Hey, I've been looking at radar detectors lately, trying to decide how much I want to spend. The Valentine is great and all, but it costs to much for having about the same performance ad the passport 8500. The only reason I would get a Valentine is to get that slick mirror that has the second display built in, and do the hidden detector thing. But all that would run around $800, fuk that. I had pretty much decided on the 8500, but my buddy who own the car audio shop carries K40. They've got a new RD850 out, and from what tests I've seen, it performs equal to most other top of the line models. The thing is that I can get da hookup on this model, where I'll have to lay down 3 c-notes for the 8500. Have any of you used this model? They are supposed to have updated it compared to some of their earlier models. I dunno, it kinda makes me nervous, but it'd be $75-100 cheaper...

 

Neither...

Get the V1.

http://www.caranddriver.com/article....&page_number=1

 

No V1 or 1.8 unless you are gonna buy it. I don't think the V1 is that much better, and I just don't like it - the one my buddy has feels cheap and flimsy. If you haven't noticed...that C&D report was bought and paid for by Valentine...

 

8500 IMO

 

huh?



Cheap? Flimsy? It's made out of die-cast magnesium...


And you know this how???

 

"huh?"

IOW, unless you pay for it, I ain't gettin a Valentine.

"Cheap? Flimsy? It's made out of die-cast magnesium..."

All of it? Sure didn't seem that way to me. It's more show than anything else...

"And you know this how???"

Do you not get the magazine? Look how much Valentine advertises in there...it's kind of a no brainer...just like Escort paid for the radartest.com tests, etc.

 

I'm absoluckinfutely positive...

Quote:

Do you not get the magazine? Look how much Valentine advertises in there...it's kind of a no brainer...just like Escort paid for the radartest.com tests, etc.

Yeah, I get the magazine. Your point? Escort, Valentine, Uniden, Cobra, Bel... They all advertise in C&D. Advertisement in a magazine hardly constitutes bribery...

 

Nevermind dood...anyone else have a take on this? K40 or the 8500...I'm sorta leaning towards the 8500 just for features right now.

 

I'm not sure why you have your panties all in a bundle over this.

I'm sure the majority of the responses you'll get will tell you to get the V1. This is a very "Pro-V1" board...

Here's a recent switcher from a 8500 to a V1.

http://acura-cl.com/forums/showthrea...hreadid=116358


Obviously, it comes down to what you want and what you're willing to pay. But there are pretty good INDEPENDENT sources out there that show the V1 is the best detector going.

YMMV...

 

I'm not too familiar with the K40.. but after owning the 8500 and the V1.. the V1 is the way to go. One day I was notified on I684 of a cop that was 2.6 miles ahead of me... unfreakin' real. I'm not sure what V1 you felt that was cheap.. but mine is solid as a rock.

Anyway... one thing you'll notice is that about 60% of this board is pro-V1, 30% is pro-8500, and 10% are others. Out of those others I really haven't seen any reviews on the K40.. so you may be stuck on that one....

 

My bro has V1 and it's built solid. Works better than his friends 8500. I've used both and IMHO it's worth the extra bill.

 

The K40 sucks! It's garbage. It's not new. I had the same one for 2 years before the 8500, I had that for a year, & have had my V1 for the last year. So it's like 5 years old. Either the V1 or 8500. Also the K40 ticket pay has some important exclusions. School & construction zones. Tickets 30PMH over the limit, The ticket has to say radar, or laser, & give the speed clocked. And some states don't even allow this.

 

Wait a minute.. is the K40 made by Rocky Mountain Radar?? That ticket program sounds familiar. If that's the one you're talking about... all of their products are shit... don't even touch them. I had one of their "jammers" and I tested it with a friend who is a cop and it didn't do shit. If you're so against the V1, buy the 8500... do not touch the K40 if it's the one I'm thinking of.

 

I don't have my panties in a wad, as a matter of fact I don't even have any panties lol. I said in my original post that I was not considering the V1 and I asked for opinions on the K40 vs the 8500. I understand it's a Pro-V1 board, and that's just peachy. But I wasn't asking about the V1. If you will note in that thread you linked to, that the poster noted that the V1 wasn't that much different from the 8500. I'm not interested in laser as noone around here has that, and I'm not really interested about hiway driving around town or in the city. I'm worried about the county roads around where I live. Cops like to hide in peoples driveways and you can't even see them till you are right up on them. As long as I know 1000ft ahead of time, it's not too hard to slow down from 60-45 really quick. I see that most peeps don't know anything about the K40 or don't like it so I think I'm going to go with the 8500 and it's $30 hardwire cord. The same setup from Valentine would cost me $110 more, and IMO all I'd be paying for is the fancy displays. It's not that I'm against the V1, I'm sure it's a great unit, I just don't want to spend the extra money right now. Here we go again...OBX and Comptech

 

Can you elaborate on that? Is it purely for the distance or is there more?

 

no k40, i've had a few friends w/ it and they didn't like them, they all ended up buying V1's.

 

Fuzzy, would you mind elaborating on why you switched as well?

 

Oh, and scrib...didn't mean to come off as an ass, sorry.

 

V1

 

The main thing I noticed was the distance. I never had the 8500 notify me as far ahead as the V1 has before. I know there are a lot of factors like line of site, etc. that can affect a detectors performance, but the V1 just seemed to work better in my area.

Also, and this may sound dumb.. but the combination of the bogey counter and arrows makes a difference. For example... I leave my V1 on all signals.. so I don't filter X. There's a shop down the street from my job where the X always goes off, so I don't worry about it. Well, one day instead of going off with a one.. it was with a 2.. but both were X band. I thought it was wierd so I slowed down. As I passed it I saw a cop hanging in the parking lot of the shop. Just when I was going to speed up as the arrow indicator went behind me (since I passed the cop)... the counter went to 3 and pointed straight ahead with the stronger signal... so I kept it slow.. and sure enough... there was another cop using X-band about 30 yards past the other cop. The comination of the bogey counter and arrows pointed that out. Any other detector would have just been chirping and I would have thought it was the shops alarm, not realizing two cops were clocking with X-band as well. Little things like that makes it worth it to me. Getting caught once can be the difference between the cost of an 8500 and the V1. Don't get me wrong, I was never caught with the 8500 either... but the V1 just makes me feel better

 

It's all good...

I'm having a REALLY bad day.

 

buy the Bel Vector 985

for a good report on all detectors go to
www.speedzones.com

 

ooh i havent been there in a year, new radar guns look scary

 

pro, if u don't want to spend the extra loot go w/ the 8500. I was tickeless w/ the 8500 for 2 years. and I loved the auto mute.

Had the auto mute under the ashtray and the radar mounted on the windshield next to the A pillar

 

if you want laser protection then also invest in the escort laser jammer and u can use it w/ the 8500.

 

Totally true, I love my 8500 2. The effectiveness of radar detectors may depends on where u install it. I hardwired it right below the blue strip tint on the windshield. For 2 years now, no problem, it always warns me 1 mile or so ahead to allow me to slow down. Only one time I got hit by a instant on, when I saw the cop, my thing went off like crazy, but it was too late. I don't think V1 can deal with it anyway. V1's arrows is a nice feature, but somehow, I just can not justify for the $ extra.

 

proaudio22 -
The K40 RD850 appears to be nothing more than a numerical upgrade to the previous RD650VG-2. I see nothing on their website that indicates there are any major changes to the previous unit ... no cosmetic changes, no functional changes, nothing obvious. I currently use the RD650VG-2 - transferring it between cars - and it has never let me get into trouble. This doesn't mean it doesn't have some flaws ... I believe it falses far too much. There are a few overpasses on I-695 around Baltimore which will trigger the detector each/every morning on the way to/from work, and the big orange roadside construction notices --- even when turned off --- will cause the thing to go off even when there are no messages being flashed. If one gets comfortable in disregarding these "known" spots and there happens to be some cop using radar in the area, you could get caught. So, even though the RD650VG-2 has never failed to let men know if there was a cop in the area, it does have a major shortcoming as far as I am concerned wrt the inordinate number of falses (and this is even after getting my 4 yr old unit updated with new guts for ~ $85 just over a year ago). I can't comment on your other consideration, but I don't think I'd consider the newer model unless the people at K40 can convince me that it is that much better than the unit it replaces. I might give them a call and if I could upgrade the 650 and get the 850 guts at a much reduced rate I might consider it, but I don't know if I'd consider buying a new one based on over 5 1/2 years of using its predecessor. for what it's worth

 

proaudio22

I switched just to try the V1 since I heard so many good things about it. Turned out to be just a small $$ upgrade cause I sold the 8500 on ebay. I really don't see much difference in detection, The V1 may have a little better distance. However the features are very different, & why I kept it. The directional arrows that tell you where the radar is coming from is so helpfull.

 

V1

It has excellant resale value too.

 

Get the 8500. Have used both V1 and 8500 and performance is very similar.

 

Although the V1 and 8500 performance is similiar, the Arrows on the V1 make it MUCH better!

Also, with the V1, you can get the remote display and pretty much hide the main unit behind the Rear View mirror making it much less visible.

Spend the extra $$ on the V1......you spent the money on a nice car, you might as well get the best detector on the market.

 

Buy the 8500.

Very good detection and minimal false alarms in the city. I have also hidden the 8500 behind the rearview mirror, it comes with a mute button on the car adaptor so you don't have to reach up there. for V1, you have to buy that extra also for like $40.

 

Let's be realistic here, they are both great detectors and will protect you better than most others products available.
You be hard pressed to tell the difference from a performance standpoint.
Buy whichever one fits you're budget.
I own the 8500 and it's great.

 

Get the 8500. Have had mine for a long time now and love it!