Thinking of getting one,many people here use them,and is there anything I should watch for like features.Thanks

Yeah make sure they detect radar and laser. Usually they always have radar but make sure you get lasar too becuase if a cop is using laser a radar detector wont pick it up...

Alot depends on how much money you're willing to spend in order to save a ticket!

I'm running two, front and rear now. Defenite benefit. The best I've owned is a Bel. Check 'em out. Very impressive little sucker. I run that one up front.

Yeh I got Whistler'* in front and havent hooked the one in the back yet. Well worth it sepcially for me with 8pts on my licence

My front whistler died, but I'm still running one in the rear. My current Bel has a much better detection range than either whistler (but the whistlers are still great detectors). The rear whistler will still pick up radar from the rear slightly sooner than the Bel'* rear range, but the Bel covers the front better then either of my whistlers did.

Bel is pretty much the most expensive of the 'affordable' off the shelf units. Valentines are the steepest.....and a friend of mine just traded up from an escort to a Bel. He sez the bel is better (slightly).

That'* true. You basically get what you pay for. In performance and in features. I'm still using a Passport 5000 that I bought a long time ago and I'm SURE the technology has improved in the past few years. Still, it does the job quite well. Recently I got a warning I never saw before. The display said "Emergency Vehicles". I never saw any Emergency Vehicles so I'm not too sure what/where the detector picked up that signal.

That'* a good way to go. I know the Valentine detector tells you where the radar is coming from. But if I get a new detector, I'll recycle the Passport to the rear.

Ol' Timer, that Emergency Vehicle warning is KH band. They use it now for other things besides cops, ambulances, and fire trucks.....it can be a road hazard, accident, dense fog, whatever. All they have to do is put a KH transmitter up, and it'll tell you what'* up!

The newer detectors, like my Bel, will tell me what TYPE of hazard. They encode the KH signal with another code that the recievers (detectors) can decode. It'll scroll across my screen : " * - i - n - k - h- o - l - e"

I've thought about it, but decided not to bother. In my few years of driving I've rarely gone less than 5mph over the speed limit. I go maybe 60 in a 55 all the time, sometimes a bit more. On the thruway is another story. Let'* just say I'm pretty lucky I haven't been pulled over there!

But I always am looking for cops in my rearview or on the side of the road, I'm never NOT looking out. I've seen cops up ahead before, so I just slow down. So far it'* worked out for me. I've gotten 2 bogus tickets, the most recent for going 55 in a 40. But the cop was a good 1500 feet ahead of me when he supposedly clocked me speeding, a ricer passed ME (I wasn't racing him, that'* why) so I just plead not guilty and got it dismissed. No pts on my license.

Sometimes I have fun with 'em. If I'm next to a cop at a red light, I hit the gas hard (without squeeling the tires) at the green and fly ahead, but slow down when I hit the speed limit. There'* nothing wrong with accelerating fast.

I'm sure it wouldn't be a bad investment though. My luck may run out soon enough

It'll come in waves. You'll go a couple years getting lucky, then get hammered two or three times in one year. The stupid thing is, a detector is cheaper than a ticket in most cases.

My detector tends to keep me a bit 'safer' than I would normally be. Keeps me more aware of my driving in general.

I say that my radar detector keeps me AND the police honest. I try not to speed(10 mph over the posted limit) but sometimes you travel into an unknown speed trap and thats where the detector might save your hide. The only thing that it can't detect is Instant On or Lasar. However, as long as there is someone in front of you when they fire their Lasars, you are ususally not the one targeted. May the Force be with you, my friends.