The day we nearly bought a cop car

One of the great things about living over here is BBC America, ergo unlimited access to Top Gear - and not just the ones you don't want to watch, but the ones where Jeremy Clarkson et al have a laugh at the expense of the Yanks.

Anyway, to cut a long (and drawn out story concerning one particular episode of Top Gear involving the team buying cars for less than $1000 each), we discovered that it is possible in America to buy former government cars at a fraction of the cost of one from a regular dealership.

There are only a handful of licensed ex-government dealerships in the country, but luckily there's one in KC. So we got ourselves down there, pronto.

The first car we tried out was a sweet, long, low, lean black and white machine, with the words 'Wichita Police' still faintly visible on the side. Inside was a birds nest of tangled wires where the cop radio had been detached - but it still had 'the cage' in place for criminals - a thick perspex screen securely bolted between front and back seats - and if you were sitting in the back, you weren't getting out of there.

Next to it, however, was a complete beauty - a white Police Interceptor, which came complete with flashing lights on the roof and fullly equipped radio with two mikes. Of course if you really tried to stop someone using the loudhailer, or test out the siren you'd probably get arrested, but it would be pretty fun.

Of course we could have bought the crappy car and kitted it out. Inside the dealership were piles of radios, lights - the works. One man was in there with his two sons. He owned a former detective car, which he'd bought directly from a cop. He was going craxy - buying lights, an antennae - the works - for his car, which presumably he was planning on cruising around in posing as a policeman and frightening all his friends into obeying the speed limit.

To be honest, he was pretty scary - and, tempting as the cars were, we didn't want to turn out like him. So we left - sadly just before I spotted the full-on plice van standing in one corner...