Q: What is a Yankee?

A: It's like a quickie, but you do it yourself. (Sandy Alomar did own you in the '97 division series, though)

Seriously, you gotta love V1s. I have an Escort 8500 and have no complaints about it, but if I had it to go all over again, I'd have gotten the V1. I think I got the Escort because I work for Best Buy and got a fantastic discount on it.

 

Bah, '97 was a bad year in Yankeeland

The directional arrows on the V1 are worth the price of admission alone. I saw an Escort Cordless model (the ones with terrible range because they rely on batteries) for like $330 at Best Buy...Gee, an overpriced Escort with no range or a V1 for $70 more? So hard to decide. The 8500 is a great detector, but those arrows man...:fawk:

 

Excuses, excuses.... we were the only team to keep you out of the World Series from 1996 untill last year..... that is an accomplishment (ha, ha.... you lost to the flukes, er, Angels in 4 games). And we were the only team to beat you at all in the 1998 playoffs. Sooooo, if it wasn't for the damn pinstripes, WE would have been the team of the 1990's. But as for the detector, I know a few people at work with V1's, and they all swear by them as well. Mabe after I buy the house I can justify cashing out another 400 smackers.

 

Man...v1's own for sure!!

Dave

 

i wouldn't trade my 8500 for anything. i don't need arrows to know there's bacon frying up ahead :rick:

 

But what if it's night out and it's coming from behind? You wouldn't wonder why it was beeping so much and why it didn't stop? Or if there are multiple radar traps in a small area in different directions...those are nasty. C&D says the V1 has about equal range to the 8500, and I'll never drive without those arrows now that I've owned them. Please don't point out radartest.com...it is run by an extremely biased person whose idea of a perfect radar detector is one that talks to you and has loud volume Mike Valentine denied him a job because he sucked, so he went to Escort and has hated Valentine ever since.

 

And here's a little tidbit about Valentine himself..... he started out as an engineer for Escort about 25 years ago, and he himself helped design the original Passport model. But Mike also had some advanced ideas for detectors, and decided instead of submitting them to his parrent company which MIGHT give him a token bonus, he quit Escort, took his concepts and pattents with him, and started his own company. There really is alot of Escort-based circuit concepts in a V1. But Valentine was wise enough to pattent and hold secret his own designs, mainly the arrows, and the bonafide rear sensor (the 8500 only has a reflector and a signal amplifier directed to the front sensor for the rear "sensor", while the V1 has two sepparate sensors on sepparate circuits).

 

Ok, so I am a noob with these things but which is better? Passport 8500 or V1? I hear V1 is better laser wise but PP8500 is better with everything else...

Is this true?

Which is REALLY overALL best? I dont care about arrows, but wana get moneys worth, and right now someone offered me a 8500 for like $220, but if V1 is better I would go for that cuz not like I wana wast money, I wana get the best you can...

Also is the v1 reprogramable like the passport? and how do they reprogram/ update them and how often?

I feel like such a noob...

 

What an idiot. Didn't even break in his Porsche. Deserves to get a ticket.

 

Well noob, it depends on what your definition of better is. The 8500 has better radar range from my extensive research, but the V1 has better laser (but that really doesn't matter anyway...Unless you catch a lucky ricochet, you're ****ed with laser. Luckily, I've encountered it only 5-6 times in my 2 years with the V1). The 8500 has more features (mostly BS), but the V1 has those damn arrows. It is so important to be able to tell where the radar is coming from. You're never gonna get a V1 for $220...new is $400 and used is above $300. They are the best and everyone knows it. You will care about arrows once you use the 8500 for a week and you start to regret not being able to tell where the radar is actually coming from...it happened to my friend. He took it back and bought a V1 after using mine for a day. The V1 is not reprogrammable perse...instead, you send it back to the company and they update it for a fraction of the price of a new unit. To get my 2 year old model updated to 2003 spec (smaller case, slightly better lidar and radar range) I would be spending around $150. Not worth it for me.

Passport: Better features (but I don't really want it talking to me and I don't care how many false alarms I get if I know where they're coming from), smaller size, lighter, better radar range

V1: Better resale value, better aesthetics (IMO, I think it looks far more masculine and purpose-built), better lidar range, those arrows have saved my ass many a time.

Just let me tell you this: I've had it for 2 years and go 15-20 MPH over the limit usually. Read my story about me going 138 and getting saved from a ticket. I've gotten one speeding ticket since I've owned a V1, and it was because my 12V outlet fuse blew and I was doing 60 in a 45 (I thought it was a 55...damn bastards). Luckily it was in Ohio, so NY doesn't give points from that state. Insurance stayed same, $250 was all it took.

Supposedly Mr. Valentine is very close to a Valentine Two...I don't know if it's a year or two or four away, but if you buy one now and he comes out with a new one in two years you'd likely only have to pay half price for it if you trade in your current V1. www.valentineone.com is a great site. C&D has ranked the detector #1 for a long time and it has kicked all of the competition's ass.

Chris