V1 rules!!! It saved my butt....

[gschomi]

I was driving into Louisville on hwy 60 yesterday and my V1 started going nuts and the signal was getting stronger so i slowed down to the 55mph limit. Well around the bend was one of those radar display speed signs that flash red when you go over the limit. I laughed and started to speed up when i noticed after i passed that the arrow on the V1 was pointing ahead and behind and the signal was starting to get stronger again. Sure enough there was a little piggy hiding on a side road. If i had any other detector without the arrows i would have been toast as i would have thought it was still picking up the radar speed sign thingy.

V1 rules folks!!!

[nodemgr]

I think it is about time I invest in one.

[Oxcart 1]

does it work with laser? I got nailed tonight with a head on laser, 33 in a 25. I saw something but couldn't tell until too late cause I was coming out of a curve which I actually accelerated into.. He let me go after interigating me for 5 minutes and then asked for my driver's license. Prob because I guessed my speed to be 32 before he told me. He also asked how long I had my driver's lic. wonder why? Iam 18. Wonder if I look a 16 years old?
Althogh happy he let me go Iam kinda peeved I get nailed for 33 when I know people go like 40-45 through the neighborhood and down my road and no ones around...
Where did BMW mount the factory radar detectors in the 540s? I would think if you could mount the actual detector in the kidney grill some how and have the head in the car that you would be more likely catch laser. By no means as good as radar but still.

Anyone know?

[RayDuck]

The Valentine1 works with laser also. It also detects 3 radar bands; Ka, K, and X. The thing i like about the V1 the most is that it tells you which type it is and what direction it's coming from. I think it's worth the $400. Screw all the other radar detectors, the V1 is by far the top of the line.

Just my $0.02.

RaY

[knomad]

Originally posted by Oxcart 1
Iam kinda peeved I get nailed for 33 when I know people go like 40-45 through the neighborhood and down my road and no ones around...

Aaron,

Don't be peeved. You didn't get nailed. He let you off. Consider it a learning experience: now you know the cops sometimes sit in that spot running laser, so heads up.

[Ben FR]

I got nailed a few days ago with the Valentine 1 in a laser trap. With laser, the Valentine 1 is very ineffective, because it's instant-on, and it only beeps if you are getting shot at (i.e. if the cops aims it another car, your detector most likely will not go off).

-Ben FR

[Oxcart 1]

Don't be peeved. You didn't get nailed. He let you off. Consider it a learning experience: now you know the cops sometimes sit in that spot running laser, so heads up.

indeed, I was going the long way home too :

I don't think he was sitting specifically looking for just speeders, he was coming out of a stop sign as I came around the corner about to stop for it. The Police here have fairly large black heads mounted right outside their windows so might have been a laser. I dunno, he was moving though so I guess it must have been.

[psk145]

My V1 laser goes off if I hold it against the navigation screen on my QX4. Goes off randomly every once in a while too (laser) Weird. I love my V1, it's a good investment!

[mikey]

Radar detectors work okay, but laser detectors are useless. When the laser detector goes off, you are caught already. I have asked about this in this forum before, but hasn't anyone tried the laser "jammers". They are legal, unlike radar jammers, no FCC problems, and according to tests, including one in Roundel, they work. Look at the tests at radartest.com and at the explaination at the site for the company that reportedly makes the most effective laser jammer at Lidatek.com :

[eurospeed]

That radartest.com site is a joke and I suggest those who are seriously considering a good detector to completely disregard their tests/reviews. Read the car mags who have spent magnitudes more money on testing with proper equipment and most if not all will point to the Valentine 1 as being the outright best. There is a reason why the V1 has only needed a minor update since its inception in the mid 90s.

[mikey]

I don't dispute the quality of the Valentine detector, but maintain that when the laser warning goes off, it is too late.

[DeezBMW]

Where is a good place to buy the V1??

[XOC]

Originally posted by eurospeed
That radartest.com site is a joke and I suggest those who are seriously considering a good detector to completely disregard their tests/reviews. Read the car mags who have spent magnitudes more money on testing with proper equipment and most if not all will point to the Valentine 1 as being the outright best. There is a reason why the V1 has only needed a minor update since its inception in the mid 90s.

I am not sure why you say it's a joke. I read the description of how they performed their tests and they seem like pretty good tests to me. The one thing I agree with is that they weighted "ergonomics" too heavily. But even if you discount ergonomics altogether, the V1 falls behind the Escort in key functionality like Ka detection ,which I think is pretty damn important.

I have some crappy K40 SS unit that came with my car when I bought it. I wound up just turning the stupid thing off, because it justs beeps and beeps every 5 minutes, to the point where it is just useless - I can't tell if there is a cop around or not any better than I can without any detector at all, so I just turned it off. One thing that impressed me about radartest.com is that when I read the review of the newer K40 unit they tested, lo and behold they had exactly the same experience, they were dead-on. I was reading that review and saying "yup, that's how it is", "yes, exactly" the whole time. So at least from that aspect it's clear they aren't completely out of their minds.

The thing about the V1 that bothers me is that they claim that it too goes off far too often. I have enough experience with a detector that makes noise all day long to know that what they said is 100% true - just give me a detector that goes off when there is a real threat and shuts up the rest of the time ... that way I won't start to tune it out.

So I am seriously about to get the Escort 8500. I have terribly dark rear window tint, so I don't even think the V1's rearward detection would work in my car. I understand that a lot of you guys won't hear anything about any detector being good except for a V1, but I havn't been using one so I feel that I don't have these loyalties that i have to stay tied to.

Just my .02.

[Oxcart 1]

Well i know why I got pulled over....My friend was at a graduation party near by and was letting people drive his turbo charged eclipse around the neighbothood......at 100mph! so thats why there were cops around.

[knomad]

Originally posted by Oxcart 1


indeed, I was going the long way home too :

I don't think he was sitting specifically looking for just speeders, he was coming out of a stop sign as I came around the corner about to stop for it. The Police here have fairly large black heads mounted right outside their windows so might have been a laser. I dunno, he was moving though so I guess it must have been.

A head outside the cruiser window is radar.
A moving cruiser is radar.
Laser requires careful aim. The cop will be parked and aiming the handheld unit at your car.

[eurospeed]

Originally posted by 98m3/2
I am not sure why you say it's a joke. I read the description of how they performed their tests and they seem like pretty good tests to me. The one thing I agree with is that they weighted "ergonomics" too heavily. But even if you discount ergonomics altogether, the V1 falls behind the Escort in key functionality like Ka detection ,which I think is pretty damn important.

It is a joke, but of course, you are entitled to your opinion. I'll trust the car mags any day of the week, advertising kickbacks or not. It seems the people on radartest are basing the scores more on cute looks, flashy LEDs, and textured buttons. Please. I don't care whether it looks and feels like a one pound brown turd. Just make sure it does the job. Valentine 1 has been clearly proven to be superior many times over in Ka band tests by everyone else, yet radartest claims the Escort is better. Why is it completely the opposite of every other test I have read? I'll likely never know, but I do know I've been through several brands and nothing even remotely compares to my V1. The other great feature, clearly overlooked by the geniuses at radartest, is the ability to set a wide range of specific parameters on the V1. If they were getting so many false signals, maybe they should have RTFM and set the bogey counter to advanced logic mode. Although they did admit their problem with using multiple functions, so I wouldn't put it past them that they had trouble reading the manual.

[Rahul325]

Originally posted by deezbmw
Where is a good place to buy the V1??

go to Valentine1 site and u can order it over the internet, when i got it 3 months back it was on back order and it took me nearly a month to get it, u might wanna call their cust srvice and find out when u will get urs if u order it now.

have fun with ur new toy


later

[SF Silver M3]

If i had any other detector without the arrows i would have been toast as i would have thought it was still picking up the radar speed sign thingy.

This isn't true. The Passport 8500 will show you how many different radar signals that are being picked up, so you would know that there was another rader lurking in addition to the sign radar. I just bought the Passport 8500, in part because of the radartest.com tests. They seemed fairly well thought out and well conducted. In addition, I read most of the reviews on epinions.com. It seemed that both the V1 and the Passport 8500 got about the same ratings, except that the people who wrote reviews of the Passport 8500 had actually had extensive experience with the V1 also. In fact, I think one guy even put them up simultaneously and compared them. The people who wrote reviews on the V1 seemed to simply think it was the best because they had heard other people say it was the best.

After comparing the two models extensively, it seemed to me that they were fairly comparable radar detectors. The arrow indicators for the V1 didn't seem to be of much use when you consider that the Passport can tell you how many signals and their respective bands. Therefore, if the V1 and the Passport are as good as one another, I decided to pick up the Passport 8500 because it is $100 less!

I don't have extensive experience with radar detectors, as this is my first. But, based on all available information to me, I think the Passport is the better choice.