Australian police
departments used to be almost exclusively made up of Holden Commodores and Ford
Falcons, but since local production of those two models ended, authorities have
been searching for suitable replacements. So, Australia’s Northern Territory
force have just welcomed the Kia Stinger into their fleet.
The North Territory
joins the states of Queensland and Western Australia to opt for Kia’s
high-performance sports sedan to patrol its streets. The Stinger starts at AU$ 49,990 locally plus on-road costs and will serve as a replacement to the
Commodore SS models previously used by the highway patrol fleet. Speaking with
News, Northern Territory police commander Matt Hollamby said the Stinger passed
trials in the outback and was able to operate at reasonably high speeds “in
temperatures of 45 degrees in the shade without
missing a beat.”
Powering the
Stinger is a twin-turbocharged 3.3-liter V6 engine which delivers 365 hp and 510 Nm of torque. The car comes standard with an eight-speed
automatic transmission and can sprint to 100 km/h in 5.1 seconds and
hit a top speed of 269 km/h. The Northern Territory Police shared an
image of its new Stingers on Facebook, one of which had a license plate reading
‘WATCHNU.’
Not all Australian
states are replacing their pursuit vehicles with Stingers, though. In Victoria,
for example, police opted for the BMW 530d, which costs well over twice as much
as the Stinger. In New South Wales, police use a mixture of BMW 530ds and
Chrysler 300 SRTs.
