Squad busybodies called them out because they objected to my use of the vernacular for 'woman's down belows' on the bonnet....they came round and pi**ed themselves laughing at it.

[fotorabia]

Could always go for the Dutch version where its a POLITE car!

[Battles]

Mar 24, 2012 22:16:09 GMT LivingMyBoostLife said:

Ok I'll tell you the car in mind now.
cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300680784374

That'll look brill, go for it.
You could use vinyl in case you want to return it to 'civvie' spec but if you do a decent job of it you might even make a few quid on it.

If you use paint you're pretty much guaranteeing that it'll end it's days in a UK scrappie's yard with people stopping to look at it and wondering what the back story is.

[surprisingskoda]

My dad built and ran a Olds Cutlass replica police car. He wasn't able to put the word Police on it, but there was no issues with '911', 'Sheriff' or 'Patrol'. He did say 'Sheriff' would be an issue if used in Scotland. The car had flashing blue lights in the grille but they were hidden as they weren't allowed to be used (they flashed in the right US sequence and *ahem* may have been used from time to time). IIRC he had sourced a US-spec light-bar for the roof and was OK to put it on as long as it wasn't wired up or used. Never got that far as it was bought by a film company then.

[surprisingskoda]

High quality photo from back in the days when Digital was a word used for TVs that didn't need tuned in with a knob...

[popuptoaster]

Me and a friend had two fake black and whites many years ago, he got told off as he had two blue sandcastle buckets on the roof of his and had to remove them, they were happy with the paint scheme and lettering, they pretty much get the ache with blue lights on anything whatever colour it is.

[LivingMyBoostLife]

Hmmm I picked it up earlier...

It may be too clean to mess with... And according to 'How Many Left' only 3 900 GLi's were taxxed last year!



I'll have a think.

[Battles]

Mar 25, 2012 18:18:25 GMT LivingMyBoostLife said:

It may be too clean to mess with... And according to 'How Many Left' only 3 900 GLi's were taxxed last year! I'll have a think.

It does look lovely. How many previous owners?
Does it run okay?

I wouldn't be put off having some fun because there's only three left.
If you hadn't bought it, I expect there would be two left and one en route to the Chinese washing machine factories.





I think it needs steelies to begin it's journey across the thin blue line.
It looks nice and low at the back but not the front. Looks a bit snobbish with it's nose in the air like that.

[10mpg]

It's already on steelies, those are the lovely saab metal hubcaps they used to use back in the day, try finding a set now for any money..

It does look very tidy, if it's sound in all the saab places I'd maybe consider punting it round the owners club for a few quid profit before i messed with it, it does look lovely...

An 8v GLi is actually a nice car, surprisingly gutsy and quite good on fuel, and will go on for literally ever, not sure about the autobox though, i reckon that might make it a abit of a slug..

Nice find regardless..

[Hoppum]

Just up the road from me

[369racing]

no legal problems at all, as long as you have no blue lights, lots of security cars aand vans look just like english police,

nothing illegal about reflective material either

incidentally if you want a blue light for show use i have a full width blue light bar,

[marinanut]

A guy around our way used part of a roofrack and a strip light diffuser to make a US-stylee light bar for his "Bluesmobile" lookalike. Looked the part but no internals, plod weren't bothered....