The VHF repeater has been on the air since probably the 80s. One of these mobile radios has been being used as a base since then. The other came from a car that had been removed from service. All of our cars have a VHF radio, as well.
We used a P25 system as our main system. In the last decade, it has been taken off air only a hand full of scheduled times. Usually less than an hour. I know of one incident where one of the tower sites was down and there was no service in that area. Those are the only times the VHF system is used.
That said, I'd just like to make two consoles usable instead of just one. Mainly in the even that the trunked system goes down for any extended time, or for whatever reason we walk away from that system.
You're right about narrow banding. I hadn't thought about it. Our repeater has been narrow banded. I suspect that by design, the mobile radios we have purchased for cars in the last several years are NFM, too. Some of our older ones (such as the two I'm talking about), aren't. Am I grasping that right?