Celica Forums General Discussion General Radar Detectors

Hey, i was wonderin...are there any good but cheap radar detectors on the market anywhere?? All of them i see are like over 200. Do they really work all that good? Will cops think your speeding if you have one? I know they are illegal in some states, but im in Texas. Please tell me if yall know of some that work well and are not too expensive. List websights if you can. Thanks

you can't get a good one for cheap...if you want it to work, then you have to pay.

yup no such thing as good AND cheap
personally if i was a cop i would think you speed a lot if i see you with a detector i mean why do you need one if you dont

2 nights ago i was coming back from Harlingen in south Texas and i was with my friend with a Cooper S and we were both doing about 100 in a 65, he had a Corbra radar that cost him about $100 or so, but it was the best Cobra radar and i have a $300 Passport 8500...so anyways we are both speeding and then out of nowhere my starts going off with a K band which those are Highpatrols down here, so i let off the gas and give my friend a flash with the high beams but like usual he says his radar is better and keeps goin, i backed off till @70 and way further up ahead i see cop lights turn on and the Cooper getting stopped , plus he almost got arrested because we were in a construction zone but the cop was cool about it. When he got home he callled me and i was pissed and told me the radar went off and he started slowing down but didnt have enough time to get to speed limit. Soo the more you pay the better detection you get

Got some typos, but "Highway Patrols" and "he" was pissed not me

kinda proves my point...
detectors = people tend to speed

Definately don't go cheap if you plan to buy a radar detector...

Go with a Valentine One, or Passport 8500

I see the weirdest cars with radar detectors, i see these huge ass suv's and pickups that arent even modified... though i do see the common eruo import with a radar detector... i had a cobra brand new last summer, and now i have a Passport 8500, best i have ever used, and i got it used (i bet it was stolen) but it only cost me 50 bucks at a pawn shop...

You can find good deals at pawn shops... lol!

Yeah, if you're going to get one, get a good one. I have a Cobra that cost a little under $100. I wish now that I would have just got an Escort for a bit more. Mine does pick up legit speed traps, but it doesn't always give you a ton of warning. Also, you can't disable the damn X-band alarts, which mean jack out here in SoCal. Everytime that I drive by a McDonalds the thing goes off.

You can't go wrong with Valentine one But it will cost a little more than $200...maybe you should try looking for a used one on ebay.

Alright thanks, i think im gonna go with the valentine one. I went to the website, it seems pretty nice...it has a back attenna which is nice too. Thanks for the posts.

i got one of them whistler ones that one of my freinds gave me..i think it works ok..too bad it just doesnt tell if theres a cop around..thats only bad things about them i think..

What do yall think about passports? I think valentine ones are a little too expensive. If yall have one, do yall think it works pretty well? or is a valentine one like supremely better then the passport.

I got one and its level is like the Valentine, IMO its better because its prety much the same thing and its cheaper, i have the Passport 8500 and since i got it luckly (dont want to jynx it)i haven't gotten a ticket. Highly recomend the radar, you will be happy if you buy it

Here's what I don't get...

I have a radar detector I never use anymore. Why? Pretty much 100% of the cops here in Atlanta all park and use laser. I went for well over a year without that thing going off. Then it went off once. As I was being shot with the laser. Yeah, that helps a lot.

My question would be, since laser is just about all that matters anymore, are there good detectors that will detect laser well in advance? And I'm not talking about it sensing somone being shot two cars in front of you either. I won't bother unless I can get one actually worth using.

The Valentine one detector has to radar antennas and two laser sensors as well. One is at the front of the detector while the other antenna & laser is at the rear, thus scanning all around your car and precisely locating each radar threat. Got that straight off the website. Check it out yourself.

Yeah, then it can tell you all kinds of nifty information, like from *which direction* the cop who's going to pull you over is shooting the laser.

Yay.

I guess there's simply no such thing as a laser detector that gives advanced warning considering it all works on line of sight. All it takes is one car, hill, tree or overpass to break that, and then the best detector in the world hanging in your windshield guarantees you only one thing: a nice loud beep to let you know you're going to get pulled over.

Hmmm. I don't know about those. Kinda pricey.

I've got one that I won at an auction in highschool, and I think it sells for a little over 100 dollars. Works great. Picks up everything from the auto doors at the malls and shopping centers, and it has never failed to detect a cop using radar.


If I wouldn't have gotten the thing for free, I probably wouldn't have gotten one at all. It's kinda hard to miss a cop, unless you aren't looking for them. I always see the cop before my radar detector goes off.