You can’t really buy one with the “Police” badging

If you are a fan of GM rear-drive sedans that come from the Land Down Under but don’t quite have the cash for the Chevrolet SS, now is the time to scour your local listings for a Caprice PPV and turn it into a sleeper sedan project.




The Chevy SS was a bold attempt to capture the small market of enthusiasts who wanted a rear-drive V8 sedan with a bow tie on the front. The problem was that most of us were too broke to buy one, and the SS had to ride off into the sunset. While the SS has gotten all of the headlines and done the burnouts since 2011, GM had been importing another rear-drive sedan to be used by municipal agencies across the country. The Caprice Police Pursuit Vehicle, or PPV for short, was essentially a rebadged version of the Holden Statesman sold in Australia. It was available with both a 3.6-liter V6 or a massive 6.0 liter V8.

For a while you had to work for a state or federal agency to get behind the wheel of one of these, but slowly, pre-owned examples are starting to make their way onto the second-hand market. Now you can score a low-mileage example with V8 power for less than brand new Chevy Cruze.


There isn’t a huge inventory to choose from. As of now, Autotrader is only showing 25 Caprice PPVs available for sale nationwide. But if you keep your eye out for local municipal auctions or can get access to a dealer auction, you could likely score an even better deal.

Of course, if you buy one, you will want to make sure that any light bars and sirens are removed, because driving Caprice cruiser is fine, but acting like a police officer has some serious penalties.