I plan to buy a radar detector soon and while I do not speed that often(yet) I was wondering really how effective is a radar detector? The 04 TL just by looking at it looks like a fast car and my guess would be young kid + fast looking car = cop magnet. Beaverton, Oregon is swamped with cops and has one of the biggest traffic police forces in Oregon. I think a majority of police in this area use laser and I have heard that once your hit with laser, your gone. So I was wondering if any of you speeding experts can tell me how I could drive around and not worry too much about being hit with a ticket; i.e. being careful, etc. It might seem like a stupid question but a speeding ticket worries me.

Please don't turn this thread into something about my age or a moral issue about how speeding is wrong.

Thanks in advance.

 

don't buy a radar detector, it will give you a false sense of security. and yes most cops use laser and you will get nailed, and when using radar they dont just leave it on pointing it randomly, read: your radar detector wont go off until they turn it on and point it at you=too late for you. just use two things to avoid getting pulled over:

1. common sense. don't speed around town and in residential areas or areas where you couldnt see a cop coming or hiding.

2. open your eyes. when you're busting ass down I-5 keep your peepers looking at rest areas and behind those rows of bushes, that's where they hide!

And remember in Oregon most cops will let you have about 8mph over the limit before they nab you.

 

Get a radar detector.. but that doesn't mean you stop scanning for police.. for the most part, laser has to hit you dead on, so the cops are usually in plain sight when you get nailed by laser. That, and get a Silver car.. i swear to god they're invisible.. it's a double edged sword though.. cuz ppl always try to merge into my lane and almost hit me

 

If you can afford one, get it. Also, if the radar detector saves you more than once, it will pay for itself.

My Escort saved me from getting a ticket many times. So I know its worth it. =)

 

Get one and use it. I have one but I turned it off after I got off the highway the first day I had my car... I got a ticket 20 minutes later from an in town cop .

 

I just put in a Passport SRX remote radar in my '04 TL. I really like it. Previosly I had it in a '02 GS300. It has saved me more than once.

 

Ive owned fast BMW's for a few years and as almost all owners know, a Valentine-One Radar detector is something you buy when you buy the car. These work the best, they detect radar front sides and back of you. You still have to use common sense, and be careful. Mounting is critical, it has to have a clear view in front and out back to work best. I moved up here to Bellevue WA, a couple of years ago from California, and cannot believe the amount of radar detection going on, dont these people have anything else to do?? In California where I lived for 35 years, I never, repeat, never worried about radar because they dont use it much, if at all. Oh, yeah, and the speed limit of 75 on I-5 there really means 85-90+ in the open. I have people pass me all the time and Im doing 80.. I have 2 Valentine-1 Radar detectors for my wife's car and mine. You cant go wrong with their product, they upgrade them and charge very little for things like that. Again, be careful, dont speed anyway, dont exceed the limits of your experience, tires, road conditions, etc.. If you ever get to California, you will think you died and went to speeding nirvana DanF

 

These may seem obvious, but here goes. These assume you've got a detector.

When in residential areas, don't speed alone. Police have too many areas to hide in. Speed limits change frequently in towns. When you're all alone, you have nothing to gauge that an officer is around and there's nothing stopping the officer from noticing you from far away. So you'll be speeding along, he'll aim his radar or laser, then turn it on, your detector goes off and it's too late.
If there had been other traffic nearby, he'd have had his radar going longer before locking in on you, which would give your radar detector time to warn you. You've got nothing in these cases to save you from laser other than a laser-jammer.

On highways, don't lead a pack of cars. At least around here, there's a grouping efffect on highways. As in there's a huge group of cars and then a short distance ahead of them is another group. In this situation the officer will radar or laser an oncoming group. You're detector will catch radar emissions well in advance of you (probably from one or two groups ahead). Even your laser detector will be useful here, because you'll at least have a chance of laser reflections being available to be detected. This is only useful if you're not the first car in the group. If you are the first car, then you'll provide the early warning detection to the rest of the group, way to go, buddy.
At any point when you make it to the front of a group, gun it and get to the next group as fast as possible. When in between groups your detector can warn you of radar, but not laser. Also you'll be doing well over the speed limit, so you're going to get a ticket if caught. Also, before you get ready to speed forward to the next group, make sure there are no highway on-ramps or obvious places that can hide police. Last thing you want is to be revving up to 120mph past an on ramp while a state trooper is coming onto your highway.

Also, never speed late Friday or Saturday nights, Police are usually out in force trying to stop drunk driving.

As a final note; I don't consider myself a speeder, in town I do the limit or 1 to 2 miles above it, on the highway I keep up with the leftmost lane. I still get speeding tickets. I also don't use radar detectors. I am over 30, and drove an unmodified Saturn SL2 when I got all of these tickets. I've gotten two tickets on the mass pike(65mph) near the Natick exit. Normal traffic speed in the morning is 80mph. One ticket was for 76mph, the other for 79mph. Both times I was the lead car in a group by accident, the officer was parked in the shade of an underpass. I do beleive that each time a few of the lead cars pulled out of the left lane due to their detectors going off. My other ticket was in a confusing 35/40mph highway through town. He says I was doing 47, I contest that I was only doing 42, doesn't matter it was supposedly in a 35mph zone. I'm going to court over this one next month.