Since you seem to know the truth, here's a little more of it. Craig (owner of radartest.com) and Mike Valentine have never gotten along. Craig's V1 reviews are to be had with a grain of salt because he is incredibly biased towards the V1 and isn't likely to change no matter what. Check out the radardetector.net forums sometime and you will see Craig's name and hatred for the V1 mentioned from time to time.

I trust unbiased, independent reviews. Search the net (and automotive publications) and you will find many of those as well.

 

The truth is that Craig Peterson who runs Radartest.com works for Bel and Escort as a paid consultant.

Check this thread because he (Craig) tries to defend his "independent" review of the STi against the V1 and he gets ripped to shreds by everybody because of his lies.

http://www.radardetector.net/viewtopic.php?t=20201


It should come as no surprise that if you go to this Beltronics link:

http://www.beltronics.com/quotes.html

You will see that 4 of the 7 positive reviews came from radartest.com which is Craig Peterson's misinformation dump and 2 came from Speed Measurement Labs. The last review came from the Georgia Tech Research Institute in a 2002 test that was funded by....drumroll please....Beltronics. :lol:

 

So guys I'm really thinking about buying a radar detector. I had my mind set on the V1 but now I see this new thing. All I care about is sensitivity and that the thing beeps when there are cops around because I REALLY don't want to get a ticket. I don't really care about laser that much since I know it's a b*tch to detect and I'm not planning on speeding on the highways. I just love to push my car, so I get to 60 mph or so from light to light, which could get me in a lot of trouble in these 35mph zones. So should I still go for the V1? Or do you think the 9500i will have better detection?

 

What makes you think laser is used only on the highways? <hint>

 

I doubt that they use it here in Iowa much, especially on the roads I drive on

 

"Doubt" is a bad word to use when what's at stake is a hefty ticket

 

Ok so what's your point? Both radar detectors i'm talking about have laser detection and I wasn't even asking about that. Forget I said anything about laser. I just want to know if the 9500i could possibly be a lot better than the latest version of V1 in terms of detection. I just don't want a ticket. Also, would this new version of the escort bring about a new version of the V1? Should I wait?

 

My point? Addressing your point, that's what. Isn't that why you posted?

Anyway, look at the specs closely on that unit and the V1. They aren't even remotely the same. V1 uses no GPS, this one does. So it isn't exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. Whether that capability useful to you, only you can decide.

So which is better...way too early to tell, wouldn't you say? And for whether V1 will be updated...Mike V is a mad scientist who updates his product constantly for emerging threats. People who bought a V1 10 years ago can still get the software updated today to become "the latest"; no other detector can claim that. But will Mike add GPS functionality to V1? Your guess is as good as anyone else's.

 

I'm holding out for one of these

 

time to save up.

Off-topic, but does anyone know how to recalibrate the Escort 8500? I've gotten that message a few times already, don't know how to do it.