# What is the best radar dectector??



## jeffwubze (Dec 6, 2005)

hey guys......what is the best radar dectector available?


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## blaydeman (Jan 12, 2006)

not speeding. i just ordered up a whistler though. ive heard valentine is good


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## trmn8r (Apr 16, 2005)

im not too familiar with them. since theyre illegal in va. but i am planning on buying one myself. im looking at passport radar detectors. but im not sure what to compare it to.


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## jcorbi82 (Jul 23, 2006)

trmn8r said:


> im not too familiar with them. since theyre illegal in va. but i am planning on buying one myself. im looking at passport radar detectors. but im not sure what to compare it to.


I may have a guide to this Radar Detectir question! It is one of my fav topics, for all the times I have never had the $350 ti get the one I want, though my car has the mounts for them!

The best one to get -was- the Escort Passport X50. Why anyone would want to use Batteries on the Radar detector, I don't know, AFAIK they still use the cigarette lighter power source. There are many different sites with many different methods of testing. Valentine One is the best in their ads, but only score high in "X" band, and get TROUNCED by even the runner-up in radartest.com's tests, the BEL910 or 980, whatever it is. 

You should pay for a good unit. Learning to use your detector seems like a good aide, especially on highways. Of course, I have never drove with a radar detector anyways, and always feel better when I see that car going 80MPH or 75MPH in the left lane, while I am 5MPH slower, as that is my radar detector right there. 

More when I am not is such a rush to do things, that is off the top of my head! (I've followed this for awhile. Now I just need to buy the detector - and use it, and not drive on a road with Photo radar, which still are almost nowhere, to my knowledge.) Radartest.com is good.


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## jcorbi82 (Jul 23, 2006)

and yes i misspelled 'detector' the first time... typing fast.


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## trmn8r (Apr 16, 2005)

thanks J ill check it out. need to get one


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## 180hero (Apr 23, 2007)

I don't think you can fool the radars


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## Acecool (May 7, 2007)

Before you get bad advice from people who do not know about radar detectors, go here: radardetector.net and ask there 

then buy from Roy.

I myself have a Bel RX65 Pro 

Josh


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## jeffwubze (Dec 6, 2005)

yeh......i saw the roy dectectors...but i am wondering are they really that good as they advertised?????

my friend has a cobra he bought from bestbuy...his unit sucks and never being accurate......

please give me some opnions!

thanks

jeff


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## jcorbi82 (Jul 23, 2006)

jeffwubze said:


> yeh......i saw the roy dectectors...but i am wondering are they really that good as they advertised?????
> 
> my friend has a cobra he bought from bestbuy...his unit sucks and never being accurate......
> 
> ...


jeffwubze: That is because he has bought a Cobra. Any low-tech, low-money unit delivers relatively BARGAIN performance for its price-point against mainly State Police radar equipment... which has gotten quietly super-scary and hi-tech, to say nothing of the Lasers they use as well.

I'm not sure what "Don't think you can fool the radars" means... Do you mean you can't fool the State Police? Call is ballsy, but if you have a clear plate over your License Plate (I don't mean the ones that blocl a number or two, that is obscuring and can get you pulled over all by itself as you are the only car with 4 numbers on a license plate or not 6, or a tinted License Plate shield so they can barely see the whole thing, an equal red flag) then you likely bought a Laser Diffuser, which is -supposed- to make it more difficult for your speed to be picked up by a laser, as it is the first place they are trained to aim and the diffuser shifts the beam, giving you about exactly 1 or 2 seconds to SLOW DOWN when you know you were doing 80-something and should have been doing no more than 75, even 70. Of course, they would then shift it up to the next shiniest, in some cases chromy surface on your vehicle - Hopefully you don't drive the new Navigator! - and try it again, with more luck... in which case you need to slow down, AND hope your unit with up to 3 behind-the-grill mounted Laser Shifters of some kind is up to it... at least one is, and another one is worthy. Read radartest.com's "Torture Test" designed to create an impossible scenario, and how well the units tested performed. 

I have followed this on and off over the years, and you need to worry about "Instant-On" radar. The only thing you can really do against it is to see if your radar Detector - again, the best ones will likely alert you about 2 miles away on an open road - repeatedly is catching "blips" that go right away. Take this as a cautionary tale and slow down... you could be getting Instant-On clocked, which is supposed to be questionably legal, but there's really no way to disprove it, and when your speed shows up on radar, it's you vs a decorated State Trooper, and you were speeding (to take it to the furthest extent. Same way you can't prove they were sitting on side of road with lights off... it's simply who has a badge and who has a Corvette.) 

The police always have the upper hand. No detector can save you from doing 140MPH. Even if it was to alert you, you wouldn't have time to slow down. I would imagine the old Acura NSX on the highway doing between 90 and 95MPH had one, to aid when he had to slow down, because that is a predictable road, especially when you have driven it enough to know the "spots," and you realize there could be quite a few, when they want to be on the road. However, there is nothing illegal about monitoring radar put out by the Police, although in some places these devices are prohibited, that is a good point.

As far as other things, like multiple vehicle speed monitoring, radar from moving cop car, and photo radar... Laser is when you see a cop on the side of the road, aiming a laser gun at your car. You can bet he is trained to use that piece of equipment. Just know: He has to actually CLOCK your speed to issue you a citation, after observing you speeding first. Radar is same thing, but more automatic then using laser. As Acecool said: read the detector articles, and there is much to this subject. There is, as well, no substitute for common sense, and your Red Corvette or Yellow Ferrari -will- get more tickets than a Blacl Buick LeSabre - especially if it is not speeding. (Unfortunately.) 

I'm about to go check out that article... just Don't buy anything from Rocky Mountain Radar, or basically any detector under $200 they sell at the store you get cases for your Mobile Phone. (I'd say spend no less than $300 for the newest Escort. They -Claim- they use GPS to weed out false alarms, but this makes me suspicious, since it leaves a window for Police to switch up.)

Also: 1) Windshield placement MATTERS. The article has the specifics; I think the windshield wipers block detection range, to an extent. 
2) "Rear Radar" and "Side Radar" seem to be Valentine One HYPE; Radartest.com insists these are marketing gimmicks masking the Valentine One core technology being from the 70s. Radartest.com also claims the State Police don;t use a lot of the features on their radar, like multi-vehicle tracking that can monitor a speeding vehicle through the blind spot of a tractor-trailer, eliminating the trick of "the Trooper can't see me;" It makes sense, but Detector technology analysis and State Police Radar methods analysis seem like 2 different things to me. 
3) Photo Radar is most prevalent in Arizona, and a few other places, and thanks to one guy doing 147MPH in a Hyundai Elantra (! - Even the magazine did not know that was possible!) and getting caught on Arizona photo radar, it -may- get more popular.

Now to get my car fixed. Excellent question; excellent topics! I'm going to read some more myself.


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## Acecool (May 7, 2007)

Cobras suck, I regularly get 1 to 2 and + miles detection range on my RX65 

Edit: DO NOT GET THE 9500i

It has problems with lockouts.. Check out the guysoflidar.com


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## mitch1988 (Oct 17, 2006)

i would look in a road and track magizine becuse the people who get them mags have really high end fast cars and they always have really nice high end 300$ radar detectors which buy your ticket for you if you get pulled over and it never goes off or something like that...i dont know how they can prove it so i dont know all the small print but check that out they have really good ones corbas are not that great thou i have one and when i go past walgreens it tells me a train is coming...even thou my 240 sounds like a train doesnt mean i need my radar dec. tellin my that


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## jeffwubze (Dec 6, 2005)

yeh...i am in florida....so troopers in our area are pretty fiesty.......my friend drives a lexus GS400 got a ticket for doing 100+ on the way to orlando........he is got a cobra from bestbuy.....another friend got a 94 legend with escort or something....he is saying his one is no good neither got ticket twice on the road to miami when he used that detector on an integra....

the reason i am asking is sometimes troopers are too sensitive in this area......probably for regular sedans they will be pretty much fine with 5 or 10 over the speed limit....but for us sports cars.....once over 10 you should see blue light welcome you.....

many times on the road if there is no one on the road i would love to push the car faster to reach my desinataion faster.....but the overwhelming troopers are really annoying....especially for modified cars....louder exhaust....it seems we sports cars are emenies for them....

i am still looking for a good one........there are so many fancy stuff available online.......but when i look into the fine prints they are actually bluffing themselves....


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## Dustin (Dec 14, 2003)

valentine v1, no questions.


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## jeffwubze (Dec 6, 2005)

Dustin said:


> valentine v1, no questions.




let me search this one......thanks destin


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## dmroberson (Jun 24, 2004)

Passport 8500 X50 is another good one.


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## jcorbi82 (Jul 23, 2006)

dmroberson said:


> Passport 8500 X50 is another good one.


... Escort Passport X50 either used to or still sells for $329 Red display, $349 Blue display (the one I would get) and has a programmable thing for "threat programming." All the radar guns in use, i suppose that is good! And this Valentine 1 thing... Valentine 1 offers a "try it and see" thing, but none of the other tests seems to back this up! I considered the possibility that Escort has paid ALL the sites, like rumors of BMW and German cars doing to Car and Driver for a while (note: They didn't, they are just that good,) but it's too many 3rd parts sites... V1 always wins on X-band. The issue I have for trying it myself is, when 2 radar detectors are side-by-side on the dash, no accurate reading is possible, whether you turned them on at the same time or not... V1 knows this, and has just engaged in trickery with that ad. But, do those arrows actually do their job? Radartest.co msays that "rear radar" is virtually a non-existent threat and is detected by the radar detector's signal bouncing off windshield, and usually to mount it high over the wipers... 

The other guy's Florida analysis seems more like some other areas as well... Sports cars with loud exhausts, any kind of "Arrest Me Red" or "Ticket Me Yellow" (Can anyone say Yellow Ferrari 355?) = BAD. Tinted windows, DECALS... seriously, everyone should rip all decals bigger than an M3 badge off, your car will turn into a magnet over so many things while that bone-stock Durango or minivan coolly strolls by, listening to Bach while we get tickets left and right. I really think a Detector will help alert you to troopers, provided it can detect ALL their methods, the farther away the better... remember: You are not the only car on the road they are radaring, they did it to half the people in front of you, and when you see the cop sideways on side of the highway aiming the laser gun at traffic, SLOW DOWN, that speed is a digital read-out probably with picture, so be happy he can't see your brake lights.

Just remember: Don't drive like an idiot because you have a radar detector. This seems like the mistake people make... I can imagine Arizona having the fastest tickets written for speeding, but i wouldn't know.


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## jcorbi82 (Jul 23, 2006)

P.S.: yes, Escort Passport X50 seems to have won all the comparisons I have read, V1 trailing no better than 3rd because of BAD performance on anything that is not X or K-band. the BEL 980 seems to have placed second, running even eith the X50... and adding a laser blinder to your car seems smart, because those things are no joke. The State Police can pull that laser trigger as many times as they feel, they didn't set up on the road to have to fight with the laser-blinded car when there are 100 more passing in a minute speeding with out it... just as long as they don't follow you with curiosity as to why your car is rejecting their signal (possible but unlikely unless you are doing something that BEGS you to be pulled over,) and there is a unit that will stop shifting signals for a second if that does happen.


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