I want to get mocked as much as the coppers!

April 1, 2008 3:22 PM

You know those three-wheeled scooter trucks that the NYPD uses? What are they called, where can I buy one and how much do they cost? I've seen several stripped of their livery and apparently in civilian use in Brooklyn. Do they get sold at surplus auctions?
posted by boots to Travel & Transportation (9 answers total)

Best answer: My default assumption is that they're some model of Cushman. You see these a lot around golf courses, in my experience. They're a trip to drive at breakneck speed down a winding an hilly cart path. I also found this site, which I thought was pretty interesting.

The NYPD model may be something completely different, but not too different.
posted by Shohn at 3:34 PM on April 1, 2008

Yeah I thought they were Cushmans too. They made a very similar vehicle when I was a kid that the code enforcement guy drove around on. But I don't see that model on the Cushman site, which is kind of odd. I'm almost positive it's a Cushman.
posted by sully75 at 3:37 PM on April 1, 2008

Roxie drove one in "Dead Like Me," so if the producers of that TV show got one, it can't be impossible for you to do the same.
posted by SlyBevel at 3:58 PM on April 1, 2008

If you have a hard time finding the vehicle in question, you might try looking for a Honda Gyro Canopy, also on Flickr, which is similar to what you are looking for.
posted by gen at 4:13 PM on April 1, 2008

Best answer: The NYPD has been using Cushman scooters—those slow-moving three-wheelers intended to get traffic cops through the tight squeezes a patrol car can’t manage—since the mid-seventies. But now they’re becoming the vehicle of choice among the post-skateboard set, who purchase the scooters at city auctions at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where they go for as little as $100 and seldom for more than $900, depending on the transmission..

From 2004, so it may not be current.
posted by zamboni at 4:17 PM on April 1, 2008

Best answer: There's also the Bajaj 3-Wheeler; some guy drives one of these around my neighborhood here in San Francisco. It's pretty sweet.
posted by gyusan at 4:20 PM on April 1, 2008

Response by poster: Oh man, zamboni, that article sure has my number
posted by boots at 4:37 PM on April 1, 2008

Vespa Ape, too (which is the same as the Bajaj, since Bajaj bought all of the old Vespa molds and factories in the 1970s. So yeah, there are a few Apes around here. People in the know call them "a-peh" not "ape" (like a gorilla). Probably can be had for $1700-$2200 depending on condition. That's for unrestored, not a restored one.
posted by zpousman at 5:16 PM on April 1, 2008

zamboni has a good article there - Gregory quoted in the piece has the "coolest" of the customized scooters. His $3,000 soundsystem had a neat pneumatic lift to open up rear for a mobile soundsytem - bitchin'.

from the nypd auction website - the next auctions are coming up soon.

Public Auction #1129 of Unclaimed Property
Inspection Day - 04/07/2008 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Inspect: Salvage Vehicles, Automobiles, Trucks & Vans at the College Point Auto Pound, located at 129-05 31st Avenue, at the corner of Linden and Ulmer Streets, off of the Whitestone Expressway, in College Point, Queens

SALVAGE VEHICLES, AUTOMOBILES, TRUCKS & VANS, MOTORCYCLES
Sell Day - 04/08/2008 (see below for details)
Additional Salvage Vehicles
Automobiles, Trucks & Vans At the Erie Basin Auto Pound Inspection Area, 700 Columbia Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. (At the South Foot/Dead End of Columbia Street, in Redhook)

WILLIAM J. OLASCHINEZ, AUCTIONEER, DCA #862706
posted by stachemaster at 5:59 PM on April 1, 2008