With so many miles under the hood, your average Houston police car needs a lot of maintenance.

But an honest mechanic will tell you that, at some point, you’re better off buying a new car.

“You know, as a former cop, I’ve always been frustrated that our patrol cars are allowed to stay on Houston streets beyond the conditions that we allow taxis and limos to stay on the streets.  I think that’s unfair and unsafe for our police officers,” said Houston Councilman Adrian Garcia.

Houston’s police department is playing catch up and not just in hiring more police officers.

The mayor wants to spend $10 million this year buying about 300 new police cars and top aides to the mayor have talked about buying about 350 more cars a year through 2012.

With its aging fleet of blue-and-whites, there is good reason Houston police want to buy more cars.

But Houston patrol cars are lasting longer than they used to, but the truth is, they need to.

“You know, the year before I was mayor, there were zero police vehicles that were acquired.  They said it was a budget crunch, but these vehicles, they do wear down.  And as Chief Hurtt has said, you know, a vehicle is an officer’s office,” said Houston Mayor Bill White.

Buying a fleet of cop cars is not cheap.

It’s estimated HPD will have to spend about $12.5 million dollars buying new cars every year for the next five years.

And in the meantime, the mechanics in the police garages have to keep the old fleet running.