Vrodman

Hey guys,

My luck ran out yesterday and I got popped for 99 in a 65 ! Radar detector barely blipped out "Ka Band". Never saw the guy even though I watch out for them. He had a good spot on his bike behind the end of a sound wall is my guess. So it could have been laser/lidar. Not sure.

When he approached he said he had me at 106. Uh Oh! Then he starts asking about the car and telling me how much he likes it. Asks me if I had a tune. I didn't know where he might be going with that question, so I denied having one. Then he says "you know you can get a tune for this to pump it up" I said, "well look how much trouble I am in with the stock version" and he smiled and chuckled a little.

Asked if I had an emergency of some kind to explain the speed. I explained I had left work a bit early due to a throbbing nagging lower back pain and the my car seat didn't feel the best. I just wanted to get home out of the car. He said "OK, I understand, I will make this quick for you"

I then asked if he could work with me on the speed he was citing me for. He said "we'll talk about that in a few minutes". I was hoping he was just going to run my license for warrants and then give me a warning. NOPE!

He returned and said "I am cutting you a break, but the best I can do is 99" at first thought geez not much of a break. But then he explained that if he wrote it for 100 or more it's a whole different headache that includes DL suspension for 30 days, no traffic school, and 2 points on my record for 7 years. SO I GUESS HE DID CUT ME A BREAK!

One down side to the 99 is that because it is beyond 25 over 65 automatic option for traffic school does not exist. I have to go to the traffic court and ask the judge to grant the option. I am told after a brief lecture to slow down, they almost always grant it.

So the actual point of this thread is to determine if it is worth upgrading my 11 year old Passport 9500i to a new better system with active laser jamming and such. I believe I can get a pretty good active jamming system and new detector installed for roughly $1200 to $1400. Does that sound about right? I also noticed this morning that when I passed CHP my current Passport barely bleeped 1 dot for Ka band. And I was within 10 feet of his bike. So I am guessing that my detector is now a paper weight. Would this be true? I just haven't kept up on the subject as well as I should have the last few years.

Can any of you with such a setup say how effective you have found it to be? Like mostly effective, bullet proof, or overrated.

Any and all recommendations for brands, models, and such is appreciated.

Astolfo

I do NO like my valentine (just a year old) way too many false alarms to the point it is useless. it is about a year old let me know if you want it.

Vrodman

Doing some looking around online. Looks like the Escort Laser ShifterPro is a pretty effective product. Yes? No?

If yes, which detector is it best suited to work in tandem with? It wasn't clear to me on the website. The IX, the Max360?, etc.

Lastly, anybody know of a good installation place in the Bay Area that does a nice clean and well functioning install?

Thanks in Advance

vdubpower

I LIKE THE REDLINE as it has excellent range, and i dont care for the escort live business or gps stuff....

remember coppers dont always have their radar on, so u wont always pick it up....a lot of them now just using laser too

EckFe1

All these years living in the US killed me with this speeding crap. Now I live in Germany and everybody goes 100mph on the Autobahn, if traffic allows it.
It feels damn slow and the wagon is totally bored at that speed. Funny how perception shifts in comparison.
BTW, even at 125mph, the engine only revs at 3k.....and the wagon is still bored
Back then, I even installed a toggle switch so I could turn off the brake lights when "speeding". Stomp on the brake and hope the guy next to you get's it.
I bet you're in even more trouble if you install a jammer and get caught.
I hope your court date will turn out ok for you.
Ed

RJD AMG

Also add the Waze App to your protection. This has saved me more than my radar detector lately.

larrypmyers

Waze works well for me, along with a Valentine 1.

Vrodman

Have been using Waze for about a year now. Best use of this for me is when I occasionally need to "borrow" the HOV/commuter lane. When I hear "Police reported ahead" guess what I do? Lol Change lanes.

Other than this and its actual intended purpose, it doesnt seem to offer much to me.

kponti

WAZE for the win, usually works better than most detectors. Combine with laser jammers for ultimate protection

2012 CCB E63

This is my setup and so far have no no problem. I will be taking the car up for a 600 mile drive this week, hope no tickets

otakki

Waze is great but cannot be used alone because it wouldn't help you if you are the first one at the location. Also remember that cops are also looking on their Waze to see if their locations have been compromised via reporting by other Wazers.

Just remember you will need a laser system that can counter the variable pulse laser system ie DragonEye. Only a few systems out there can do that at this time. The best laser detector+jammer IMO is ALP (Antilaser Priority), which can operate alone. Another excellent laser system is from Stinger VIP but it needs to be combined with the $2500 Stinger VIP system, which is the best radar system money can buy at this point. Stinger's VIP beats even the Redline in all 3 radar gun frequencies used by cops in the US. It's range for 35.5 GHz outperforms all other radar detectors by an insanely large margin.

Try this guy's website which has excellent infos on which system to get. He is also on rdforum.org and has many excellent youtube videos:
http://www.vortexradar.com/category/...r/stinger-vip/

Redline is definitely amazing, especially if correctly set up. I acquired one just a few weeks ago and got to use it for the first time during the entire 3500 miles trip last week. It pretty much picked out every speed trap along the way. Of course, Redline is designed most for the highway which 95% of my driving takes place so it's perfect for me. Inside a city, Redline will pretty much buzz constantly to the point to driving you crazy.

Vrodman

Sorry for the late reply guys. Been slammed the last week or so.

Anyway, THANKS to all you guys with your inputs. all good advice.

I was thinking about going with the Escort 9500ci. I can get it on Amazon for about $1500. I like the look a lot of it in that it looks like part of the car.

When looking at it, it appears that the laser shifter comes with it? So I would not need to purchase the shifterpro also?

I see some of you like the Redline and some like other manufacturers. Anything I should know about the 9500ci?

Thanks Again!

Larry1979

I highly recommend the 9500ci. I have the 9500ci in my car and it has been flawless for 5 years. This system picks up all radar bands from very long distances. The system comes with laser shifters on the front and back. I have not had any issues with the laser shifters although some reviewers cite the laser shifters as the only flaw with the 9500ci. I hear the new laser shifter pro lasers work very well and are an improvement over the shifters I received 5 years ago. In my opinion, no matter how good the laser system, if the lasers alert it is too late anyways. You may have time to slow down a little but that's about it.

This system is also GPS enabled and allows you to mark known speed traps, speed cameras, and red light cameras. There is an auto lockout feature in which the system will not alert after going through an area where the radar receives 3 false alerts in a row. The system works well with distronic plus and blocks the K band signals emitted from distronic plus. There is a module from midcity engineering that will display radar functions and alerts on the dash and I recommend this option. There is a USB cable that allows you to connect the system to a laptop and use the website for updates in known red-light camera locations and software updates.

I think $1500 is a good price because the price is usually $2,000. I recommend using a reputable installer to install a system of this complexity to ensure it is done right. Some larger dealers will install this system as well.

I hope this helps.

24Hours

I was going to put hidden (rear view mirror face) system in my '07 63 wagon, and have the guys at AI Design do it... install with the mirror was $3500... I scrapped only b/c the W212 was pending. At that time, they were big fans of the 9500ci too.

I use Waze for now, but intend to get the install...

Good story BTW. Once cop let me off clean once due to being a car guy too. Mine was not as high of an "over" as yours.
Cheers