TexasCHLforum.com

bdickens:
You stated that cop cars have 'exempt' plates, but this is not true if the car is an
unmarked car. It will have 'general issue' Texas plates. General issue is the term for
the regular license plates that the state issues for civilian vehicles.

Exempt plates moved from 6 to 7 numbers a while ago.

As of this month, the new 7 character general issue Texas license plates have started to be issued,
due to running out of the 6 character combos.

Vanity plates (personalized at the owner's request) are still restricted to only 6 characters, plus they
have to be printed on the plain white license plates, unless you pony up some more money and get a
plate with a picture on the left edge. You may get a picture plate personalized, but for that style you
will be limited to 5 characters due to the space taken by the graphic.

I spoke with the gals in Special Plates Division in Austin to see if I could change my 6 character vanity
plate to a 7. They said that TexDot can not allow 7 character vanity plates until the State Legislature
allows it.

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gregthehand - Thanks for your detailed comment.

SIA

One night I was chatting with a Plano, TX cop about whether a used
cop car was a bad buy because of all the rough service, or a good buy
due to all the heavy duty parts in a police package.

He told me something that I never would have thought of.
He said if you buy an ex police car, try to get a shift commander's car.
Fewer bad guys have been locked up in the back for transit to the pokey.

He said many of the regular patrol cars have had drunks blow chunks in
the back on the way to jail. Sometimes the smell lingers even after cleaning.

Here's an easy way to tell the difference between a civilian Crown Vic
and a CVPI (Crown Victoria Police Interceptor):

1. Civilian Crown Vics have chrome grilles in front.
The area between the tail lights and the license plate matches the car's color.

2. CVPI's have BLACK grilles.
The area between the tail lights and the license plate is also BLACK.
The only time this is ambiguous is if the unmarked LEO unit is black,
because then the black area on the rear would match what a civilian Crown
Vic would have.
Sometimes the cop cars will say "Police Interceptor" near the left tail light.
Sometimes..... they don't!

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As a general rule of thumb, cop cars of any brand/model do not have fog lights either.
So if a car approaches you from behind and he has regular headlights AND fog lights,
you can be almost 100% sure it's not five-oh. (Cops, you know, like Hawaii-five-oh!)
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By the way, for anyone who would consider buying a used CVPI, there is a place in
San Antonio that gets all the castoff SAPD CVPI's when they hit 80,000 miles. They
replace anything that's needed, they fix any dents, remove the decals, and usually paint
them solid white, but they will paint them any color you want.

A new CVPI lists for something around $30,000. The ex SAPD cars go for around
$12-13,000.