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What do you do when you see a white Ford Crown Victoria?

Cop! Hit the brakes.

And if you see a yellow one?

"Taxi!"

Whether or not you know anything at all about cars, you probably recognize Ford's Crown Victoria. It's the killjoy that appears in your rear-view mirror when you're bombing down the highway on a sunny summer afternoon, or the welcome chariot that arrives just when you need it most on the endless walk home on a cold and drizzly day.

Primarily a fleet vehicle today, the Crown Vic is prized for its generous size and reliability. In the taxi business, this means a car that can seat six, pack a good haul of luggage in the trunk and survive 24/7 abuse for as many as 800,000 kilometres without breaking down (much). In policing, it's a car that idles without overheating for hours in the Tim Hortons parking lot, and then capably takes on a high-speed pursuit.

For police forces, says Ontario Provincial Police Sergeant Cam Woolley, it's an obvious choice. "It has decent performance, lots of room, and it's really reliable."

"Plus," he says. "It looks like a police car."

The roots of the Crown Victoria date all the way back to 1955, when Ford released its luxe Fairlane Crown Victoria. The two-door, two-tone with tiny tailfins and a stainless steel tiara that gave the car a pillarless hardtop convertible look — and its "crown" designation — was discontinued in 1957 and is now a collectable. Late-night host Jay Leno is among its fans, and keeps one in his extensive garage.

The name was revived a quarter-century later in the Ford LTD Crown Victoria, the model that is the foundation of the car we've come to know today. It retained basically the same platform during its 1992 makeover, and got a few more upgrades in 1998.

In today's specification, the car is nothing special. But for its incredible reliability, it's just a heavy, rear-wheel drive, 4.6-litre V8 with about 250 horsepower. And a reputation.

"It's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks… What do you say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what?"

That's Elwood in the Blues Brothers. In the 1990s remake, Blues Brothers 2000, he's talking about a Crown Victoria supplied for the film by Toronto movie car agency H.W. Picture Cars Inc. The model is so closely linked to policing that the company's clients invariably ask for it by name.

"We use them as police cars, undercover cars, internal affairs cars; any secret service situation -- any government agency, basically," says fleet co-ordinator Jimi Mallen. "Pick one, it doesn't matter, it's a Crown Victoria."

Directors — and real law enforcement agencies -- are looking for Ford's official "Police Interceptor" package that makes the car cop-ready from the showroom floor. Among the options: factory-installed ballistic resistant door panels. But typical "cop" features include an uprated power supply, plug-ins for the computers and radios, a light package, hidden locks for the rear door, extra storage boxes in the rear, and a speaker.

But police fleets aren't the only ones that count on the Crown Victoria's reliability. Of the three-dozen Crown Victorias in the H.W. Picture Cars fleet, about a third of them are dressed up like taxi cabs.

"They're bulletproof!" says Kurt Enders, vice president of Checker Cabs of Calgary. "They've been tested time and time again and they're a reliable vehicle -- trunk space, size and everything."

Across North American fleets, Enders estimates as many as three-quarters of taxis on the roads are Crown Victoria models.

Police forces, like the OPP, retire the cars at around 160,000 km, while some cab companies can clock up to 800,000 km on the odometer. Many taxi companies (but not Checker, Enders hastens to say) scour city auctions looking for police cast-offs.

So, even if you've never been arrested, you've probably been in the back seat of a Crown Vic. And maybe even a police model. The pros say the easiest way to tell is the fit and finish — for obvious reasons.

"A cop car has a vinyl rear seat," says Mallen. "If they get a guy in the back who's bleeding or puking his guts out or whatever, they don't want it to stain the cloth."

Although Ford of Canada no longer sells the Crown Vic to civilians, you can still get one at a city or police auction. They also make their way into public hands from rental car fleets.

The car invariably makes for an unique driving experience.

"A friend of mine once rented one when his BMW was in the shop," says Woolley. "He found the previously aggravating ride to the cottage was a pleasure as people suddenly remembered lane discipline and pulled to the right."