I had an Passport 8500 for over two years. The thing worked great. I did recieve one ticket though, but no radar detector could have saved me (it's a long story). THe only thing about it though is that it basically fell apart after that. Out of the three screws hodling the casing together, 2 screws stripped themselves somehow causing the casing to loosen up and intermittantly cut the power on and off from the power chord.

After that, I went with the V1. I've had it for about 9-10 months now, and I seriously don't see how I lived before without the directional arrows. The 8500 saved me plenty of times, but not soon after I got my V1, I was involved in a sitation with two cops (one in front and one behind), and with the 8500 I'd have been toast since it wouldn't have been able to tell me I had an additional cop still infront of me. For that reason alone, I swear by the V1. Also, it's upgradable, so I don't have to buy an entire new unit when my current one is obselete.

 

V1 ... the only radar LOCATOR on the market. My V1 is clipped to driver visor with remote display in ashtray.
http://www.valentine1.com/

Radar comparative tests
http://www.valentine1.com/lab/cd_radar_detectors.pdf
http://www.valentine1.com/lab/DoItYourself.asp

 

i have a V1 and its great. saved me tons of times. i think among the top 3, they really are all the same, you just need to determine which features are important to you. to me the arrows are valuable information when determining how much of a threat a blip of Ka band is.

 

http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleid=9090

Great article. I own the BEL RX65 PRO, and it works great. It also got rated the best by RadarTest out of the top 3.

 

How are the false alarm on the V1?

 

I have been running 2 radar detectors in my car for about 18 months. I have a BEL980 and the new Passport 8500 x50. I like the Passport better.

 

V1 hardwired with remote display is what I use, and I haven't been let down yet (no tickets).

As far as the false alarms, you have to take some time to get used to learning which are "real" and which are "false". Example, if you are driving around in a shopping plaza, or near an area with a lot of stores, you will most likely get X band alarms. If you drive the same routes daily, you should be able to easily weed out the threats vs. the non-threats. Another nice feature is the different modes, all alarms, logical, and advanced logical. I personally haven't messed with it, but I have heard stories from people that have great success with these different modes.

 

I bought an escort solo s2 a few weeks ago and love it. Being cordless saves me from having to run ugly wires up over my dash or from having to modify the car (since it's a lease). The range isn't as good as the X50, but I'm not a speed maniac; the solo has warned me with plenty of time to slow down from the 80s to 55.

Also, mounting your detector up high can screw with its effectiveness if it has to look through the tinted part of the windshield. Furthermore, high mounting makes it damn near impossible that you'll catch a whiff of laser (although you're probably tagged if it's down low as well).

 

V1, the arrows save you alot of guessing.
The range is fantastic.