Stories like this re-affirm my ongoing keeping in the V1 camp - http://www.valentineone.com/v1moments/month.asp?month=January 2012 In any case, V1 has worked well for me, for years. Ohio, unfortunately, has radar guns all over the highways for its traffic monitoring systems - ugh. Thankfully the recent V1's have a mode to eliminate those exceedingly annoying false alarms.
I never use a radar detector, and haven't had ticket in over 30 years! Then again, I was in the business of writing tickets. The only time I stopped anyone with a detector is when they didn't use the rearview mirror and see the police car behind them. On a side note, I knew a judge that automatically found people guilty if they said their detector didn't go off so the cop couldn't have been using radar. Its best not to mention that.
Buy anything you want, unless you actually want to know where the radar source is, then you'll only want "the arrows". My mother hasn't had a ticket in over sixty-years of driving without a radar detector. It's a fact that has no relevance to the original poster's question.
I pray on a monthly basis to Saint Valentine. . . And if you have somebody else in the car, then Wazer is invaluable.
I've been happy with my 9500ix. It doesn't false as much as the V1 and has amazing range. Very happy with the GPS lock-out of city driving.
I haven't used a radar detector for over 10 years, but the road construction here in Texas is now funneling expressway traffic into some revenue hungry local towns. No speeding on these roads, but with numerous speed limit changes, anyone is at risk. I ran an escort box, back when they doubled as boat anchors. Is the V1 the new state of the art unit & what have you found to be the threat to false ratio?
This is the kind of discussion that can really get into the weeds - although I am biased in favor of the V1 for a multiplicity of reasons and that's all I've used for the last 20 years, you can find all kinds of vehement arguments in favor of or against any of the top detectors, which (typically) come down to the Escort products or Valentine 1. I suggest perusing the websites thoroughly and see what you think. As for false signals, any top-competing detector's range means a higher incidence of detecting signals that are not a police officer clocking you directly with a radar gun - you have to make a judgment for yourself if you prefer the approach of one vs. the other in their attempt to ameliorate to some degree spurious radar signals. There are arguments for and against either. The V1 has 3 signal filtering 'modes', called "All Bogeys", "logic" and "Advanced Logic", which are displayed as A, small L and a large L. If someone using a V1 doesn't use either of the two "logic" modes, the all-bogeys mode can be annoyingly informative in areas loaded with door openers and false signals (the new "Savvy" module can aid in such areas, if one opts for it) - I tend to use the small L "logic" mode, which will alert at all signals it detects, but X band and weak signals initially sound at the mute-level volume and get louder with closer proximity. The Advanced Logic mode will not sound X-band alerts until they are at a high strength level, which can be useful for areas where police radar on X-band is long gone but has door-openers, etc. a-plenty. The V1 also shows an indicator (a "J") for junk signals from other radar detectors. Here's the V1 rationale behind not taking the GPS route Escort has - http://www.valentineone.com/gps/ . Seems to me the GPS signal blocking ought to be effective in high-false areas if you want to go through blocking them all; usually, the noisiest areas are high-traffic parking lots, malls, or urban areas where I find speeding or getting clocked for same just isn't an issue, and I'm usually going into them anyway so I'm done with wanting to pay attention to the detector by then. If one regularly drove _by_ a mall/high false area with a detector squawking like crazy, the gps signal blocking seems like it could be very effective. I wouldn't be a fan though if the gps blocking ends up blocking real police radar signals, although I don't personally know the likelihood of that happening - in any case, V1 has worked just fine for me, and I'll take the range along with extra chatter around town. The only Escort detector I specifically would avoid is the cordless model - even if it's in terms of microseconds, I prefer not to have my detector asleep in order to yield acceptable battery life just for the convenience of not having to plug it in. The V1 has been priced the same for a long time now - it used to be more expensive by far, now the top escorts are higher, the V1 'grand touring' pkg. + the concealed display is still less than the 9500ix. Escort has stealth/installed options not offered by V1, Escort offers software upgrades, V1 offers hardware/programming upgrades. I think I'm on the 2nd upgrade of my (physically) 2nd V1, the first one was bought in '93 and upgraded once or twice until hardware/case changes meant it couldn't be physically updated anymore, and the next upgrade was to a then-current model at a price discounted from full retail, which was updatd again last year, forget for how much, but I felt it was reasonable. It's easy here though, I can just drop it by their office. Links: https://www.escortradar.com/passport9500ix/index.php http://www.valentineone.com/ http://www.valentineone.com/Lab/
Thanks, based on the threats I've been encountering, a unit that provides directional guidance is probably the best choice for me. In the old west, these guys would have been know as bush wackers. Times have changes, but the intent remains the same, they sneak up behind you, run you off the road & take all you money.
It's my favorite, as of late 2017 i've been using V1 for 15+ years. I love the fact I can upgrade/recondition my existing unit when new updates come out, and I don't need to buy a new one. I've been very satisfied with mine for many years.
I don't remember when I bought my first V1, but it is easily more than 15 years ago, probably 20. It's been upgraded at least 2 times. You have to ask yourself one question: Do the arrows trump all of the other fancy stuff the others have? The answer for me is: Yes, always. My wife has a lead foot. When I met her 7 years ago, she fell in love with my V1 - I got her one as a wedding present . She and the V1 are keepers!
