BOSTON – Burlington’s Town Meeting recently approved the first year of a five-year plan to replace the town’s non-emergency fleet with new, more fuel-efficient vehicles, phasing out the use of former cruisers, according to the Boston Globe.

Burlington police typically use the heavy-duty vehicles for five or six years and 80,000 to 100,000 miles. They start as patrol cars, driving or idling nearly 24 hours a day, and are later used to serve other department functions, such as for the detectives. After that, the cruisers are bequeathed to other

Burlington departments or the Town Hall motor pool, where they serve a variety of functions, like taking the electrical inspector to job sites, moving mail between municipal buildings, or carrying department heads to regional meetings.

Driven an average of 5,000 miles a year, those old cruisers can last another five years or more in those reinvented roles. But they use a gallon of gas about every eight miles, and their high-performance engines cost more to repair.