Radar Detectors: Do You Use One?

SkylerLX
Aug 6, 2010 at 3:36 pm

i have on in all my cars, but i do not solely rely on it. Paying attention to whats around you is 1st priority, but if you happen to be out and doing 40-75 over whats posted. By the time they will get to you, you will be way ahead what you do from there is up to you….

042857
Aug 6, 2010 at 2:57 pm

Well yes I do own one, have one in my truck as well. My wife nor I really speed to much in town but at times do on the interstate. But what I really like the one in my speed3 for is those darn stop light camera’s! And or speed trap’s! My detector picks up both. And I love it! I have always owned one for years but never had one like we do now! escort 9500ix… Technology today you have to love it. But as everything I researched all the new detectors. When you live in a state that has no fault ins. and the rates are already higher than I paid when I was 16 one has to protect themselfes!
Because yeah a ticket can be rather high but wait for it, you get your new insurance bill in the mail that went up like $500.00 plus a year! And your already paying $175.00 a month and you and your wife have a clean record and are both old enough to get the best rates! So again we protect are selves. And that is just my opinion… It means nothing.

ChameleonProbeGT
Aug 6, 2010 at 8:32 am

No radar or laser detector will save you from a plane timing you against marks on the highway.

ken261
Aug 6, 2010 at 4:23 am

I’ve found vigilance to be just as useful. I haven’t owned one in probably 16 years. My last ticket was in 1995. I still drive +10 or so on most roads. I’ve learned to pay more attention to how cars ahead of me are driving and determining what they are seeing in front of them. You can always count on cars slowing down for police (even if they are not speeding).

I’ve had more speeding tickets when I had detectors than when I didn’t have them. Don’t let the electronics make you lazy.

Veikra
Aug 5, 2010 at 10:24 pm

I pay enough city taxes and income taxes, so I’ll have one in my car once it’s ready.

mikehummer69
Aug 5, 2010 at 7:37 pm

The amount of money I’ve saved not paying speeding tickets is well worth the 100 bucks I spent on a Cobra 10 years ago. I also seem to have the 6th sense when it comes to speeding. I always have the “Don’t pass this guy” feeling when my lead-foot starts gettin heavy. Sure enough around the next corner or hill is the highway patrol. You’re screwed when they’re using laser though. By the time the alarm goes off they are already waiving you over.

bobjr94
Aug 5, 2010 at 4:46 pm

They all can work when used a back-up or speed reminder. No detector can detect a cop sitting there with his radar off, knowing there are many people with detectors, so he wont flip it on till he sees a bright red car passing everyone.

I got one after I got a ticket from a small town cop who sits 2 blocks inside the city limit, just where the speed changes on the highway goes from 50 to 35. If I had it then it would have gone off long in advance and I would have remembered about the speed limit drop at the edge of town.

Ziggs987
Aug 5, 2010 at 3:46 pm

Have a cobra 360, has helped about twice, but it randomly goes off while on highway so i don’t really pay attention, it kept going off and the cop was right behind me. Get one that tells you whether they’re in front or behind, really helps lol

Sleezer1533
Aug 5, 2010 at 3:04 pm

I use a valentine One. It comes in handy when the cops are actively running radar. But if they have the defeator switch engaged or are using laser which more cops are, the radar lets you know but only after its too late.

mrcho304
Aug 5, 2010 at 2:50 pm

I use a PASSPORT 8500 and i feel that you cant totally depend on it all the time. I feel if your going to speed you gotta face the fact that you might get caught. I use my radar as a warning system not an excuse to speed.

albania_fier
Aug 5, 2010 at 2:32 pm

eeeh to hell with em some work some dont work..i donno just keep your eyes open(never owned one personally)

Charmer18
Aug 5, 2010 at 10:50 am

Of course I have a radar detector, sure I speed why take time to build up a motor you’ll drive slow or why buy a porsche or corvette to drive it slow. I use a V1 had it since 07 its a true life saver, you don’t have really a worry of getting a ticket behind radar running cops unless you’re going over 100. I always spot them before they spot me. Couple that with the trapster app on a phone and you’re practically stealth.

ILLY-Sase
Aug 5, 2010 at 10:42 am

We all “Speed” ..i know i do from time to time…so its much worth it. CLOAKING ON!!!

cadillac2009
Aug 4, 2010 at 10:51 pm

Im not going to lie, I do speed sometimes, and fortunately havent got a speeding ticket, even before I got my radar. I like to have a radar though, because im one of those people who always finds himself driving 5 or 10 miles over the speed limit. The radar helps me check my speed before I pass by a cop.

DevilDogg87
Aug 4, 2010 at 5:28 pm

I had one. waste of money all it did was get me a ticket.

1991S10
Aug 4, 2010 at 3:53 pm

the day after i bought mine i was doing about 70k’s in a 50 zone on a 4 lane road, was climbing a hill next to a guy doing the sasme speed as me..near the crest of the hill the detector started screaming and i slowed down to 50 just in time to see a speed trap on the side of the road… the guy beside me got busted obviously still doing 70…hate to have seen his ticket…so it paid for itself in under 24 hours!! was brilliant

GTwildfire
Aug 3, 2010 at 3:59 pm

I thought you were an old lady too, nes…

___nes___
Aug 3, 2010 at 12:31 pm

Oh guys come on! Really? “I have one, but I never speed” Then why get one if you follow the rules?!
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Anyways, I’m planning on getting one soon after I get the new car (to me) and was thinking of getting one with the Thunderbird but cops usually just ignored me because they assumed it was an old lady driving the car. I have passed cops doing 90mph and don’t even look my way.

Jnic815
Aug 2, 2010 at 8:40 pm

I don’t usually speed, but i do like having my radar detector in my truck so i just have a heads up before i drive by a cop so i can check my speed just in case

GTwildfire
Aug 2, 2010 at 6:32 pm

Ironically, the only time I got nabbed speeding was after I passed one of those radar detector signs on the side of the road that was showing me I was doing 35… but there’s usually only the sign. After I passed the sign I saw a cop in a driveway with a radar gun scanning through the open windows of an adjacent vehicle… the ultimate stealth cover. The sign sets off the detector and people shrug off the sign only to be scanned by a cop. It was brilliant but… I didn’t have a detector, never have.
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I don’t speed as much as used to, and definitely not in residential areas. On highways, only when the roads are far from congested and there is no place to hide, or if I am very familiar with the road.

davect01
Aug 2, 2010 at 5:54 pm

I personally use one and it has saved me a couple of tickets. I do not rely on it exclusively, nor do I speed excessively.

DaveyBoyo
Aug 2, 2010 at 1:38 pm

Yes. I bought my radar detector a year and a half ago. It’s a Beltronics STI-i Driver. It has stealth technology so it can’t be detected by ‘radar detector detectors’. I found that it worked great until it fell off the windshield mount about a dozen times and scrambled the electronics inside of it. My model cost $800 new and I bought it for $160, but I haven’t had a ticket since I bought it. I did a lot of research before I bought it. I would point anyone who’s interested in buying one to http://www.radarroy.com – that guy really knows his stuff! Lots of garbage out there that doesn’t work worth a sh*t.

Lawdog1911
Aug 2, 2010 at 8:16 am

I don’t use one, but I “just know”, don’t ask how, but I know if there is a cop around and I slow down just enough, and sure enough a cop. I have a 6th sense detector, lol. Only one speeding ticket by a d**khead cop who got me 53 in a 50. I had my speedo ga. light dimmed down (Dark tint on regular cab Sonoma) cause it reflects off my back window and I can see it on my rearview mirror. I wasn’t speeding, just got a little over not paying attention.

HotRodHoney
Aug 2, 2010 at 8:08 am

Now, I have had my share of speeding tickets, however it never really occured to me to get a radar detector until one day when I was NOT speeding I got a speeding ticket. Why? Because I was driving a Mustang. Surrounded by a collection of SUVs and fuel-efficient vehicles, the officer assumed I was the culprit so I got the ticket. (Not to mention he had the nerve to ask me if it was actually MY car…yes, shocking a chick who drives a 5-spd Mustang…smh)

This enraged me, I mean I completely understand if I am actually speeding and get caught, ok it’s a bummer but I know I was guilty. However, I figured if I am going to be pulled over simply because of the type of car I am driving, then I might as well even out the playing field.

It was a “Cobra”, it was pretty decent although I’ve gone through 2; it seems they meet their demise via extreme temperatures. After a rough winter or rough summer, they start detecting radar everywhere! My friends and I joke it’s detecting the invisible hellcop from Highway to Hell…(if anyone besides us have seen that movie.)

Now that I drive a Focus, I’m never suspected of speeding…even when I am…

Steve Little
Aug 2, 2010 at 6:10 am

I used to, had a $90-100 Cobra radar/laser detector but it never really helped. Maybe it didn’t here because maybe the cops don’t leave their radar on all the time, but i have a hard time believing that because i was around ALOT of cops while having it for roughly 4 years, and that was local, county and state troopers. So i’m thinking the only ones that really work are the ones over $200 which i damn sure not going to pay that much. I figure the best way to not get caught is to no do anything that would make a cop pull you over. The one i had seems like it would mainly only go off when i would pass a place with an automatic door but only certain ones. The one i had i bought back when i was 17 so about 2002, but maybe the ones out now are better even the ones that are $100. So i figure the best way to not get a speeding ticket is to just not speed, or not enough to get pulled since around here you can go 10 over and a cop not even look at you, they might if you’re in a residential area.
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I’ve had speeding tickets before and i just had a lawyer deal with it, ya it ends up being roughly the same in the short run but when my lawyer reduced all of my tickets to “improper equipment/im proper muffler” where i wouldn’t get any points at all, it saves in the long run. He’s even reduced both Careless & Wreckless tickets i’ve gotten, one was reduced to the same as the speeding tickets were and the other was reduced to going 34 in a 25 and driving without due caution.
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I sold my detector back when i was 21 in 2006 and haven’t had any problems without it. I also figure if the cops see a lot of people getting into wrecks that were caused by speeding while having a radar detector the state could just make them illegal like VA and other states. I actually got a $100 ticket up in VA for having the radar/laser detector on my windshield even though it was actually off, after paying the ticket (since it was just an ordinance ticket so no points) i sold the 4 year old radar/laser detector for $25. Also i realized all cops have to do is get stuff that can’t be scrambled or blocked, i know companies will just come out with stuff to scramble and block those but then the cops will come out with more. So it will just be an on going back and forth, why spend that kind of money when all you have to do is not speed, it’s a reason i use the cruise control on the interstate or highway.
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But you say you saved time, yet you got a $360 ticket so was the extra time worth it? Why speed excessively just to save 10 minutes and then end up getting a $300+ ticket. I have never been late for any appointment or job, never for anything where i had to be somewhere at a certain time and did it without speeding no more than 5-10 over depending on the type of area. And if im going somewhere that I’m not on a time restraint (if you want to call it that) then I’m not in a rush, Only time i’d be in a big rush is if i was trying to get someone to the hospital or something like that.
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So when i was younger i used to speed really bad and do a bunch of other shit that I’m surprised i didn’t get caught more or lose my license but i guess i grew up and realized whats the point? It’s been plenty of times where someone was hauling ass and then i meet them at a stop light or sign, so really what good did it do?