Talk:Panda car

Stub?

The recent change of stub has brought this to my attention: does the community at large think this article is a stub any more? It's got quite substantial. -- Scott Wilson 02:34, 4 November 2005 (UTC) Another advantage is that it would avoid these arguments about what stub to use... -- Scott Wilson 11:30, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

Origin

I always thought that they were called Panda cars, because in the old days a lot of them were actually Fiat Pandas. - Not true then? Jooler 00:56, 17 March 2006 (UTC). I thought perhaps it was an acronym for "Police AND A??????". Assistance for example.

Well, firstly, the term was around long before the introduction of the Fiat Panda in 1980 (the OED lists its first recorded usage in 1966), and secondly, I've never heard of a Fiat Panda being used as a police car in the UK, although I may be wrong. Quite frankly, the idea of driving a Fiat Panda on duty (well, at all actually!) sends shivers down my spine! -- Necrothesp 01:37, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

• I thought that Lancashire Constabulary were the first to use Panda cars and swap doors etc between pairs of cars to get the right effect. There are various references on the WWW to 1965 for this. Lancashire were very innovative and pioneered Personal Radios with the LANCON radio set. Would they not then have one white car with blue doors? Essentially two cars with quite different colour schemes.

This website would seem to confirm that Lancashire were first Police 'Panda' cars, so-named because of their black and white / blue and white liveries, were introduced by the Lancashire Constabulary in 1965. --jmb 13:12, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

• The website about the Dumbartonshire Hillman Imps seems to confirm this. The newspaper is dated 1967 as are the number plates on the cars. All references to Lancashire seem to give 1965 for their use of Panda cars though not found confirmation of their swapping doors around. --jmb 13:18, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

• There is an article by the Chief Constable of Lancashire in The Times (Mobility Answer to Police Shortage (News) Colonel T. E. St. Johnston - The Times, Wednesday, Jan 26, 1966; pg. 13; Issue 56539; col F) which describes the introduction of patrols by Ford Anglia Panda cars in blue and white in Kirkby and the use of the Personal Radio. It describes a blue car with a white band around it which would suggest that they were specially painted so perhaps the idea of swapping doors came later. --jmb 13:26, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Policing And Neighbourhood Development Area is what it stands for. (read that on info board at the National Emergency Services Museum in Sheffield) 31.121.66.130 (talk) 16:17, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

"Round What?"

The first use of Panda cars seems to have been in Lancashire Constabulary area in about 1965, the Chief Constable described the use of blue and white Ford Anglia Panda cars in Kirkby in an article in The Times on 26 January 1966. These were blue with a white line painted around them. The Dunbartonshire force found an enterprising way round this (ROUND WHAT?), however, buying two Hillman Imps (subsequently nicknamed 'Pinky and Perky'); one blue and one white. The boot lids, bonnets and doors were then swapped to create a panda car style scheme......

I presume it means getting around painting white lines around the car and so reducing the resale value of the cars. Swapping doors means they can be put swapped back so the car is all one colour when it is resold. --jmb 11:49, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Black and White

Panda cars were named after pandas because they were originally painted in large panels of black and white, or blue (usually light blue) and white. This may have been influenced by the black-and-white vehicle colour scheme favoured by North American police forces, which allowed the unambiguous recognition of patrol units as such from a significant distance.

• I thought the article quoted in The Times in 1966 described the first use being blue and white so the reference to "originally painted black and white" is incorrect and should be removed. I don't think that at that time most people in the UK had been exposed to many films of US police cars so were not familiar with the colours used there and it is coincidental. The term "black and white" or "blue and white" has never been used in the UK for police vehicles as far as I am aware. --jmb 18:49, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

You may have a point about black and white - I personally don't know of any black and white police cars in the UK - and police cars may not have been referred to as blue and white, but there certainly were blue and white panda cars, so I see no problem with the use of that phrase - i.e. in a descriptive sense - in the article. --Scott Wilson 00:12, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Photos

This article really lacks a photo of a vintage panda car in the original design. Thanks, Maikel (talk) 12:43, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Agreed. The photos in the article are not at all "panda-like." Wouldn't you agree that this URL presents a much better collection of panda cars (although not strictly from the UK) ? 174.24.92.212 (talk) 13:22, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

No. Mostly because they are mostly US police cars, and the "panda" car was a specifically UK term.

The point about a panda car, as originally developed, is that it was a extension of / replacement for foot patrols. It was never a traffic, fast response or pursuit car - the police already had those beforehand. Pandas were small, cheap cars intended for low speed and relatively unobtrusive use. The Ford Anglia photo already in the article is pretty good, a Mini or a Morris Minor would be good too. Andy Dingley (talk) 13:30, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Heads up: going to nominate at AfD

I'm going to let Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jam sandwich (police car) run its course to minimize the drama, but then I'm going to nominate this article for deletion per WP:NOT#DICTIONARY and WP:Wikipedia is not a dictionary. Now would be a good time to cite any sources that would meet the criteria explained at WP:NOTNEO; secondary sources that are about the term, giving us insight and broader understanding of society, explaining more than merely what it means or demonstrating that the neologism exists.

A a good alternative might be to merege this along with Black and white (police vehicle) into List of police-related slang terms, or create a new List of slang for police vehicles to include panda car, paddywagon and so on. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 23:05, 3 November 2020 (UTC)

Black and White early 1960s Police cars at Flickr

The prose reads "In Britain, they were never painted black and white, so "panda" appears to be a reference to the cars as seen on popular British television shows, such as Z-Cars, via the medium of black and white television which was commonplace at the time.". Just doing some Flickr research on Jam sandwich (police car) and this image of (presumably black) B&W police cars turned up; the origin should be dependable.--Rocknrollmancer (talk) 21:34, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

I have now added this Flickr link under External heading, plus a substantial third-party reference which - I am very pleased - pre-dates the Wikipedia article.--Rocknrollmancer (talk) 13:48, 6 November 2020 (UTC)