[bmwforme]

I see in a lot of bios on here, people have Escorts and V1s hardwired into their cars, indicating you feel strongly about these things.

My question is, if you have a radar detector, anyone, any-kind, does it help? I assume it doesn't do anything against Laser...

I Live in NYC and I am thinking of purchasing a cheap one just to see what it could do for me. No I am not that guy going 110 in a Camry weaving through traffic. I am the guy who cruises home late at night on the highway at 75 and constantly has to slam on the brakes when I see a NYPD Charger shooting speed on the side of the road.

Any help is appreciated and opinions, thank you.

[jc5988]

I have v1 it works great for me.

but just stay away from El cheapo model, either escort's top model or valentine will work fine.

[bsamoul]

Cheaper models will be more prone to give you junk readings causing you to slam on your brakes more than with quality detectors.

[anerbe]

Useful for any highway driving in the big city.

They might false alarm more due to all the city interference, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.

[Coolieman1220]

i hope you like morse code!

[psmitty95]

I have a escort 8500 x50 black and it has helped me avoid a few tickets. Problem is they don't pick up on radar which is used by most cops on the highway. Also being that you live in nyc you would probably get a lot of false alarms so if i were you i'd go with something like the escort 9500ix. It has gps which helps to filter out false alarms and even sometimes turns itself off if your not going above a set speed such as 20 MPH

[s3ries]

what sucks about the gps feature on the passport 9500ix is that lets say i block out a shoprite k radar from the door. and the cop is shooting rader right next to it with Ka, itll block out the signal.... happend to me before in my town, so i shut the gps feature off, since i dont know where cops are hiding and could be blocked out by the gps,but otherwise great radar detector!

[ZheHbKa]

V1 works great in NYC highways, works every day

[anerbe]

Originally Posted by s3ries

what sucks about the gps feature on the passport 9500ix is that lets say i block out a shoprite k radar from the door. and the cop is shooting rader right next to it with Ka, itll block out the signal.... happend to me before in my town, so i shut the gps feature off, since i dont know where cops are hiding and could be blocked out by the gps,but otherwise great radar detector!

Really?!? So if the 9500 goes into an area that it has blocked radar, will it block out all radar signals in that area? I thought it was just that specific radar type/frequency, and any additional will be picked up.

[Syndicategt]

V1 for 8 years, never had a ticket. There are better detectors out there, however, I can't live without my arrows.

Hardwire is easy, just tap into your sunroof power wire so the detector powers on when ignition is on.

[bmwforme]

Originally Posted by ZheHbKa

V1 works great in NYC highways, works every day

that is my main concern! don't NYC Cops use Laser? I particularly drive on the Belt Parkway. BQE. Southern State alot.

Thank you everyone for your responses! helpful!

[ZheHbKa]

Originally Posted by bmwforme

that is my main concern! don't NYC Cops use Laser? I particularly drive on the Belt Parkway. BQE. Southern State alot.

Thank you everyone for your responses! helpful!

sometimes, but i get a lot of stationary radars, even with laser the odds of it being fired before and detector picking it up are high so when it beeps i slow down

i drive on same roads and cops are there every day

[Kolyan2k]

Originally Posted by bmwforme

I see in a lot of bios on here, people have Escorts and V1s hardwired into their cars, indicating you feel strongly about these things.

My question is, if you have a radar detector, anyone, any-kind, does it help? I assume it doesn't do anything against Laser...

I Live in NYC and I am thinking of purchasing a cheap one just to see what it could do for me. No I am not that guy going 110 in a Camry weaving through traffic. I am the guy who cruises home late at night on the highway at 75 and constantly has to slam on the brakes when I see a NYPD Charger shooting speed on the side of the road.

Any help is appreciated and opinions, thank you.

If I was driving 75mph, I wouldnt need a detector .....although i do tend to slow down sometimes to 75mph when speed limit drops 55mph. few of my buddies cruise at 80 and never get pulled over. Every single ticket I ever got was going 85-95mph

[s3ries]

Originally Posted by anerbe

Really?!? So if the 9500 goes into an area that it has blocked radar, will it block out all radar signals in that area? I thought it was just that specific radar type/frequency, and any additional will be picked up.

shoprite is k , police were using Ka. shut of my gps went around the block and picked up ka right as i turned

[CRG3]

I use a V1 throughout the SFBay area. It works great. I've got both my X and K bands programmed off.

[anerbe]

Originally Posted by s3ries

shoprite is k , police were using Ka. shut of my gps went around the block and picked up ka right as i turned

damn...I'm sure the sensitivity is leading edge on the 9500. Good thing, because if GPS (it's other major selling "feature") quiets down a false alarm at the expense of making the radar completely useless during that moment, it's a huge false sense of security. My daily route has a decent amount of false alarms. If the detector is deactivated in these areas, half of my driving would be unprotected.

I'd rather rely on knowing the false radar type and location, and any additional radar / different location shown is most likely a LEO.

I'd keep that GPS off all the time.

[Th3xf4ctor]

I had a cop pointing a laser at me and i didn't even see him. However, my escort 9500ix yelled at me laser alert. It was cool. Saved me a ticket probably in a school zone. For the record i was going just a little over 20 mph

[avocet]

Picked up a regular 8500 while my x50 was in for repair. 70 bucks off craigslist.
It is an excellent unit. But if youre in the city make sure you get one that allows x band to be disabled. X bands will be 90+% of your falses.

[itrocks4u]

Can cops tell you have radar?

[wdlfbio]

Originally Posted by s3ries

shoprite is k , police were using Ka. shut of my gps went around the block and picked up ka right as i turned

How do you know the cop had his ka on the first time you went around? There are tons of times I get hit by cops and then they turn the gun off. Other times, they drive around with it running all day long.

I have the 9500ix and love the GPS feature. Wife has the V1 and I hate listening to it all the time and hate always hitting the mute button on the V1 to shut it up from all the false alarms.

To the OP, don't even waste your cash on cheap. it'll go off with false alarms too much and you wont trust it, then you'll toss it. Think, crying wolf...

[JustinB615]

I have been a V1 user for the past 5 years. Can't live with the arrows! If I were you I would stay away from the cheaper detectors and pick up a used Escort X50. Its a fairly good detector to try out the concept of having a radar detector.

[crashoverride]

I have the 9500ix with GPS if you read the manufacturer info on it. It can decipher the difference between the signal that you marked or it memorized and a new signal. It specifically says if you mark a spot say a Microwave oven...and a police officer starts shooting from that spot it will alert you as the radar signature is different. Cheap detectors will false and you will become more jumpy than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

One cool thing is a lot of officers drive around with the detector on as they drive down the road. So if my detector starts beeping I can often look around and see an officer driving along side or towards me a half a mile or more before I can see them. Not worth the stress and alerts become so common you will never slow down.

Lasers are so hard for a detector to catch that you will not have much time if at all when a laser is being used. On the 9500ix when it senses laser it beeps so loud you will leave skid marks just from the heart attack and panic that sets in lol. That being said I've had it go off twice with no ticket. If laser protection is desired than you will need a laser blinder installed.


Some police departments have radar detector, detectors. However typically only in places that radar detectors are outlawed. Manufacturers claim they've improved detectors making it super hard to detect them.

Hard wiring was super easy on my e90. When you get your windows tinted you can have them add a lip or tinted section at the top of the front windshield that will conceal your detector from passersby-ers, thieves and the casual look from an officer.

The GPS feature is well worth it for preventing false alerts as well as reminding you of the red light cameras. Although I haven't paid for the subscription or any updates for three years.