[Official] What's the Best Radar Detector?

jginnane

We have Beltronics 995s in the Z and the Acura TL, and a 965 in the Honda Element. All work well; all have paid for themselves many times over.

This year the NJ state police are using instant-on and lasers. The latter alerts on a Bel to tell you it's time to pull over; you've been already caught. The instant-ons are much more challenging; you now know to decelerate IMMEDIATELY at the first chirp. (I think police have to track/record you for a certain number of seconds or distance with conventional radar, which is not the case with lasers.)

So the greater variable you'll have is where and when you drive. A Sunday morning, with breaking clear weather? Plan on 3-6 traps per hundred miles, with some operated in wolf-pack fashion. Rush hour? No problem. Half an hour after morning rush hour, or evening happy hour? Always a problem.

And here on the central NJ coast, you can be returning from a 700 mile trip from anywhere, any time of the day or night, but you will always get at least one alert in the 3.5 miles from the Garden State Parkway to the local streets. Both Wall Twp. police and state troopers use this stretch to pay their department operating budgets. (Think of brown bears standing in the river catching spawning salmon in their mouths.)