Try spirited driving in narrow two lane mountain roads, you'll see what I mean..

 

You may want to read this... I've been considering getting a detector lately so did a little research and it seems the V1 may be getting a little long in the tooth. The Bel and Escort higher end and even mid range models regularly outscore the pricier V1 in tests.

http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleid=100542

 

great link Ike, thanks!! Makes me feel better about my radar detector.

 

I thought I would way in on radar detectors. I've been running them since the mid 70's when "Fuzz Buster" was the top performing detector. In the early 80's I purchase my first "PassPort" by Cincinatti Microwave. At the time the Pass Port was unstoppable. Then I moved to Escourt. Both exceptional dectors in their time. When Ccincinatti Microwave went mass market and no longer sold exclusively direct. I started looking around again. That's when I read my first report about the V1. Mike Valentine one of the founders of Cincinatti Microwave left the company, spent about 5 years developing the V1.

I'm in sales and make my living driving, usually 40,000 miles per year. So, I depend a great deal on my dectector. I've owned 2 V1's. The first I sold to a co-worker when an upgraded version came out. The second I've owned for 8 years. Once you've been spoiled by the Bogey counter and the direction finder, you'll never accept another brand. A couple of years ago, my 6 year old V1 developed a power short when the unit got hot from sitting in the sun. I returned the unit to Valentine and expected to pay for a repair. Too my surprise, the unit was repaired at no charge and returned to me postage paid. Their customer service is second to none.

With regards to detecting at longer ranges, there is a point of deminishing returns. I've had my 8 year old V1 pick up Ka band radar at distances of 4 miles. What good is picking up a signal at further distances?

A few things to remember about dectectors:
Mount them as high as possible on your windshield
You get what you pay for, true for most things in life.
If you're the only one on the road and your speeding, you'll get caught. Traffic is our friend.
Follow the rabbit ( at a safe distance don't tailgate)

As for me, with over 500,000 miles of service and very few tickets, I'll stick with the V1.

Z10

 

putting it on the left side of the steering wheel works well too and the cops won't really see it

 

WRONG!!!!
a radar detector must be as close to the center of the windshield as possible for optimal coverage.