Police cars : Wolseley

The Police’s loyalty to the Wolseley marque was remarkably strong right up to the mid-1960s. In fact, watch any British black & white crime film, and you’ll probably see one of these before too long.


Wolseley 6/80


A mid-1950s Wolseley 6/80 used for police publicity work.


Wolseley 6/90


A 1956 Wolseley 6/90 in service with London’s Metropolitan Police Force.


Wolseley 6/110 Automatic


Another Metropolitan Police Force car, this time 1965 Wolseley 6/110 MkII automatic photographed in Trafalgar Square.


Additional information from Ciaran Cavanagh

Keith Adams

6 Comments

  1. In 1967, I picked up a very nice Wolseley 6/90 for £75. It served me very well for two or three years, the best £75 worth I ever had, for sure. I noticed that whenever I came up behind anyone at night, they always slowed down to the speed limit. The power of that illuminated Wolseley badge, and its strong association with the Police!

  2. I was thinking about old police cars just the other day.

    After the mid 1960s Police forces seemed to move away from Wolseleys towards Rover P6’s the big Triumphs, Ford Zephyrs / Zodiacs, & Mk2 Jaguars.

  3. I read on a biking site that some police forces made sure their old BMW tourers were repainted from white before being auctioned off.

  4. Lothian & Border Police have silver cars now for the same reason. Remove the decals and off to auctions they go.

  5. My first police driving instructor in 1975 told me that when Wolsey included a heater as a standard fitting the metropolitan police thought that if coppers were given a warm car they would be reluctant to get out of it. So the heaters were removed. this left a hole in the bulkhead allowing a gale to whistle through the car.The drivers had the last laugh however when the reduction in coolant led to the cars boiling over and heaters were refitted

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