This seems easy, buy both, test them on your trip, keep the one that you're happy with. If you do it this way, you'll never wonder if you made the right pick.

I'm almost certain that both companies have a money back guarantee for 30 days.

 

Hadn't thought about that. Sounds like a plan. I'll check into the companies' return policies.

 

Congrats on the car. Post some pix when you get a chance...

Two major brand of radar detectors are being used by board members here. The Valentine One (V1) or the Escort's Passport series. I've personally have never used a V1 but I have heard both good and bad stories about it. I can tell you about the Escort Passport 8500 X50 because I've been using one for the past three years now. Never had a issue with it, detects threats from a pretty good distance. It does not jam radar but it does alert you when you have been tagged by one. The cool thing about the Passport over the V1 is that Escort also sells a radar jammer that plugs into the Passport so you can see both radar and laser status/threats on one screen attached to your windshield as opposed to two.

Search around here because there have been numerous threads about this topic. You might also want to check out Radar Roy (http://www.radarroy.com/). Either way you can't go wrong with either one.