Any recomm on a radar detector for p4s. Make. Model? Cost? On dash vs built in behind grill? From cosmetic view hate on dash with wire draped over dash. Are dashed models now battery powered thus eliminating wire ?
thanks.

 

Buy a Valentine One and hardwire power from above - there's a thread here with directions. There are numerous built-in options, but you will pay a lot more... having said that, I'm having one installed including a blinder, and the display will be etched into the rear view mirror...

 

+1 on the Valentine, the only way to go.

 

Thanks. Do detectors provide protection given the "quick on" radar guns?

 

The Valentine will pick up the "instant on" radar but it won't help if you are the only car on the road. The alert helps when another car in front of you would be the main target.

 

Your choice for a radar detector depends in what kind of driving you do; city, rural, highway.... There is no one perfect detector. Each detector has both strong and aspects. The valentine one is a great windshield mount detector, but may be too sensitive and have too many false alerts in city driving. For me, the arrows indicating which direction the threat is coming from are very helpful. The Escort 9500IX is a very good detector, not as sensitive as the V1, but if you are primarily driving on non highway roads, this detector will give you less false alerts. I do not like the auto lock feature of the 9500ix. If there are doped ir red-light cameras in your area the 9500ix will alert you to them, buy using gps and data base.

For a first detector, I would choose one of the above. I personally started with a 9500ix, later bought a V1. The V1 is my highway detector, and my 9500ix I use on city streets.

 

Use a rabbit (someone 10 seconds or 1/4 mile ahead of you going the same speed as you). Let them them get the ticket, and you get the radar alert.

Do not buy a Cobra, they provide poor performance. The whistler pro se series are fair detector. Much better than the cobra, not as good as the escorts or V1.

 

I have run with a V1 for ~8 years years. Only ticket since I have owned it was by laser on an elevated freeway in a construction zone (ooops, my bad). It is very sensitive and on the freeway will start chirping long before you see the trooper. It is deceiving and you are tempted to disregard as false, but....there he is. You will be slowing down and the other guys keep on going by but don't be fooled (a benz got the ticket 4th of July Weekend on my inaugural Pan S run to NOLA).

Sensitivity in the city can be aggravating and I would like to mute the store front doors, etc, but the Ka sensitivity (which are state troopers) is very accurate. Laser is tricky but the trooper has to be on the shoulder or median ahead shooting at you directly, if there is someone in front of you, you will get a laser alarm when they are tagged. There are certain red taillights that will trip the laser alarm, but that is usually when I am directly behind one of these cars and it is not as much a nuisance as the store front door radar.

I do wish that Valentine would make a few updates for flexibility on mute options like X Band, but I'm sticking with it because it has saved my bacon many times.

Good luck!

 

It’s easy to turn off the Valentine X-band false alarms. Try to notice what bandwidth is used in your area and then decide if you can eliminate the band completely.

 

Thanks all for your input. I will go with the v1.

 

The 9500ix has GPS. How advantageous is the GPS, which v1 lacks?

 

If you have speed or red light cameras in the areas you drive the GPS feature can be helpful in locating them. You must subscribe to escort radar's service which i believe is $99 for three years. The other GPS feature which I don't like is called trulock. It will lock out radar alerts in a geographic area, if the same radar signal is seen in the location three times in a row. The problem is the lockout area in my opinion is too large and can and has locked out radar signals from p olive officers. I disabled the trulock feature on my 9500ix.

The 9500ix is a good radar detector. It is not as sensitive nor as reactive as the V1. It is an excellent radar detector for someone new to radar detectors. It may not even with trulock turned off, alert you to every police radar threat. But no radar detector is perfect. Every detector will miss some radar signals. The 9500ix will miss more than the V1. The absolute best radar detector is a properly programed and properly installed Beltronics STiR.