You Can Get An Awesome Full-Size V8-Powered Sedan For Cheap In Government Auctions

The sedan has been on a death march for years, and sedans with big, burly V8 engines are certainly on the endangered species list. If you’re looking for a slick family hauler with a V8 engine, rear-wheel-drive, and a modern body all for pennies on the dollar, you’re largely out of luck.

People still want over $40,000 for a Chevy SS and even a Dodge Charger from the early 2010s can set you back $10,000. But what if you don’t even have that kind of cash? What if you don’t even want to spend $6,000 on a modern V8 sedan? Well, my friend, let’s hop on over to a government auction, where you can score a Chevrolet Caprice PPV, a great big sedan from the land of Australia, for less than the price of a crapbox on Facebook.

Of course, the Caprice wasn’t the only sedan brute we got from Australia. The Chevrolet SS and the Pontiac G8 were epic sedans that didn’t really get the attention they deserved until it was too late. Pontiac isn’t around anymore and the Chevrolet SS was too expensive for many to stomach. It’s a shame because both are great V8 sedans perfect for an enthusiast.

Unfortunately, both of these cars are still too expensive for cheapskates like me. As I noted in the lede, asking prices for the Chevrolet SS remain insane. Its older sibling, the Pontiac G8, can sometimes be had with a V8 for under $10,000, but you can expect that car to have questionable mods and perhaps thousands in deferred maintenance.

Let’s scrape the bottom of the barrel. The Chevrolet Caprice PPV was not a car most Autopians could buy or even drive. Most drivers of a Caprice PPV in America do so while wearing a police uniform. The “PPV” alludes to it as the name is an abbreviation of “Police Patrol Vehicle.” However, these cars have been leaving police fleets by the dozens, which means you can score them for dirt on sites like GovDeals.

The Commodore’s Big Brother

The fascinating thing about the Caprice PPV is that while it looks like a Pontiac G8 with a different front and rear, it’s not the same vehicle. Look long enough and you’ll realize that the cop car is about eight inches longer and the differences don’t end there. The Pontiac G8 and the Chevy SS were rebadged Holden Commodores while the Caprice PPV is a full-size sedan based on the Commodore’s platform and badged as the Caprice or Statesman depending on where it was sold. It was also sold as a Buick Park Avenue and a Daewoo, too!

Automotive icon Bob Lutz was responsible for a number of great General Motors models through the 2000s. If you drive a Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky, Chevy Cruze, Cadillac CTS-V, Pontiac GTO, or Chevrolet Volt, you can thank Lutz for helping to get those vehicles into production. Lutz was brought into GM to spice up lineups filled with front-wheel-drive, bloated cars and he helped make GM cool again.

One way Lutz figured out how to breathe life into GM’s American lineups was through importing cars from GM’s Holden marque in Australia. While GM’s storied American automakers were selling once legendary nameplates like the Monte Carlo as front-wheel-drive cars, enthusiasts were still cooking their rear tires with V8s in the land down under. Bob Lutz was able to convince GM’s North American Strategy Board that he could bring over the Holden Monaro for cheap, helping out Holden while also giving Pontiac something hot to sell.

The public’s response to the Pontiac GTO was tepid with 40,808 units getting sold between 2004 and 2006. Still, General Motors liked what it saw and more Aussie action was on the way. As WardsAuto reported, Holden developed a rear-wheel-drive vehicle architecture that could be easily adapted to fit the regulations of various global markets. The origins of the Zeta platform date back to 1999 and by 2004, Holden spent a billion Australian dollars putting it together. The fourth-generation (VE) Holden Commodore got this architecture and the GM North American Strategy Board greenlit a car to ride on the platform as well. This car would become known as the G8, one of the cars that made Pontiac’s “We Build Excitement” slogan accurate again just in time for the brand to die.

Before that happened, things were good. This time, Pontiac would right some wrongs made with the GTO by giving the G8 a more aggressive style. Out of the other end, Pontiac would have a sport sedan and after a year of production, you were able to grab it with a 6.2-liter 415 HP LS3 V8 and paired to a manual transmission. And that wasn’t all, as GM even planned to bring over the Holden Ute as the G8 ST.

GM was having enough fun with Holden that it decided to take on the lucrative police vehicle market that, at the time, was captured by Ford with its Crown Victoria Police Interceptor and Dodge with its Charger. Back then, Chevy’s car-based police offering was the Impala PPV, which felt more like a rental car than it did a crimefighting vehicle. I mean, just look at it:

The Caprice PPV not only brought back a nameplate that had been dead for over a decade, but it was bringing over specs that put Chevy’s offering on top. A Crown Vic made 250 HP from its V8 while a Dodge Charger got 340 HP from its Hemi. The Caprice? Oh, its 6.0-liter V8 put down 355 ponies. As Ray Wert reported back in 2009, GM was targeting a best-in-class 60 mph acceleration time of under 6 seconds and a top speed higher than any other cop car on the block.

The Chevy Caprice PPV is a reconfigured version of the WM and WN Holden Caprice/Statesman, which rides on the GM Zeta platform that birthed the VE and VF Holden Commodores as well as the Pontiac G8 and the 2010 Chevy Camaro.

To create the Caprice PPV, Chevrolet took the Caprice, ripped out all of its luxury features, and added back in changes that made the car better for police work.

This included sculpted front seats designed to sort of “pocket” a worn equipment belt. The idea was that a uniformed officer could hop in and the seat would support them as if they weren’t wearing an equipment belt. Going for the long wheelbase Zeta car also meant a spacious trunk, a larger back seat, and enough space for the front seats to move front and back. Chevrolet looked at the complaints of other police cars on the market and decided to make one that stood above the rest. Reportedly, engineers made several iterations of the Caprice PPV’s front seats, honing in on the right design for high wear, low friction, ease of cleaning, and long-term comfort.

At launch, there were two versions of the Caprice PPV. The PPV 9C1 was the standard police version and it had a deleted center console. Instead, there was a tray for police equipment to be mounted. Other small changes include a rubberized floor, a relocated shifter, relocated power window switches, and a Pursuit Mode which toggles higher shift points and a more aggressive throttle response. The 9C1s are totally stripped-down plastic fantastic cars where even the infotainment system is locked down to just being able to use the radio.

The more desirable Caprice PPV is the 9C3. These were made for detective work and thus have a normal dashboard, a normal center console, and even the side curtain airbags that are deleted on the 9C1 Police models.

Still, these were stripped down to the point of removing the glovebox lock, removing rear seat map pockets, removing chrome trim, and once again, the infotainment system is locked down to just being able to use the radio. The most normal Caprice PPVs are 9C3s with optional wheel covers and an intact interior. The 9C3 was discontinued after 2013 and the 9C1 got a unique column shifter when it moved to be based on the WN Holden Caprice in 2014.

Of course, some Caprice PPVs were outfitted in different ways. I’ve seen some examples where the rear seat was deleted and in its place was a kennel for a dog. Those ones had modified rear windows, too, so they would be difficult to turn into a normal car.

In addition to the L77 6.0-liter V8 and its 355 ponies, you got a fully independent suspension that was tuned for police pursuits, a 170-amp high-output alternator, a 2.92 axle ratio, a limited-slip differential, coolers for engine, transmission, and power steering fluids, electric cooling fans, and higher-strength hoses. So, the cop version had real upgrades.

Other goodies included a stealth mode for the vehicle’s lighting, an auxiliary battery, a certified speedometer, and a top speed of 155 mph. If your department cared more about fuel economy, there was a 3.6-liter V6 available with 301 HP.

Good Deals

Of course, most of the cop benefits don’t really matter to you, unless you run around wearing a utility belt. What does matter is the fact that these cars are getting retired from police service and thus are falling into civilian hands.

A lot of cities auction these cars off on GovDeals when they’re done using them. Sometimes, they go for what some would call “screw it” money. Here’s one V8 model that sold for $2,095.70 in March. Sure, it’s two colors and missing a backseat, but that’s a big V8 sedan with 355 HP for just over two large!

Maybe you’re a fancy pants who wants their Caprice PPV in one color? Ok, I read what you’re laying down. Here’s one that sold recently for $6,050 with a V8 and what appears to be a decent interior. That’s still less than what you’d pay for a decent V8 Pontiac G8. Even the 119,337 miles on the odometer aren’t too bad.

You can find Caprice PPV 9C3s up for grabs out there too. One recently sold for $6,500 and it looks cleaner than most of the G8s I’ve seen out there. Here’s another that had really high mileage, but still sold for $3,000.

GovDeals is chock-full of recent sales of Caprice PPVs that went for prices almost too good to pass on. Of course, I have to note that these aren’t going to be cream puffs. These are cars that survived police duty, including idling for thousands of hours, maybe not getting oil changes exactly on schedule, and very likely getting thrown up in by countless drunks. A 9C3 will be your best bet for avoiding the worst abuse. Lots of totally trashed PPVs also show up in auctions.

Still, if you can look past all of that, you can get a great and fast sedan for peanuts. Say you bought that super high-mileage example for $3,000. That’s basically $8.45 per HP! It doesn’t have to end there, either. As reader KITT222 has shown me with his Caprice PPV, there’s so much you can do to “decopify” a Caprice PPV to turn it into the ultimate hoon machine.

KITT222 spent a couple of years turning his Caprice PPV into a car so cool it’s actually the inspiration for this article. He added Bluetooth to the radio, gave the car a backseat for people who aren’t in handcuffs, gave it a normal center console, better door panels, a new steering wheel, and so much more.

So if you’re looking for your next beater, maybe consider a Caprice PPV. Or, maybe you want a nice car that’s a little newer and maybe nicer than those rough G8s and doesn’t cost $40,000, find a 9C3 for sale. The opportunities are endless. Now, if you excuse me, I have some bidding to do.

(Images: GM, unless otherwise noted. Topshot: Cars & Bid Seller/Autopian)