RX55 R.I.P

**focalcivic** · 03-12-2008, 06:35 PM

Thanks to a inadvertent find by Viper, I just went to the Bel site and the RX 55 is no longer listed and now replaced with the RX 65 Blue in the professional series.

**LordV** · 03-12-2008, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by focalcivic

Thanks to a inadvertent find by Viper, I just went to the Bel site and the RX 55 is no longer listed and now replaced with the RX 65 Blue in the professional series.

Good riddens....

**happya$$** · 03-13-2008, 10:30 AM

I can guarantee you that the RX55 is NOT in RD heaven but RD hell where it belongs. I will NEVER understand WHY chose to carry the RX55/Bel Express. They should be ashamed of themselves. They are too good of a company to sell inferior RD's

**zr1** · 03-13-2008, 10:50 AM

I've wondered about the RX-55 on the manufacturing/business side of things. Typically it is more expensive for a company to support multiple platforms. While many of their products used the S7/M4 design as they transitioned, the RX-55 was the anomaly. Either they figured they needed something at that price-point/marketing share to justify the extra cost, or the RX-55 was insanely cheap to manufacture in the first place.

Many companies would have taken an RX-65 and gutted features to make the RX-55. Bel did that on the Vector series. Intel's done that for a long time on their chip products. Or perhaps they could have discontinued the Vector 955 and put it in an RX-55 case and called it a day.

Bel's web site still has the RX-55 in some places:

Pro Series page (no RX-55)
http://www.beltronics.com/pro-series.html

RX-55 page (still up if you go straight to it..and they still call it "superior")
http://www.beltronicspro.com/rx55.html

Shop page (still has the RX-55 for sale along with the new Blue RX-65)
http://www.beltronics.com/shop.html

The site is now inconsistent. Either they're in flux, or they made some oversights.

**MEM-TEK** · 03-13-2008, 11:36 AM

They may have made some oversights, but its possible that they are keeping these pages up for a while in order to support their dealers who still have some RX55 inventory left on their shelves. Thats what I would do if I didn't want to potentially upset dealers or lose dealers.

The RX55's platform died a slow death. It was a good platform several years ago, but times have changed. We saw the introduction of the S7 platform followed by the M4 platform. Both have proven to be significantly superior. Anyway, I am glad to see it go too, even if it was a money maker for Bel possibly due to much lower production costs. Thus Escort's and Bel's product lineups have now been "cleaned up" to only offer products which offer truly good to superb performance.

I am beginning to really like John Larson, Escort's relatively new CEO. A good while back, many people here figured that he would be bad for Belscort since he came from the automotive industry. Larson, to his credit, has been busy whipping Belscort into shape:

-- Its obvious now that his first task was to improve customer service.

-- Its obvious now that he is a very "gung ho" individual who has listened to the passion of his engineering departments and subsequently authorized the development of new products such as the STi-R and the 9500ci. The development of the new 9500ci definitely was a major endeavor. Aside from using the 9500i's GPS module and the STi's antenna, the rest of the 9500ci components and firmware are completely new designs.

-- Its also obvious that he and his staff do monitor this forum on a regular basis. A lot of us asked if and when the STi-R might become available to the North America market. They listened and now it is.

-- Larson must have used an original Cincinnati Microwave Escort or Passport, and was very fond of using these products. Why do I say this? Just look at the new ZR4 laser shifter product. Supposedly this product, included with the 9500ci, will sport the name "Cincinnati Microwave". It that cool or what? This makes me wonder if Larson is indeed truly nuts about radar detectors like the rest of us here.

-- Larson seems to have largely settled the feud between the Escort and Bel engineers. The engineers now seem to work as cohesive group for the development of new products.

Thats my two cents worth, based on what I have observed over the last year or so.

**focalcivic** · 03-13-2008, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by zr1

I've wondered about the RX-55 on the manufacturing/business side of things. Typically it is more expensive for a company to support multiple platforms. While many of their products used the S7/M4 design as they transitioned, the RX-55 was the anomaly. Either they figured they needed something at that price-point/marketing share to justify the extra cost, or the RX-55 was insanely cheap to manufacture in the first place.

Many companies would have taken an RX-65 and gutted features to make the RX-55. Bel did that on the Vector series. Intel's done that for a long time on their chip products. Or perhaps they could have discontinued the Vector 955 and put it in an RX-55 case and called it a day.

Bel's web site still has the RX-55 in some places:

Pro Series page (no RX-55)
http://www.beltronics.com/pro-series.html

RX-55 page (still up if you go straight to it..and they still call it "superior")
http://www.beltronicspro.com/rx55.html

Shop page (still has the RX-55 for sale along with the new Blue RX-65)
http://www.beltronics.com/shop.html

The site is now inconsistent. Either they're in flux, or they made some oversights.

Don't forget a few years ago there was the Express series, on the lower end of the radar market, still better than most Whistlers and Every Cobra.

As for the RX55 it is still listed in places for a few reasons, prob. to get rid of inventory. Also, maybe they had alot of M2's horn left, so they decided to to make the RX55 in the first place. I assume the M2 was from the Express series?

EDIT: I just clicked on the link to buy the RX55 and this is what I got:

There are currently no items available that match your selection. Please select from the menu to continue.

**rose1** · 03-13-2008, 07:07 PM

If you look closely at the rx65(blue) you'll see that it doesnt have a rear laser lens. usually, there is a tinted plastic on the right side top of the detector which is the rear laser sensor. Can anyone confirm this?

**focalcivic** · 03-13-2008, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by rose1

If you look closely at the rx65(blue) you'll see that it doesnt have a rear laser lens. usually, there is a tinted plastic on the right side top of the detector which is the rear laser sensor. Can anyone confirm this?

Look up in the thread Mem Tek covered this here:

http://www.radardetector.net/viewtop...995a87a4cc15c1

**rose1** · 03-13-2008, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by focalcivic

Originally Posted by rose1

If you look closely at the rx65(blue) you'll see that it doesnt have a rear laser lens. usually, there is a tinted plastic on the right side top of the detector which is the rear laser sensor. Can anyone confirm this?

Look up in the thread Mem Tek covered this here:

http://www.radardetector.net/viewtop...995a87a4cc15c1

Thanks

**ViperDom** · 03-19-2008, 05:57 AM

u guys are looking into it Too deep,

my theroy (based on economics and production experience) is that they simply had a buch of M2's left over from the last series.

Its a combo of Inventory, FIFO (first in first out), and LIFO (last in last out). they have to get rid of all the product to make the most money. this is buisness.

My beef is that they shoulds have put the M2 in the 'bottom' v940 model rather then puting it in the 55 and fooling newbs like me when i bought mine.

Like i said though, my rx55 is fine in my fiances car as it provides sufficiant alerts when used. To me detection range is somewhat overrated. As long as i get an alert in enough timeto slow down for the LEO then i am happy.