“There is a vast difference between [bulletproof and non-bulletproof] vehicles,” says Sean Kealey, who is on active duty in the U.S. Army. Kealey sometimes drives a bare-bones Humvee “as if it were a scout vehicle”—nimble and capable off-road. But the armored Humvees, he says, are much less capable off the beaten path, prone to rollovers and problems with suspension, engine, and transmission stressed from the additional weight: “Of all of the vehicles that we had, the one that struggled the most in the sands in the Arabian Desert was the armored Humvees,” Kealey says.
At least your wallet will be lighter. An armored Toyota Land Cruiser or Mercedes S-Class sedan can start around $100,000. Prices for serious quality products reach much higher: The BMW X5 Security Plus cost $144,000 when it debuted at the Moscow Auto Show in 2014; Audi’s A8 L Security cost $140,000 upon its 2016 arrival; and Mercedes-Maybach’s Pullman Guard cost $1.6 million when it premiered in 2017. At ArmorMax, the average amount on a purchase ticket is $150,000, Burton says.
Rover declines to name a price for the Sentinel, its latest ballistic retardant feat, but its predecessor cost €400,000 ($445,000) in 2015. A rough estimate puts the latest version near a half-million dollars. The underlying hope, of course, is that you’ll never have to put it to the test.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.