We used to use Toughbooks in our patrol cars, as far back as the CF-25 and CF-27 series. At any given time, about 10% of our units were down, mostly hard drive or screen problems. We had techs from Japan come out once to replace the screen hinges in all of our laptops.
About 5 years ago we were short on funds and needed to replace a fair amount of laptops. We called our Dell Rep, asked if they would void the warranty if we put them in patrol cars. As long as we bought the CompleteCare package, they didn't care what we did. We bought 130 Lattitude C640's and put them in cars. At any given time, about 10% were down, mostly with screen or hard drive problems.
The difference is that the Dell's were (literally) 1/3 the cost, and their turnaround on repairs (with complete care) was usually 1 day. We're on our second generation, and getting ready to start buying our third. I've got around 360 deployed in cars, and maybe 55 or so for spares, which we could easily afford at $1300 a pop.
I commute with a Latitude D610 on my FJR several times a week - I've had no problems with it in the year or so I've had it.
Also - we equipped our Harley Motors with laptops last summer - we contracted that work out, since we'd never done motorcycle laptop mounts before (we have techs who do all of our cars). The company insisted on using Toughbooks. Two of the four bikes got done with them, no problems.
At the end of the summer, we decided to do the other two motors. We did the mounting ourselves and used two Dells. No problems with them either.
Finally - Dell is shortly coming out with a solid-state Latitude - with a 30GB all Flash hard Drive. I expect it will be nearly bullet-proof, but expensive. The drive itself is $650.
