my Escort 8500 sucks

[kevox]

I just installed it (plug and play = "installed") on Friday right before my 12 hour roundtrip road trip. As of today I have gone by 12 cops and it only went off once!! I even drove by a parked cop at night and the radar never went off until I was about 2 car lengths away from the big SUV! By that time it was WAY too late to slow down had I been speeding.

[BKOLFO4]

Dude, that is a great radar detector. Maybe yours is defective. . .

Read up on how police radar works if you do not know. If the detector did not go off, then the officer never moved his radar from standby to on (assuming your detector is working). They hold the radar on standby until they see someone speeding. That allows them to clock people with detectors without warning.

It is amazng how a good officer can predict your speed. My brother in law is an officer (14+ years). Sitting in his car, he can tell me +/- 1 MPH how fast someone is going before he switches the radar on. I guess when you do it enough, you just learn. . .

Brian

[John]

It could be defective, but I think a problem may exist between the escort and the pedal...and it doesn't involve the car. As was said, not every cop has their radar or other equipment active all of the time.

It is amazng how a good officer can predict your speed. My brother in law is an officer (14+ years). Sitting in his car, he can tell me +/- 1 MPH how fast someone is going before he switches the radar on. I guess when you do it enough, you just learn. . .

I understand this and have seen it done...Still hits a sore spot when someone mentions it though, as unfortunately I have actually had this 'technique' hold up in court against me...

[John]

Double post . . . or . . . omgwtfbbqfpdfth!?!1?

Edit: nope, just a double post...

[kevox]

Dude, that is a great radar detector. Maybe yours is defective. . .

Read up on how police radar works if you do not know. If the detector did not go off, then the officer never moved his radar from standby to on (assuming your detector is working). They hold the radar on standby until they see someone speeding. That allows them to clock people with detectors without warning.

It is amazng how a good officer can predict your speed. My brother in law is an officer (14+ years). Sitting in his car, he can tell me +/- 1 MPH how fast someone is going before he switches the radar on. I guess when you do it enough, you just learn. . .

Brian

EDIT: I forgot to mention that it's not just an 8500; it's the more advanced 8500 X50!
It better not be defective; I got it on ebay and left + feedback already. But I don't see how it could be; it does afterall give me warnings and whatnot...today it went crazy - rang like a house phone- I looked at it and it said "LASER" so what is a Laser radar? Is that like the kind that you drive by on the road and sometimes it has a big digital display telling you how fast you went by their detector only without the detector in this case? Maybe like the ones in NFS: Most Wanted where you drive past certain spots in the city and it tells the cops how fast you were going so they know to look out for you?

That's crazy that your friend can guess within 1mph though! I woulda thought +- 5mph would be as accurate as you could possibly get.


Still, it stands that the one cop in the big huge SUV was parked on the side of the highway at night time yesterday and my radar didn't pick it up until
a) it was far too late
and
b) I had already seen him.
Something's not right there ... I mean why would he park there and leave his radar on standby? I'm sure he had it on the whole time.

[NDGeist]

That's the reason for the standby mode, so that your detector doesnt let you know ahead of time. That's it's exact intention.

[John]

I looked at it and it said "LASER" so what is a Laser radar? Is that like the kind that you drive by on the road and sometimes it has a big digital display telling you how fast you went by their detector only without the detector in this case?
. . .
Something's not right there ... I mean why would he park there and leave his radar on standby? I'm sure he had it on the whole time.

No offense, but do a little research and get yourself straightened out, there is plenty of material out there on this subject.

[kevox]

No offense, but do a little research and get yourself straightened out, there is plenty of material out there on this subject.

wow, I'm sure there is but I didn't think anyone would mind posting 1-2 sentences to let me know what it was real quick...

[BKOLFO4]

I will warn you. Radar detectors are an easy way to get a ticket. They are good for running around 10-15 MPH over the speed limit in with a group of people running fast that do not have detectors.

Instant on K band can be turned on before you have time to slow down more than 5 MPH.


Laser is what it says - they use a laser bea to calculate speed. Laser will not go off until you are hit. . . .too late then. The can hit the car next to you, and your detector will not go off because it is a small beam. Only good laser story I have seen is my buddy at work. He got hit by a laser going around 80 in a 60. The officer was standing on a bridge with the laser, and there were 3-4 police cars way up ahead pulling people over as the officer with the gun radared. Without the detector going off, my friend would have never seen the officer on the bridge, but since the detector went off, he looked up and saw him talking into his radio. He slowed down to 15-20 MPH and waited as he saw one of the "pull over" cars come out on the road to get him. He stayed way behind the officer still going very slow, waited until the last second, and took an exit. The officer was too far up the road to take the exit, so he hauled butt. I told him he was lucky, because the officer on the bridge normally has a camera to take a pic of the license plate, but he never heard anything so it worked.

Brian

[kevox]

Oh dang, what a story! I'm surprised they didn't turn around to chase him for going 15-20 in a 60 alone, let alone 80 lol.

That really sucks that the laser detector doesn't go off until I'm hit. So is laser when the cops are aiming that big "gun" looking thing at cars monitoring their speed? Cause both times now when my laser alert has gone off I looked around and couldn't find a single cop or cop car anywhere and there were no overpasses or anything around.