When did AGS introduce the current colour scheme for cars?

Duke O Smiley

i.e from this



to this,

donvito99

Wasn't there others in between? Like solid white with a thin blue stripe?

Duke O Smiley

Aye yeah, I thought this was about at the same time as the blue w/shield on each door, but I'm open to correction on that.

Basically I want to know when the current scheme was introduced using the plain stripe down the side of a white car.

touts

They seem to be replacing the white with a sort of silver grey on the newer cars I've seen.1

kub

donvito99 wrote: »

Wasn't there others in between? Like solid white with a thin blue stripe?

They were always traffic Corp cars

kub

touts wrote: »

They seem to be replacing the white with a sort of silver grey on the newer cars I've seen.1

Apparently Toyota ran out of white cars

Into The Blue

touts wrote: »

They seem to be replacing the white with a sort of silver grey on the newer cars I've seen.1

Was that not just temporary as there was a shortage of white cars a couple of years back.. Silver looked better imo

Duke O Smiley

Into The Blue wrote: »

Was that not just temporary as there was a shortage of white cars a couple of years back.. Silver looked better imo

Nice as they looked, I found they weren't as easy to spot as white cars

Turner

God what would we do for a 2.0L mondeo now.

The best patrol car by far.

Heres one for €2500, the price the Gardai would pay for a clutch and more than normal service on a Hyundai

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/06-ford-mondeo-2-0-petrol-ghia-model/7995415?offset=6

Duke O Smiley

Turner wrote: »

God what would we do for a 2.0L mondeo now.

The best patrol car by far.

Heres one for €2500, the price the Gardai would pay for a clutch and more than normal service on a Hyundai

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/06-ford-mondeo-2-0-petrol-ghia-model/7995415?offset=6

Genuine 2005/2006 ex-AGS Mondeos can be picked up for about €500 now. Granted without the spec level this one has and in much worse nick.

belacqua_

Regular units switched to white in 1993-94, I believe. Traffic units have been white since at least the early 80s.

belacqua_

The Opel Vectra was the first regular vehicle I can remember appearing in the new livery, followed by the Hiaces and Carina hatchbacks.

Mister Jingles

Turner wrote: »

God what would we do for a 2.0L mondeo now.

The best patrol car by far.

Heres one for €2500, the price the Gardai would pay for a clutch and more than normal service on a Hyundai

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/06-ford-mondeo-2-0-petrol-ghia-model/7995415?offset=6

That's one has been up for sale a good while. It's also very rare to see a manual 2.0 petrol for sale in this country.

carzony

Turner wrote: »

God what would we do for a 2.0L mondeo now.

The best patrol car by far.

Heres one for €2500, the price the Gardai would pay for a clutch and more than normal service on a Hyundai

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/06-ford-mondeo-2-0-petrol-ghia-model/7995415?offset=6

That shape mondeo must be nearly gone in the Garda by now?

Duke O Smiley

Rightio, so, a 93 plate car used by AGS would be on the old livery, or the new livery?

Sorry, this is for a film project and we really don't want to balls up the whole thing with one crucial error

belacqua_

Duke O Smiley wrote: »

Rightio, so, a 93 plate car used by AGS would be on the old livery, or the new livery?

Sorry, this is for a film project and we really don't want to balls up the whole thing with one crucial error

I can't say with any certainty that the new livery was implemented in 1993, I've a feeling that it was 94--I'm sure someone here will give you a definitive answer. What I can say is that there were cars in the old blue livery still in use as late as 1995, I distinctly remember a blue Sierra Sapphire in my local district around this time. A blue squad car would have been common enough up until then, so it wouldn't be a balls up to have a 93 one in your film project.

touts

Duke O Smiley wrote: »

Rightio, so, a 93 plate car used by AGS would be on the old livery, or the new livery?

Sorry, this is for a film project and we really don't want to balls up the whole thing with one crucial error

Check a newspaper archive and look for a picture of a car in 1993. Or check reeling in the years.

Duke O Smiley

Got talking to a Guard last night lads, he says he's pretty certain the white / yellow stripe cars were in general use by 1993. The transition year was around 1992.

Old diesel

From memory - which may be wrong - but in around 1993 - the Gardaí bought in Fiat Tempras - which were white - again from memory

Regarding the Sierra Sapphire that someone mentioned above - I too remember seeing a 1992 Sierra Sapphire Garda car in blue.

Not sure what else was issued in 1993 in terms of cars

belacqua_

Here's a tango unit in 1993 in the old livery. My feeling still is that the new look wasn't rolled out until late 93. 1992 seems very early.

Capri

Duke O Smiley wrote: »

Rightio, so, a 93 plate car used by AGS would be on the old livery, or the new livery?

Sorry, this is for a film project and we really don't want to balls up the whole thing with one crucial error

Film project? Maybe Stephen Carroll (Movie cars) might have something on file.

http://www.imcdb.org/yourcomments.php?search=Garda&id=

Speaking of films/ colours, I remember them making 'The General' at the BoI on College Green and the 'Garda' Sierra had a green/yellow stripe on it http://pics.imcdb.org/0is65/1997sierra005147rf2.3149.jpg

Considering some of the 'Garda' stuff in movies - Mayo reg / Wrong roof signs / wrong cars (Never used by AGS ) I don't blame you trying to get it correct.;)

Check this recent thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055751646

https://www.google.ie/search?q=maestro+garda+car&rlz=1T4ADRA_enIE451IE451&tbm=isch&oq=garda+car&gs_l=img.12...0.0.0.33719.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0.msedr...0...1ac..34.img..0.0.0.m4MbX1Y-kLY

https://www.google.ie/search?rlz=1T4ADRA_enIE451IE451&q=cortina+garda+car&hl=en&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ei=0wfpVI3xPMuM7AaxpICICA&ved=0CBMQsAQ&tbm=isch

Duke O Smiley

Capri wrote: »

Film project? Maybe Stephen Carroll (Movie cars) might have something on file.

http://www.imcdb.org/yourcomments.php?search=Garda&id=

Speaking of films/ colours, I remember them making 'The General' at the BoI on College Green and the 'Garda' Sierra had a green/yellow stripe on it http://pics.imcdb.org/0is65/1997sierra005147rf2.3149.jpg

Considering some of the 'Garda' stuff in movies - Mayo reg / Wrong roof signs / wrong cars (Never used by AGS ) I don't blame you trying to get it correct.;)

Check this recent thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055751646

https://www.google.ie/search?q=maestro+garda+car&rlz=1T4ADRA_enIE451IE451&tbm=isch&oq=garda+car&gs_l=img.12...0.0.0.33719.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0.msedr...0...1ac..34.img..0.0.0.m4MbX1Y-kLY

https://www.google.ie/search?rlz=1T4ADRA_enIE451IE451&q=cortina+garda+car&hl=en&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ei=0wfpVI3xPMuM7AaxpICICA&ved=0CBMQsAQ&tbm=isch

I noticed a lot of faults with the cars used in the General. Most of the plates don't belong to the cars they're on either but it was worth re-watching just to get a look at some.

This will be the first project with any degree of real importance so in the interest of getting it "right" I would like to use a car used by AGS and get it to look right.

The "history of Garda cars is a good one" I see the photos in the first few comments are unavailable now but a lot of them can be seen on google images, they've been of great help so far. I'd love to know where they came from but I'd love to get my hands on them.

I have a Peugeot 405 at the moment that I don't use. If we cannot find something soon enough we will probably just use it, I'd rather not, for authenticity sake, but needs must and all that and there are more important things to this whole project than a single car (though I beg to differ, I'm loving this)

Cheers for the info

kub

OP I wonder as your query is more than curious, why don't you contact Garda HQ, I am sure the guys in the transport section would give you a definite answer on that.

frostypants

When these white cars were introduced years ago I remember people calling them 'the white mice' for some reason. They were the first traffic Corp cars at the time if I remember correctly

Duke O Smiley

kub wrote: »

OP I wonder as your query is more than curious, why don't you contact Garda HQ, I am sure the guys in the transport section would give you a definite answer on that.

I shot off an email there on Friday but I'm not expecting to hear much back over the weekend. If I don't hear back I'll try contacting them again somehow

Capri

I have a Peugeot 405 at the moment that I don't use

Your 405 ? http://cars.donedeal.ie/vintagecars-for-sale/future-classic-405-grdt-class-car-lovely-driver/8752388?offset=1

IIRC the Victor FD was the first Traffic car in white with a blue stripe (and dayglo orange roof panel ?)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wyliefox/9856882345/


Re the HQ query, didn't someone on here (old diesel??) have photos of the old fleet ??

Duke O Smiley

Capri wrote: »

Your 405 ? http://cars.donedeal.ie/vintagecars-for-sale/future-classic-405-grdt-class-car-lovely-driver/8752388?offset=1

IIRC the Victor FD was the first Traffic car in white with a blue stripe (and dayglo orange roof panel ?)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wyliefox/9856882345/

That's it alright, hoping to get rid of it soon enough.

Grab All Association

There was a 1992 or 1993 Escort/Orion in blue Garda livery up until about 1994/5 in the Holycross area.

Old diesel

Chris___ wrote: »

There was a 1992 or 1993 Escort/Orion in blue Garda livery up until about 1994/5 in the Holycross area.

I imagine that there would have been a cross over point where you had cars in the old colours - and the new ones running together.

So say the change over point is 1st January of a particular year - you may have cars from September of the year before in the old colours - and you keep using them in those colours

Capri

I don't think there'd be any 'official' change point, like we have with silver/white Avensis at the moment , the red Victors were an interesting case in point - bought at a discount because of the colour but mixed in with the regular fleet of blue Avengers (Don't remember any Mk I Escorts ever being used - Cortinas were small enough anyway :rolleyes: ) There's even a silver marked (07 ?) Focus saloon around town.

Even in Germany at the moment there's green/blue and silver color , and the Polizei themselves are using blue or green uniforms - it's a long transition www.kgordon.com/pdfs/German.pdf

belacqua_

Capri wrote: »

Even in Germany at the moment there's green/blue and silver color , and the Polizei themselves are using blue or green uniforms - it's a long transition www.kgordon.com/pdfs/German.pdf

I clearly remember at the time that the rational behind the change was to bring us (voluntarily) into line with European policing standards. I've been trying to find some reference to it online without much luck. You're absolutely right, the old blue cars and traffic units were just gradually phased out and not replaced, some of the newer ones were, however, reused as unmarked cars (minus the decals, of course).

The German case is a little more complicated as each state has its own police force. There are only a couple states remaining, Bavaria being one of them, who have yet to make the change from green & silver/white to blue & silver/white. Bavaria are reluctant to change uniform and livery and won't if they can avoid it: http://m.thelocal.com/20131212/bavarian-cops-rail-against-uniform-upgrade

veetwin

I'm pretty local my local district office got a new white Fiat Tempra in mid 1993 replacing the old blue Sierra. I knew. One of the lads in the station who showed it to me and was bemoaning the change from a 2 litre petrol Ford to an unbelievably slow and noisy diesel Fiat. Not even sure if the fiat was turbo charged. I think that was one of the first of the new white livery. For film purposes I'd say any pre 1993 car should be in blue unless it's a traffic car. From 1993 reg onwards it should be white. Vectras and Tempras were common then with mondeos from 1994 onwards.

Grab All Association

From Into The West 1992

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_307104-Ford-Sierra-Sapphire-1989.html

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_307093-Nissan-Bluebird-T12.html

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_307098-Toyota-Corolla-EE90-1990.html

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_307096-Mazda-323-BF-1989.html