Radar Detectors?

No radar detector in the world would have helped you there.

Rod

 

Look on Amazon, Best Buy, Circuit City. Usually there are people who rate them on how they work for them then check out a few of these sites. I don't own a radar detector anymore. There's not much hope against a laser.

Best Radar Detector Reviews

007 Radar Detectors - Best Radar Detector Reviews and Tests

Radar Detectors Reviews; Best Radar Detector

 

I wouldn't mess with a cheap one. Valentine1 works well for me. With laser your chances are pretty poor.

If the officer was running radar, you would have known and probably not let your speed get away in the first place. Unlike other cars the Prius picks up speed easily on the downhills...and I'm not inclined to allow any regen just to stay near the speed limit, only for safety reasons or the suspected presence of law enforcement.

 

I've had a Valentine 1 for ~10 years and recommend it. Yeah, from everything I've heard, if you get a laser detection, they've pretty much already got your speed.

Too bad it's far outside your price range.

 

Exactly. I frequently drive over the speed limit (I save my mpg's from slow acceleration and predicting traffic lights ahead of time), and I've been using a Bell Electronics 985 for about five years now. It works EXCELLENT, and even after numerous summers of 100degree temps, it still works as well as it did the day I bought it. I highly recommend the Bell Electronics top-end models (not THE most expensive, order-only $500 ones, but the most expensive you will find at Circuit City, which are about $299). It's worth the $300 because you only have to buy it once and it gives you peace of mind. You still have to use your eyes though. The radar detector simply "helps" you. Your eyes are your most important detector though. Always be looking up the road, at the traffic around you, and in your rear view mirrors. You don't have to be obsessive (unless you are doing 100mph), but just be aware of your surroundings.

But in agreement with the post above, don't buy a cheap one! Your original post says "no more than $200," so my advice would be to buy one for $200 then.
And unlike radar waves which bounce all around and can be detected, laser does not scatter around. There is no way to detect laser until it's too late. HOWEVER, if you paint your car flat black, the probability of them getting a reading on you is about 5% or less.

I'll save you some time: Turn the X-band to OFF. No one uses X-band anymore. Gas stations will annoy the hell out of you every time you drive by one. When you take it out of the box and set it up the first time, turn X-band to OFF. Here in California, they pretty much only use wide-band now (Ka-band), so someone that lives in CA can really turn K-band OFF also. I keep mine on because the school-zone signs still use K-band which reminds me to slow down if I'm not paying attention (rare, but it happens once in a while). Also, if you know someone that has a radar detector (maybe the guy that sells it to you), he can help you set it up the first time and it will save you a lot of time. When I look back today at when I first got my radar detector, I laugh! You will get more false alarms than actual alarms, but within a month or two, you will sort them out. Today, it's instinct for me; I just know the difference. Advice I would give you: if you are driving with the flow of traffic and it goes off, do NOT react quickly. Just take your foot off of the accelerator. That's all you need to do if others around you are going the same speed as you. With time, you will learn when to just ignore it or hit the silence button. If you are exceeding the flow of traffic, then downshift (I have a Corolla), but don't cause your brake lights to light up.
Gas stations and grocery stores always cause the K-band to go off (cops in Southern CA don't use K-band anymore). Ka-band, which is what 99% of all officers in CA use almost never has false alarms - which is VERY convenient.

 

The Valentine 1's last a long time, usually longer than you want to wait to upgrade for new tech. I had a second old radar-only V1 that finally died after 8-10 years mostly in the Texas sun, so I paid for an upgrade (replacement at a discount since it was ancient) to it this summer. If you haven't upgraded recently, some unscrupulous officers are now using POP mode which according to the gun manufacturers is not supposed to be used for ticketing (hello southwest Georgia.)

The one advantage I see with the laser warning is that it gives you a chance to lift off or brake before the officer guns you a second or third time for confirmation that he got the one he was after. This will tend to keep you from a more costly ticket or result in a warning unless you are unlucky or surly.

 

The easiest solution is to avoid criminal behavior, like exceeding the posted speed limit. You usually get better fuel efficiency too. It's not like the Prius speedo is hard to see... :car:

 

I have three radar detectors in my drawer. Used to use them before the Prius. Have no more use for them after the Prius. I just go the speed limit and let everyone else worry about the cops. I found out that I can consistently get 50+ mpg just by doing the speed limit and no longer have to listen to my radar detector beep and gurgle at me. I don't even look for cops anymore while driving. Don't care because I'm not speeding so I don't have to worry about it. It's very calming and I find I enjoy the driving much more these days! P.S. Use your CRUISE CONTROL it will keep your speed from creeping up as you drive.

 

Uh, speeding is not "criminal behavior". It's a moving violation.

I have a Valentine 1, which detects forward and rear radar and also has laser (forward only). I found the laser part pretty much useless. It would trip on red neon signs and GM tail lamps (Envoys and Tahoes).

I don't bother with it in the Prius any more. I got it a number of years ago for motorcycle use and to use in my RX-7, not because I sped in those vehicles, but because it was so easy to do so if you weren't watching the speedo. I don't speed in the Prius so I took it out a few months ago.

As for use, it works very well as a "door detector" (automatic doors use microwave detector systems on "X" band). You can turn off each band and laser detection on the V1, but in Edmonton the photo radar uses "X" band.
Other than that the detector paid for itself about 5 times during the time I used it (in the other vehicles). You have to slow down as soon as it starts to trip, giving you several miles before you get to the "trap area". DO NOT use the brakes to slow down. The brake lights are a dead giveaway you have a detector. See below.

I wouldn't buy a $200 or under unit. They just aren't good enough to rely on. The V1 was $300 last time I checked. You can also get remote audio and lights for it, to be more "stealthy".

Be aware, if an officer sees you have a radar detector they -will- look at you much more closely. After all, you -MUST- be breaking the law, otherwise you wouldn't have one, right?

 

In my day-to-day driving, I try to stick pretty close to the speed limit. But even the best of us slip-up and before we know it we're traveling just fast enough to get nailed.

I've got a Passport 8500 that I use mainly for long trips. If you're just keeping up with the flow of traffic on the interstate, its likely that you're traveling well over the speed limit... so it's nice to have a decent detector for times like that.

Here's a site that runs unbiased reviews, including head-to-head tests which pit some of the better detectors against each other:

Untitled Document

Just a side note... if you're consistently driving over the speed limit, no matter how good your detector is, you're eventually going to get popped. It's just a numbers game at that point.

 

+1

It's not hard to watch the speedo while driving. If you don't do it already... start a habit of scanning the vehicle as well as the road ahead and environment around you. Makes you a much better driver.

 

1. It's not criminal behaviour. Speed limits are set too low in many places and therefore routinely ignored by about 90% of the public. 2. I get worse mileage if I follow that advice. Lots of hills around here so staying at the low posted limits on the downhills calls for lots of unnecessary regenerative braking.

And although I'm referring to the Prius above, my all time best Tundra mileage came on long West Texas interstate run at 80 mph--interestingly they've finally raised the limit to that level on that same stretch. Go figure.

 

Quite a few years ago a mail order catalog put their radar detector up against a Passport in a series of controlled tests. Although they showed that their detector was barely better than the Passport (Talking hundredths of a second here), the BIG difference was noticed in mounting the detector up high, on the visor vs. low on the dashboard, much bigger than the difference between the two models.

Since I have had my Prius, I have not bothered plugging it in. I don't drive like that anymore.

 

My friend has a Passport 8500 and swears by it. Might want to look into one of those

 

My last speeding fine was over 3 years ago and I don't have a radar detector. A radar detector wouldn't have worked on the last occasion because I was "done" at a fixed camera site which uses a loop in the road, not radar. Radar detectors are banned here and police have radar detector detectors.

Radar detectors are legal I have been told (not checked myself) in Western Australia. On a recent visit I rode several times in my friends car with a radar detector, I would rather get a bloody fine, what an annoying thing. Only useful for knowing if your near a service station or supermarket automatic door. It would squawk out a warning "beep beep beep, K band" constantly . Why bother?
Slow down and chuck the bloody thing out the window.

 

HackIT, that site is NOT "unbiased." There is a page on the Valentine website where they reveal that the Radartest guy tried, over and over, to get hired by Valentine as a "consultant." After Valentine repeatedly refused, the Radartest guy published his "shootout" and trashed Valentine. Valentine then goes on to discuss how the Radartest "shootout" is unscientific and based on personal impressions.

A much better, and truely "unbiased" shootout, done under controlled conditions was published by Car and Driver. See The Great Detector Test - Radar Detectors/Comparison Test/Reviews/Car and Driver - Car And Driver

 

Here is a chart showing the results of Car and Driver's radar detector shootout. This test is a few years old and the results may be different using current technology.

Full Disclosure: I have a Valentine and think it's great. I've never owned any other radar detector.