Got a new car

My assigned detective car (an ex-patrol car), a 2001 Chevy Impala, started making a funny noise two weeks ago. The fleet guy took it into the shop and later told me that the exhaust manifold was cracked. The cost to fix it is not worth keeping it, as it has very high miles for a police car- over 70,000.

City cop cars get absolutely thrashed; the quintessential “Rode hard- put away wet,” “Driven like a rented mule,” “Drove like it was stolen” situation with these cars. When they get about 50-60k miles, they take all of the patrol gear out of them, paint them some cheap color and give them to detectives… until now.

In an effort to be seen as “green,” our new Deputy Chief has determined to not retire patrol cars to detectives, but instead buy used fuel-efficient cars for the dicks to drive. Long story short, they gave me a Dodge “Stratus” that had been purchased at a car auction. The motor is powerful enough to just about run my wife’s blender, and I have more leg room in my ‘75 Fiat Spider. I got into it for the first time and adjusted the rear-view mirror, which broke off in my hand. Just yesterday the sun was out and it got pretty warm inside the car… it smelled of heavy mildew.

I’m happy that some poor soul who lived through hurricane Katrina got a new car from their insurance company, but I got stuck with the dark blue ’02 Stratus with the loose rear view mirror. If this car belonged to you, hope your doing well down in the lower 9th ward... and thanks for the 32 cents under the driver's seat.