[GaTadpole777]

Since being ticketed for doing 70 in a 55 zone, I decided it was time to get a new radar detector.
Thanks to A4L for telling me about the radartests.com site that evaluated the latest batch of detectors. I bought the highley rated Escort 8500 for $299.00 and it is a great radar detector. It detects radar almost too much in advance as you have to cool it on your speed until you are sure the coast is clear. Yesterday, it went off and then stopped...two miles later I saw the highway patrolman approaching from the other lane.
For those who like to ZOOM at times in their MDX, you might want to review the tests on radar detectors. More amd more of the highway patrolmen are using Ka, which is the most difficult radar band to detect...it sure got me and my then radar detector didn't know what hit me.



D E Pearl Touring

 

[MDXS]

The most difficult aspect of Ka radar is that it is "instant-on". The Smokey’s only turn it on for a brief moment at selected targets, and that makes it hard to detect in advance. The new Escort is a very good choice. I have a BEL 980 that also works well. The Valentine 1, a perennial favorite, is perhaps getting a little long in the tooth but is also a suitable choice. Those are the only three worth considering, IMHO.

 

[ubik]

Never had a radar detector...but had 2 speeding tickets for the last 2 (!) months, so now I'm considering one!
Never trust them too much, but also never been able to abide the posted speed limit
Is it worth buying one? and if yes, which one? apparently they're always one step ahead with lasers and all that crap... let aside one can never fight them in court!!!
What's your experience with it?

 

[whealy]

A radar detector will not make you invincible.

But the V1 will make you fell as close to it as possible. I have also read good things about the Escort 8500, but I don’t have any first hand experience. The direction indicators as well as the radar count make the V1 superior even if the detection is the same in my opinion. Of course $400 is a little steep for a radar detector. I don’t typically drive the MDX as it’s my wife’s vehicle, but I did just complete a hard wire for it out of the passenger side fuse box so I can easily move it between both vehicles. I don’t always need the protection that the detector provides, but it’s nice to know it’s there.

 

[Beige_MDX]

Laser or Radar?

Depending on what speed detection method is used in your driving area, if it is laser, you may want to consider a laser jammer (because a detector is worthless; once the unit beeps, you're already "hit"). The guy who installed my video system has one in his Porche and swears by it (cops have even asked him why his car wasn't picked up by their gun). If its radar in your area, the Passport 8500 has gotten great reviews (see http://www.radartest.com)

 

[MesaBeige]

Detector v/s Jammer v/s other

OK. First off, I'm not an engineer and I stopped using detectors several years ago. At that time I had the top rated k40 and was still getting nabbed. Then I read an article in Car & Driver that made all the sense in the world (sorry, I don't remeber the issue or even the year, but it was probably at least 5 years ago).

Anyway...the article said that in order to not be made by radar (as BeigeMDX states, if your detector goes off it's too late) your car needs to be radar-proof.

How do you do that, you ask. The article suggested things like:
1. Get rid of refelctive surfaces - you want a flat black paint (not shiny) vehicle with NO chrome showing
2. Reduce the surface area that radar sees - you want a vehicle with a very low profile so there is less for the radar waves to make - smaller and lower the better
3. IF you can meet the first two criteria, installing a jammer will further help

I always fail on the first requirements so I have taken to obeying the limits. Use your cruise control - put it zero to five MPH over the highway limit - cruise and listen to some good music.

KOT!

 

[ubik]

We need a Stealth MDX, somehow like the F117...then the problem will shift from driving too fast to flying too low

 

[remery]

I have both an Escort 7500 and a BEL 600 series and the Escort is much better. I get a lot of false alarms with the BEL and very few with the Escort. I chose the 7500 over the 8500 because it was a little cheaper and didn't seem to have any significantly fewer features. I have used radar detectors for 14 years and only got one speeding ticket. That was when a state trooper tracked me by VASCAR so there was not radar signal. I actually find the radar detector more useful locally than on the highway. In Illinois, the State Police don't seem to use radar that much. Could be a different situation in some of the other states. I plan to probably replace the BEL which is in our Yukon now with an Escort once we get the MDX.

 

[Tahoe4wd]

Radar Detection vs Laser Detection

It is true that if your LASER indicator is lit you are already targeted and read or you were swept by the laser gun. Targeted=caught swept=still time to slow. Not true with the RADAR signals whose beam scatters greatly with range. You should get detection signals on your detector way before you are in range to track therefore being able to slow. Even instant-on radar can be detected ahead of time when the cop is zapping cars in front of you to check their speed. You get a detection signal that is full on then abruptly cuts off. This should tell you instant-on is being used up ahead, (or behind). My favorite and the detector that has bang-dead saved me at least 7 times is the Valentine one. Its greatest feature is how many signals it encounters and which direction it is coming from. (Great trick for cop to zap from behind!) The Escort 8500 has recently tested as most sensative but does not indicate where the radar is coming from. (BTW, radar and laser targeting you from the side will not indicate your forward speed so is useless, nice to know if the side indicator has lit with full strenghth signal.)
So don't give up on detectors, they are still VERY useful. You should be completely protected from the photo radar sites, they are easiest to detect.

 

[frankdavis]

Usefullness of Detectors

The purpose of radar detectors for me is to avoid the "was I speeding?" ticket.

I have gotten a handfull of speeding tickets in my life. Almost all of them were when I was happily cruising along lost in thought or into the music, but not intending to speed. All were local, on daily traveled routes except one trooper who got me on a NY interstate just past the border, the speed limit changing from 75 down to 55.

When I travel in unknown areas or am enjoying DRIVING (that's why we research and buy nice cars, no) and speeding is a byproduct, I am extremely carefull and alert, I am fully into the driving experience, aware of every car in front of me and behind me and am actively scanning every curve and overpass for cops and changing road conditions that tell me I should slow down. When I am consciously speeding (though speeding itself is never the goal) I have never gotten a ticket.

I have had a detector for 3 years, a so-so one at that time, a piece of garbage by today's standards (this thread is making me consider the Escort) I have not gotten a ticket since because it warns me when I'm not paying attention and just driving along and my speed inches above the limit. It has pointed out to me local speed traps that now I usually automatically slow down for, but occationally still forget. The local police don't use instant on radar, luckily.

I agree nothing makes you invulnerable, nor should it. If you think a safe driving speed is above the speed limit then you have to accept the risk of a ticket. The detector just give you a little more information and can lower that risk.

MesaBeige: your comment made me laugh - decrease reflective surfaces and large surface areas- in an MDX! until that stealth MDX is available I'll be setting the cruise control on my just washed MDX and following you in the slow lane...

 

[Beige_MDX]

Detector Update

FWIW, I just replaced my 2 year-old Bel 855sti with the new Bel 980. Marked improvement over false positives (other detectors used to set off the 855 as a strength level 1 "k" band) and being able to put it in the "CityX" mode, which merely sets the detector to not give an audible alert on X band until the signal strength is around 3 of 9 (you still get a visual alert). Advanced warning of Ka instant on detection is improved as well (this is not an oximoron; I pick up "instant on" tracking of cars way in front of me). See speedzones and radartest for latest test results.

 

[roadrunner]

Re: Detector v/s Jammer v/s other

[
How do you do that, you ask. The article suggested things like:
1. Get rid of refelctive surfaces - you want a flat black paint (not shiny) vehicle with NO chrome showing
2. Reduce the surface area that radar sees - you want a vehicle with a very low profile so there is less for the radar waves to make - smaller and lower the better
3. IF you can meet the first two criteria, installing a jammer will further help
KOT! [/B]

I would guess a shiny silver MDX the size of a minor planet would have all the stealth of a Zeppelin. Maybe bribes ???

Meep Meep

 

[Beige_MDX]

Re: Re: Detector v/s Jammer v/s other

Something teels me that the quoted article was regarding "laser-proofing" not "radar-proofing." That being said, if the MDX is the size of a small planet, and Tim could come up with some sort of power-inversion thing-a-ma-jig; then perhaps we could have a rolling "black-hole," which absorbs all energy.

 

[roadrunner]

MDX as Zeppelin

The image of the MDX as a big shiny Zeppelin was too good to pass up.
Stealthy, NOT

 

[remery]

Re: MDX as Zeppelin

The image of the MDX as a big shiny Zeppelin was too good to pass up.
Stealthy, NOT

Gee roadrunner, since it's silver didn't you mean to say Lead Zeppelin!

 

[AtlantaMDX]

That was when a state trooper tracked me by VASCAR so there was not radar signal.

What's VASCAR?

 

[AtlantaMDX]

Someone said bribing the cop.... maybe offering him/her to drive the 'DX if you only get a warning?

 

[Beige_MDX]

What's VASCAR?

Visual Average Speed Computer And Recorder - can be done from an eye in the sky or by being followed. look for perpendicular stripes in the road about a quarter mile or half mile apart. The cop times you crossing the 2 lines, does a quick calculation, and voila--you're nailed.

 

[octavian]

Dunno if anybody is still interested in this thread, but Car and Driver completed a Radar Detector evaluation in their current edition (sorry, not available online)

Valentine came out significantly ahead of all other models tested.

It wasn't even close. More fodder for the apparentl feud between the mag and the editor of www.radartest.com.

 

[gadgetdog]

v1 X 2

We have two V1's and wouldn't consider using anything else. Actually, I did consider replacing a V1 with the New Escort 8500 for a few days, then realized how much I would miss the direction arrows.

has anyone tried the V1 upgrade path?