Armored vehicles are something most only know from movie screens. We expect them to be owned and used by the Pope, the President of the United States or maybe the Emperor of Japan. Granted, that isn’t very far off.
The safety of bulletproof vehicles is valued highly, especially by politicians that sometimes find themselves in the centre of a bull’s-eye, as well as the occasional celebrity.
As a rule, armored vehicles come with personal guards (bodyguards, executive protection agents) as well, to ensure the safety of the passenger of the car. In the case of the President of the United States, there are usually several cars, with the location of the president being kept secret to minimize the risk for his person to be protected.
Most kinds of armored or bulletproof vehicles are built to withstand bullets of commercial firearms and possibly grenades, especially in the window area. To do that, special materials are used. This ends up increasing the weight of the finished vehicle by quite a lot-they often require special permissions to be allowed on the street. Reinforced parts, often using Kevlar and ceramic, the same materials used for body armor, assure that the passenger is kept safe long enough for other forces to take over protection.
Nowadays, bulletproof vehicles come in many different shapes, models and makes, and they are available commercially. There are companies that will take ‘normal’ cars and upgrade them, then there are car companies that will produce special editions of commercial cars that are bulletproof, and companies that exclusively focus on producing armored vehicles.
Each option has its up and downsides. Generally, upgrading a vehicle can be very expensive and takes up rather a lot of time during which the car is out of commission. A special edition car of a brand like BMW, Mercedes, Audi or SUV (i.e. Toyota) can take a very long time to receive since they are specially manufactured. Another downside here is that the available models are somewhat limited. And as for the last option, an off-brand vehicle, they are generally easy to spot as not being normal vehicles.
As far as the upsides go, the third option is, in general, the most affordable one, and sometimes the safest as the vehicles are built with safety in mind from scratch. Upgrading a normal vehicle means that it’s possible to get a bulletproof vehicle that is more or less unique, and it allows the owner to choose a car more freely than from the limited pool of vehicles. That, however, has the advantage of behind a low-hassle and discreet choice of car that doesn’t sacrifice any functionality.
