Ok lets pick your one review and pull it apart.

-He put them both on with a few feet of each other, major issue right here. It is known that many detectors can interfere with each other if to close, one reason they are shielded so much on the inside.
-Congrats that he only picked up 2 out of 16 cops he saw. I can pass over 30 cops on my way home from work and only pick up a signal 10% of the time. Many times because the cop is on his way home or to his outpost wanting to clock out, meaning he is not running anything so he does not have to stop. I had one follow me, I was doing 90 and he got next to me and sped up to get to his outpost.
-Finally he played it "safe" by sticking to 5mph over. Good, if he was keeping with the flow of traffic by the sounds of his review, then the cops probably were not watching him. They were waiting for the guy doing 15+mph over and tag him.

Sorry but your 'nitpicking' reviews to prove your point is worthless. There are countless positive reviews to outweight any negative ones you can produce to prove these do provide a defense against radar. Is it a perfect system? No, but it gives the driver another level of awareness and in the end that is what is being sold.

Actually, we can count them lol. Just using his sources we're sitting between 86-90% positive even if we include the reviews that show user error. If we cherrypicked those out we'd be sitting well into the 90s.

^ came in to post this response.

gsxr750 - Go to radardetector.net and check out the V1 and Passport forums to see real world reviews and not some guy on Amazon that seems to be more upset with buying an open box item than the detector itself.

Passport and V1 are like Cannon and Nikon...they are both great products and each brand has fanboys. You can't go wrong either way.

The lower ratings reviews (real world) are most likely from ppl that have a lot of experience with radar detectors and also know the technologies and tactics the police use.

Your higher idiot rating are usually " My wife bought it for me for my birthday or Christmas and looks great out of the box and makes pretty noises, which really amazes me"

You're attributing additional meaning to the reviews that you can in no way justify based on the info given. If you use a sample set, you use the whole thing.

Wait...so now instead of making a valid argument you are reduced to stating the 1-2 star reviews are more highly qualified individuals?

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...jpg?1240934151

Are you saying that a gun (let's say a Ruger) is a bad product because, in the wrong hands a guy could accidentally shoot himself?

I guess what I gather from this - Leave speeding to the pros.

The proof would only be true to you when you get your first $200 - $400 speeding ticket, insurance goes up for 39 months and you say how can this be possible I have a $500 radar/laser detector.

The best defense against speeding tickets is to just set the cruise control at the speed limit and get a good Garmin GPS with the red light camera locations, to warn you of them and prepare to stop.

That isn't proof. There's no way to say you would or wouldn't recieve a ticket with or without a detector because it isn't an all powerful magic device. And "the best defense against speeding tickets is not speeding"- really?

I was hoping you would say this, because BULL-FUCKING-SHIT
And why can I say this? Because I got a ticket doing the speed limit with cruise control on, no other issues. The cop goes, well you are young in a sports car I figured you were doing something wrong. Here is a ticket for speeding, excuse me I was on cruise control. His reply, does not matter I said you were speeding so here you go.

If you got the ticket for doing the speed limit, you ether really pissed off the cop or ran into bad one, most of the cops aren't going to go out of their way to nail you unless you drew their unwanted attention like acceleration, passing or loud pipes, tint etc.

The only times I had cops give me BS tickets is when I did something that drew their attention, we all hate to admit it when you get pulled over that you did something wrong in the first place.

Nope, he even admitted to my lawyer he did it just because he saw a young adult in a sports car. Figured he could write a ticket and I would just pay it, my lawyer told him if he finds him doing it again he will file against him for suspension.

But back to your point, a radar detector is viable even at $500 per unit and a very good asset to assist a driver.

There are to many situations where they don't work at all and even with the hope that you have the best system out you still need the laser jammer mounted into grill and a radar detector mounted in another area.

Then you need to hope and pray that you get some reflections off someone ahead to warn you and if the cop is using LIDAR or a instant on or hand triggered unit, your nailed.

So with the short range of current detectors ( no time to slow down) and laser and LIDAR, then why even waste the money on them.

Oh good we are back to a logical discussion.
Define short range, I can pick up cops easily 1 mile away with the V1, if that is not plenty of time to shut it down then you are going waaay to fast. Also, I don't think anyone here will argue you can beat a laser offense, yet. You can try to disable there end with jammers but I have already posted many states are shutting that option down.

Also, the "average" cop is not going to be using effective offensive techniques. They use the easiest method for them, switch on/off K or Ka or even just leave the signal actively on, this will quickly be picked up by any decent radar detector.

You are just wrong. Sorry. Any time you have ANYONE around your car who is hit you WILL pick scatter for an instant on KA shot. It's just the facts of how radar works. The only time you are defenseless is when your alone for miles down the road.

Lidar is stupid easy to beat with jammers which work on EVERY current lidar gun. And it's really a moot point since 90% of the patrol LEOs that you encounter don't have Lidar equipment.

I'm starting to think you are just a troll. You can go read countermeasure forums that have actual LEOs on them and they know what works.

so unless a radar detector works 100% of the time in all situations it is a waste of money? :icon14:

my x50 has saved me from a number of radar traps. i got the warning before a bend, slowed down, saw the leo when i came around the bend, smiled and went on my way unmolested. the savings in insurance alone makes it worth it.

now it didn't save me from the ticket when i got tagged with lidar, but i don't have a jammer, and never expected it to save me in those situations. :tiphat:

a smart driver with a good detector can get a ton of value from it.

Here is a police radar industry link to show you what you are up against.

http://www.mphindustries.com/pdfs/POP%20Technology.pdf

Just for the hell of it I picked up the best xrs 9570 cobra radar laser detector with POP, best buy had and went trolling for traps in the Z. I know ppl will say its a crap detector, but with their 15 day return policy I figured I would play around.

Overall it did indicate 4 mc cops with KA that came up behind me , in about a 10th. mile away, really no time to slow down if speeding. Next a local PD set up stationary KA band only tenth mile warning. Next ran into 3 situations of state police set up and the same thing KA warning only about 1/8 mile .

Next a state police following me keeping his distance, it didn't go off at all, even with him tailing me for 2 miles and keeping slightly under the limit.

Also tried to see if a laser pointer or infrared remote would trip the laser function and it did nothing.

Ended up returning it to best buy and just happened to run into another customer returning an escort 9500 ix and I told him what I encountered and he said the escort was about the same and didn't give adequate warning to slow down. He was returning it and waiting for the lastest escort model to hit the market.

I might try the top escort model when it comes in to really see if these work, with the best buy return policy its worth a shot, but so far from what I have encountered with the lastest cobra they are still useless.

So it detected 8 out of 9 cops you ran across? And there's no way to tell if the last actually had his radar on? If 1/10 of a mile isn't enough time to slow down, how fast are you going? And using Cobra to illustrate your point doesn't really prove anything. They're crap.

Since you're convinced that the plural of anecdote is data, I'll counter your scientific testing with my own. Today alone, my Escort pointed out three cops with plenty of room to slow down.

Not to mention you've complained about "biased reviews" every time a counterpoint to your position has been submitted, but your link above is the manufacturer of POP radar. Are we pretending they're not biased to sell a product too? Even that link shows that a radar detectors work for traditional signals. POP is not impossible to defeat unless you're the only one on the road. A good detector will pick up the splash from others being radared.

Did not speed during the test of the cobra unit. I would have bought the escort 9500 ix and play with it, if it wasn't for the guy returning one already , that said it didn't detect much better than the cobra unit I tested.

So I decided I'll try the escort max when it comes out and see if its any better.

Even with the claims of the one radar review that is supposed to be an ex radar cop and instructor on the escort 9500 ix , it still failed to detect the Lidar or laser and even if a cop waits till you are insight and uses the instant on function. It boils down to once he sees you and sets the detector off , he will of already nailed you.

So even if the detector works 50% of the time , the odds are stacked against you no matter what you do or how much you spend.

:iagree: You took the words out my mouth. Plus, let me reiterate the Cobra Radar is a Pieceoshyt... If that's his test point???? lol. This whole discussion was meaningless.

Laser/Lidar will not be defeated without a separate laser jammer. It's silly to use that as a knock on a RADAR detector.

I actually had a cobra 9570 and it worked pretty well! Saved me several times on the highways of Austin and on windy roads around lake Travis. I had no complaints with it besides the fact I read all the hype about the escort and sold my cobra to my mom. They both give me ample warning.....

Funny how all the actual owners of radar detectors seem to all report that their unit has saved them multiple times when they apparently don't work.

I have owned both the cobra 9570 and now the escort. To be honest as stated before, they both work. The cobra worked very similar to the escort. The only thing I would argue is that the escort has better range, but the cobra 9570 gave me plenty notice of KA band when cops were hiding under bridges on the freeway. They ave both gave me plenty of notice doing 85 on a 65. In my opinion if someone doesn't want to break the bank the cobra works fine! And I would have kept it but my mother wanted one and I got the escort. Major difference? No not really! If you get hit by a laser and are speeding "it's to late" you might as well pull over! Got hit twice on a trip to Colorado with the escort. 2 tickets with laser. But a speed trap or cop using K, KA the detectors either or work pretty well. They do work! It just depends on if the cop has his radar gun on!

^ Exactly. A radar detector by itself is not going to save you from all tickets (as csgleon proved). I have a 5 year old Beltronics STI and it works just fine for RADAR, does nothing for the state police that use mostly if not all laser guns. If you want protection from laser, buy a laser jammer, if they are legal in your state. I had a Laser Interceptor on my 350Z and it performed amazing, gives you time to slow down and then turn it off so they can get a reading of your speed. If you are relying on just a radar detector for protection you are going to have a bad time and will be spending $ for tickets.

If it wasn't a felony to own a laser a jammer in Texas I would have one! It's not worth a felony to get caught with one. Absolutely no way! Get caught with a jammer and your felon! Yeah sure play with your car here and there but don't jeopardize your freedom for getting to work 2 min faster. Seriously!

Glad I don't live there :driving:.
A quick note, it LOOKS like laser jammers are illegal in California, Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, Tennesse, Virginia and South Carolina. Please be sure to do your own homework if you are thinking about buying one and dont rely on my list :tiphat:. Radar jammers are illegal in all 50 states and I believe is controlled by the FCC.

I posted a page back about the federal laws on jammers, the FCC or federal government currently has no law stopping private citizens jamming a laser signal. It is down the state, and sometimes local, governments to decide what they ban per laser jamming. The list you have is accurate and as much as I want a jammer I just do not want to risk the felon charges in Texas. :shakes head:

I think the jammer is a C misdemeanor. But i feel you.

Radar isn't useless by itself though. Remember, the cop will be pinging plenty of cars, not just you. When he pings another car, Your detector may start to pick up that frequency from far, way before you are in the target range. That's the warning you're looking for with a radar. The jammer kicks in when your radar detector failed to pick up the pings on other cars in front of you and now you're the target. Good radars don't miss many pings, though no technology is perfect.
the jammer is a strong layer of protection but with radar alone and good human instinct. you can avoid 85% of most tickets

Try this one...

https://store.valentine1.com/store/

30 day money back guarantee.

Like others have said...not every LEO drives around with a radar on.

Sorry, I didn't read all the replies. I was bored at work and fired off a reply after reading a few of the later posts. :hello:

I agree with you 100%. For fun I plugged in the STI on the waya home from work tonight and I got hit 3 laser warnings and saw the Officer on the ON ramp shooting our rears. About 10 miles up the road I got hit another time with laser, never saw this guy, he has good hiding spot lol. When someone is shooting radar, I usually pick it up early when other cars are in front.

That's exactly what I have been trying to tell ppl. the best dectors may be able to pick up x or k band far away 5-10 miles. If the police set up parallel to the road and the road is completely flat or you have a elevation to your advantage that would allow your detectors to detect the police miles away.

My point is even with the old x band or k band police radars , all the police would have to do is set up their radar, perpendicular to road, thus making their radar beam narrow or short to the on coming target and the not allowing drivers radar detector to alert the driver.

So with all the instant ons, lasers, and other police tricks a 50/50 chance gambling your insurance costs and driving records are just to risky.

There is also a big debate if these little led jammers even work.

Deferred adjudication my man. Thats why America is great. :tup:

If there's other traffic on the road, a good detector will pick up the splash from the other cars being radared whether the cop is perpendicular, parallel or any other position. This isn't the first time this fact has been brought up in this thread.

What's the debate about laser jammers? I seriously doubt that many states would have bothered to criminalize their use if they didn't do anything.

Store V1 Mirrors

This is something I found while looking for one. It's a stealth display, but they're a bit on the pricey side... They have Valentines and Escorts.

I have seen that website before, you can do it for a lot cheaper.
Basically all you need to do is buy the add on module and have someone take it apart and add it to your mirror. The main issue when doing a hidden V1 or Escort system is mounting the unit so it is out of sight, but still very effective and usable.

The real debate is if you can believe these claims of these companies that sell the jammers, most have not been proven by a creditable source.

They want you to believe that 2 couple little leds or a little led array, is going to defeat a high powered police laser and most of the laser jammer testers will tell you that they only work if the police aim the laser in the exact area where the laser array is mounted.

Also a lot of states ban things all the time for no valid reason all the time specially California, laser jammers are just another item to add to the list.

So what are you basing your position that they don't work on? You've made it very clear that you discredit positive user reviews as biased. Are you basing your position on the negative reviews that support your pre existing bias, or do you have sources?

The issue is that very are no verifiable, repeatable tests by independent sources by "Scientific Method".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

Most of these testers that endorse the detectors or jammers have some direct or indirect connection to the industry as suppliers or consultants.

You really need a test done by someone like Consumer Testing or UL.