I've always been curious about the VA laws on detectors. I read somewhere once that it's a federal law that says the public is allowed to monitor the airwaves. This was specifically talking about radar detectors. If it's true, the state is violating the public's rights. Keep in mind this has been several years ago, back when VA first started doing this.

 

The best radar device on the market is yourself. Don't speed excessively and you have nothing to worry about. Using yourself as a speed detection device cost nothing, easy to install and no warranty problems. A breeze all around.

 

So true, but again, my point is at times anyone can get distracted from how fast they are going; conversation, listening to music, etc. and these vehicles are cop magnets.

 

This may want to be a thread of its own, but could anyone post pictures of ways they have mounted detectors in their Mustangs? After looking at the web site for the V1 and seeing how ugly it is, I think the best place for it would be in the trunk. Just kidding...

 

Several years ago I weighed two posibilities. I could either get a ticket and then cough-up big bucks for a top of the line detector -OR- buy the best now and potentially avoid the ticket in the first place.

I bought the $400 Valentine One and have never regretted it. Everyone will appreciate the radar/laser direction arrows... they tell you if it's coming from the front, side, or rear. It will also let you know if there's one signal in front and one behind you, just 3 in front, 7 all around etc. Of course if there are 7 all around you probably done something worse than speeding! But the strongest signal (direction arrow) will flash.

Sure it's kind of boxy and can give lots of false alarms in ALL "A" mode but LOGIC "L" mode eliminates most of them and still provides a good warning. Your best bet is to learn your detector before trusting it... drive at or near the speed limit on your daily commute for a while. You still have to use common sense but you'll feel much more comfortable knowing if/when there's a false alarm or be 95% positive it's police radar because it's going off where it never has before. If you're going state to state or places you've never been before treat every alert as legit. The cities will always have more false alarms, highway alerts are usually police radar.

Sorry for the long post, but one other neat feature is the remote "face plate." You darken the whole box and can wire the smaller remote anywhere you want. That lets you put the visual alerts (arrows, mode, and radar/laser type) below your dash where only you can see it. It prevents other cars or the police from seeing the box light up your dashboard like a flare gun! The physical box on the window can still be seen, but it has no lights when the remote is plugged in and still gives audio alerts.

Last cool thing... it's cord uses modular "phone" plugs on each end. If something happened to your cord you can actually take your phone cord from home and use it as a temporary cord between the box and the lighter plug.

Alright, one last cool thing...
NO TICKETS WITH IT! :cop: :headbang:

 

"Escort Passport 8500 X50 is in my opinion the best on the market." This just about sums it in my opinion as well. I also did some extensive research before I bought and in the few months that I have had it, it has saved me at least once for sure and since it does go off on occasion, for whatever reason, it makes me a little more watchful. If it just stops you from getting a "stupid" ticket, then believe me, it's worth the money that it saves from insurance and the ticket itself. If they ever come up with a "REAL" jammer that works, I will be in for that as well. So far, tests haven't revealed any good jammer. Object: keep cops from getting my money....

 

Car and Driver does an annual Radar Detector "shootout" Valentine 1 has won this shootout every single year. The most recent test showed the V1 beating the 8500 once again hands down.
VALENTINE 1: 97
PASSPORT 8500: 73
I have owned them all from the trash Bell and Cobras to the Custom installed K40's that cost over $1200.00 installed. THE VALENTINE 1 IS THE BEST DECTECTOR ON THE MARKET. As for the looks of the detector if this concerns you then don't even bother buying a V1. Who cares what a detector looks like? If anyone thinks their detector is superior to the V1 they are living in fantasy land.

 

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Valentine didn't win this test performed by cops with cop radar:

http://www.speedzones.com/

Conclusion: "The 'Top Dog' of radar detectors in the Over $300.00 price category goes to Escort’s X50 for the following reasons. It was the only detector to report constant on and instant on radar over the hill at the 2 1/2 mile cone. It consistently alerted to MPH’s Bee III POP mode. It was one of only two of the six detectors tested to be invisible to the new Spectre III RDD and it tied in the Long Ranger test alerting at an astounding eleven miles from the radar guns."

 

I reccomend going with the passport 8500. I have one and it awesome. Excellent at detecting and great features for a lot cheaper that a V1

 

Gentelmen, live in your world of fantasy. I have OWNED THEM ALL. There is no comparison. If you want some additional BS to add to the other misinformation you have then go to www.radartest.com. FYI: This site is paid for by the radar detector companies to market their products. The only legitimate comparison is the annual Car and DRIVER shootout. Believe what you want but I am probably the only guy in this thread that has owned all the detectors discussed PLUS the $1200.00 K40 unit. Its your **** not mine!!

**** Please do not bypass the language filters******

 

Where's the cheapest place you guys have seen the Escort 8500 X50. $250 and $280 are the lowest I've found ($400 for the Valentine)

 

ExCon,

I agree 100%.

groupset,

That "report" is one of the reasons I mentioned in my previous post that the only tests where the V1 doesn't win is if they don't test all of it's abilities (multiple radar and direction) that other detectors simply DON'T HAVE.

The real easy way to settle this is buy both. Drive with the V1 for a month. Then drive with the X50 for a month. See which one then stays home and collects duct. It won't be the V1.

 

Latest reason for the V1 over the Passport -- proper POP protection. The V1 does more bands and a better job of grabing the pop signal. Read about it on the v1 site. Interesting stuff. I can't wait to get pulled over with a POP radar and have the discussion that it's illegal to do so.

P

BTW: V1 for close to 7 years now - no tickets with V1, prior to V1 had a BEL - 3 tickets. Only jammer that ever worked, Blinder laser jammer - with that me 3 cops 0 -- but that was my last car.

 

I recently installed a Bel Vector 975 remote radar detector ( http://www.beltronics.com/vectorlrremote.html ). I've had it for a couple months now and no tickets so far. And I speed a lot. As in, I'm pretty much the fastest car on the road at any given time, whether it be interstate or city streets. I don't go very fast, just always at least 10-15 over. Usually not more than 20-25 depending on the situation. Before this I had a Bel and had no tickets with that one either after having it for 3 years. With this new remote detector I got, it's even better because it's hidden. There is a sensor that mounts at the front of the car either behind the grille or the bottom fascia (I mounted mine in one of the two openings down on the front fascia) and then two smaller sensors that mount in your windshield- one front and one rear. They are practically invisible. The unit (that beeps, etc.) is mounted down in the car by the radio or I have mine actually mounted under where the ignition is. So, you don't have that annoying occurence when people want to follow you on the interstae, or ride beside you, because they see you have a radar detector and think you will know when to slow down. It detects all bands including laser and has laser detection and VG2 immunity. It works great. Takes an hour or two to install or I'm sure you could get a car auio/alarm place to install it for around fifty bucks.

 

Thanks for all the great input. Looks like V1 and the Passport are tops. I just have one question, has any owner of the Passport been busted? If so, what were the conditions? Ignorning signal? More than one cop? From behind? Whatever...

 

[quote=AWmustang,March 4, 2005, 1:07 PM]
Actually that isnt quite true. when a cop uses his laser, it bounces off of cars. i have been in a car with a radar detector and had it go off with no cop in sight. What happened was a cop was driving on the onramp in front of me, and had aimed his gun at a car ahead of me. the laser bounced off that car (and a few others) finally reaching my detector. krcw, if i were u i would take the valentine1. some people think it is too sensitive, but better safe than sorry. It aslo tells u which direction the signal is coming from, which, in my opinion, is very useful.

 

[quote=JimmyT,March 7, 2005, 8:56 PM]
Yes in that instance you got the bounced beam. However, in most cases the cop is in front and when he takes the speed of the car in front the beam is so focused there isn't any left to spill over from that car to your detector.

The reason radar detectors work so well is that the radar beam is so wide that plenty of signal spills past the car to your detector.

And it isn't always the car that matters. My roomate drives a 91 Buick LaSabre and uses a radar detector. He has gotten 3 tickets in as many years. I drive an 01 Focus ZX3. No detector and no tickets. And I drive just as fast as him, I just pay attention. Everytime he was hit with Laser is no warning and he was never the only car on the road when these happened. He says that instead of saying Laser across the display it should just say You're Scr****

 

its not illegal in FL to havea police scanner... thats what a friend of mine has. he knows if there is a cop anywhere within 2 miles....and he races his TA everyday and it's one fast one. so check in your state. i have the k40 and no tickets. its worked fine. plus its a lot more convenient that than having a big piece of plastic hanging from a window. i got installed for about 300.