[Official] What's the Best Radar Detector?

One_Quick_Z

How about not speeding/driving like an idiot at all and that will save you from tickets

I can see speeding maybe 10mph over the limit on the highway but that is it.



DAN

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wstar

It's kinda narrow-minded to equate speeding with driving like an idiot. You can drive like an idiot at any speed, and you can drive very responsibly at any speed (given attention to conditions and an eye towards the probabilities of various possible "surprise" scenarios).

You have to remember that speed limits are set to cover not-so-optimal cases. They rated a particular stretch of road as 45mph because they felt that was a safe speed for all legal drivers, even the (unfortunately common) case of a relatively poorly-skilled driver in a top-heavy SUV with poorly-maintained brakes, etc. Think about it: if it's "safe" for a dump truck to be taking a given road at 60mph, would it not be equally safe for a smaller/lighter vehicle with vastly superior braking and suspension performance to go perhaps 80mph (or more, depending) on the same road?

Of course that's considering it from the "one car on the road alone" angle. Beyond that you have to consider the other traffic (e.g., even if your car can safely handle a given stretch at 120mph, it might be very imprudent to do so in medium-thick traffic averaging 75mph). You have to consider how you'll respond to sudden failures and unexpected actions on the part of others, which is why driving at the limit of the car's capability in a non-track scenario is generally a bad idea. You have to have some extra grip and margin of error left for the unpredictable. And you have to be good at monitoring conditions way ahead of you on the road and planning your actions accordingly (and slowing down when you don't have enough data, such as coming up on a tall hill that blinds your view of the road on the other side).

But it is possible for a rational person to drive safely at speeds that are unrelated to the posted limit. Blanket statements like "10mph over the limit is ok, but more is not ok" are just as bad as the original blanket speed limits. They have nothing to do with actual safety at a particular speed in a particular scenario.

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cwj370

I have a radar detector and don't drive like an idiot. The small town I drive through to get to work each day is a speed trap. Out in the middle of nowhere and very little traffic, they have lower all the limits down 5- 10 miles per hour. They do allow 4 miles over before they pull you over. So you are driving along in the middle of nowhere and the limits go from 50 to 40 to 45 and back to 40 within a few miles. It is real easy to let your speed creep up a few mph and we r talking a few mph. So I love having mine, if for nothing other than keep me aware of the different speeds. And it goes off everyday atleast once.

mannyz

Dan, I do have to respect your comment but I think it was out of the line. Nor everyone who buy a radar is to drive like an idiot, sometimes we buy the radar to dont get caught by abusive cops that give you a ticket even if you go 7 miles over, like what happened to me and that make me buy one. Since then I havent get a speeding ticket, also having a radar keep you more aware of what your doing.

Whoever owns a radar knows that they are not ticket safe, but more as an awareness device, every time that thing beeps it makes you either slow down or look at your speed if you are distracted. So I think the comparison of speeding and idiot does not take place.

jginnane

My experience is that most police officers don't mind seeing radar detectors, since these help keep you focused on road conditions.

Our stable of detectors is of the low-rent variety -- a Beltronics 995 in the Z, a Beltronics 995 in the Acura TL, and a Beltronics 965 in the new Honda Element (so it wouldn't feel left out.

My stepson has a Valentine, and swears by it. He needs it. But equipping all three cars with some RD protection is cheaper than his one device. (Ebay: $145, $145, and $85.)

These are good enough for the high-density Jersey driving we do... the biggest rule we follow, besides knowing these roads, is to never be first in line.

Some buying tips: (1) Escort and Beltronics are the same company. The Passport 8500 is probably all the same internals as the Bel 995. I've looked, and they never compare their own models in road tests... we know the 965 is just _slightly_ better than an old Bel RX-55 circa 2002, but not enough to justify a new purchase on K and Ka bands.

(2) Blue LEDs for an extra $40-50 over red LEDs are not as much fun as smoking crack, I'm told. There is no difference btw the internals of the two models. The blue will probably give you more night blindness (but we always run ours in "dark mode" at night anyways.)

(3) Buying in the non-driving season, like around February, is WAY cheaper than when the roads are dry and you want to move. In fact, saving all your electronics buys until the month after Xmas is a great way to say big money. We're still waiting for the Garmin "fusion" device that'll be both an RD and a GPS.

(4) MOUNTING POINTS. Some people like the sun visor. Some like the window. Some like a dash mount. Since we take the RDs down every time we park outside, the glass mount is good enough. As to effectiveness -- at only 60, you're moving 88 feet per second. A few inches up or down in the dash area isn't going to give you more than a few milliseconds. The main thing is to keep it from distracting your road focus.