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Newsday reports that New York City has purchased 40 Nissan Altima Hybrids for its police fleet. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg pointed out that the Smyrna, TN-built Altimas enjoy a patriotic advantage over the Canadian-produced Crown Victorias and Chevy Impalas that comprise most of the NYPD’s fleet of 2,400 patrol vehicles. “It is an added benefit that buying these cars helps create jobs in America,” says Bloomberg. According to the report, some traffic enforcement agents have been using Toyota Prius hybrids since 2002, and police duty captains, who respond to major incidents, have already been using GMC Yukon sport utility vehicle hybrids. “We’ve had no downside,” says Police Commissioner Ray Kelly of his force’s hybrid use.
28 Comments on “New York Launches “Made In America” Hybrid Nissan Police Fleet...”
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I predict Vines, McElroy, and DeLorenzo will boycott the Big Apple, and the musical New York, New York, and perhaps start saying mean things about Michael Bloomberg. I don’t think anyone in NYC will notice unless one of the late night comedians has them on. If I were their press agent, I’d tell them to stay home, because I think someone could have a lot of fun with them.
They assemble them here, but all the high paying engineering, executive, and design jobs are probably still in Japan.
If more cities start buying foreign label cars, the domestics might just get the message. Build cars that are actually worth buying, and they will sell. That includes muni fleets.
Flash forward to the July 4th weekend – NYC’s fleet of 20 Altimas are on duty, but the other 20 are laid up waiting on parts from the severe duty they are flat out not designed to handle.
Meanwhile, Old Ford Police Intercepters are being dragged out of open fields, abandoned buildings, etc., and being fixed with coat hangers and chewing gum to fill the void.
Considering that my mom’s 07 Altima was on transmission #3 before 10k miles, this is worrying. That CVT is vile filth.
Oh and I doubt all the design/engineering work on this car is done in Japan, as the Altima is a North American market car, not a world car. Oh and Nissan licensed Toyota hybrid tech which definitely was engineered in Japan.
So yeah, blue collar jobs for us, engineering jobs for Japan.. and the U.S. mechanical engineering and manufacturing gets even less relevant.
Tummy: Nissan design centers.
Nissan’s US-based technical, sales, etc facilities.
My point would be that these are global firms. From Jason Vines to Michael Bloomberg, we should all stop thinking about them in terms of zero-sum, nationalistic policies.
They assemble them here, but all the high paying engineering, executive, and design jobs are probably still in Japan.– Tummy
Actually Honda (Ohio, detroit), Nissan (Tenn, Detroit) and Toyota (kentucky, Detroit) all have main engineering headquarters in the US that style,design and engineer the vehicles from Napkin concepts to the molds on the floor. Infact when I was out of school as an engineer the American based companies couldn’t gaurantee a job for us engineers so these Japan based companies you mention hired me and thousands others as yes here it comes , engineers and designers. Infact I know for sure at Toyota many American specific vehicles such as Avalon and Tundra are US led with minimal Japan support.
What of the Fusion hybrid? Didn’t AT&T just do a massive bid with Ford to purchase green vehicles for their fleet?
When I was in the city for the NY Auto Show I purposely chose the Malibu Hybrid taxi and it was a nice ride. Granted the Malibu hybrid is a mild one.
They assemble them here, but all the high paying engineering, executive, and design jobs are probably still in Japan.
Perhaps, but the bulk of the dollars in the car’s MSRP stay where it was assembled.
What of the Fusion hybrid? Didn’t AT&T just do a massive bid with Ford to purchase green vehicles for their fleet?
Hecho en Mexico.
@kansei: as Nissan licensed Toyota’s HSD for the Altima Hybrid, I’m guessing that the Altima Hybrid uses the same epicyclic CVT that’s in the Prius, instead of Nissan’s own belt-driven CVT
Hey, the president told us at the Chrysler C11 press conference to “Buy American!” So I guess Bloomberg did. A Nissan. From Tennessee. Go VOLS!
Indianapolis just ordered a fleet of Toyota Camry hybrids for non-police governmental fleet use. Though the Camrys are made in Kentucky, Toyota has an Indiana truck manufacturing plant. Some GM/UAW folks were pretty upset that the Malibu hybrid was beat out for the contract, arguing that the Toyotas cost more. However, because of lower anticipated maintenance and higher mileage, the Camrys are cheaper over the whole life cycle.
More importantly, the fusion hybrid is not available yet.
For city patrol, like NYC, hybrids are a huge win.
There is nothing wrong with a CVT Transmission, both Nissan and Honda and Toyota have used them for years in other markets, I think the problem started when they where first tried here by GM in some of there models and as they were very new, no one really new much about them, hey They have been used in Snowmobiles over many years.
I wonder what the breakdown is in terms of parts sourcing. I realize that it is important to know where a car was assembled, but knowing where the parts are from is equally as important.
Ain’t gonna be bagging and tagging many speeders in those things.
@ Geo
+1
@Kansei: You’ve definitely got a lemon. I’ve had rentals with 40k miles and zero problems with the CVT. But I’m also guessing this uses the Toyota CVT, not Nissan’s.
NickR
Parts content origin is right on the Monroney sticker.
My Tundra is 85% US/Canadian (they lump that together, for the UAW/CAW, I guess) parts and assembled in Indiana. The Dodge Ram that I did not buy was assembled in Mexico with 65% US/Canadian parts. Its all on the sticker.
Belt CVT’s from Honda are junk as well, which is why I wont consider the new Insight. The old one had a manual option. The Civic GX we had was CVT and each one lasted about 20k miles. Sold it before the HondaCare extended warranty expired.
Doesn’t Ontario border New York state? If so isn’t buying a Ontario build car better for New York State than a Tenessee build car?
The Altima is engineered and designed in Japan. American innovation fails again!
What a f***ing disgrace!
I just hope the NYPD remembers to check the oil every day and is ready to replace catalytic converters and engines regularly.
Google “Altima engine failures” and see what I mean!
Still better than some Chrysler POS!
The last niches where domestics could still sell because of patriotism are getting wiped out. Starting from presidential helicopter and next generation military KC-x tankers to police fleet , cargo vans and rentals. here I come jobless rate!
@taxman100
Flash forward to the July 4th weekend – NYC’s fleet of 20 Altimas are on duty, but the other 20 are laid up waiting on parts from the severe duty they are flat out not designed to handle.
Most other vehicles aren’t designed to handle severe duty like the taxicab (and to a lesser extent, rental car) industry puts them through, but hybrids seem to be doing admirably in that use despite the same sort of nonsense about reliability coming out of Detroit when cab companies started buying hybrids.
Let’s be honest, the police package of today really is only a stronger alternator, a transmission cooler, column shifter, a hose-it-out interior, and some minor framing bolsters for things like push bars. The engines and transmissions are no different than the car you can buy off the showroom floor. So I’d submit that a Crown Vic is no more designed to handle the abuse it gets as a police car than anything else.
And personally, I’d rather NYC’s finest torture-test the car so that I can purchase a more reliable, more robust car when it comes time for me to buy a hybrid.
nyc made a long term commitment to hybrids several years back. the nypd is one of the last city agencies to use them. the dept. of environment protection has been using the prius since day one. they still have many 1st generation models in everyday use. probably 20% of all taxis are hybrid. hybrid’s make a lot sense in a city like new york that doesn’t meet federal air quality standards. also, these cars do a lot of idling so the gas mileage improvement is a significant savings. i’m surprised the nypd didn’t go for the ford escape hybrid. seems like a better match to me. i admit i was surprised that the city seems to have absolutely no difficulty maintaining these vehicles. they also run fleets of natural gas converted cars including many 2nd generation tauri that are still in daily use. nyc does not just lease and toss cars after five years. all the city vehicles that i see are run into the ground. they have many 10 yr. old + cars parked in my neighborhood. and let’s not forget the hybrid buses:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/mta-shows-off-new-hybrid-buses/
My understanding is that the Prius easily handles taxi duty, which is similar to police duty (same default car as well, the Crown Vic). I doubt they will have any problems with these.
@Robert Schwartz
Nothing outruns a Motorola.
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