V1 3.861 - First Impressions...

[XOR]

I received my V1 3.861 version this week and have now spent a few days with it. I purchased this after selling a V1 from around 1998 and regretting it after getting a photo radar ticket.

Here are my impressions so far compared to my old V1:

1) The range seems about the same as the old detector. I don't notice too much difference yet.

2) The new Junk feature is really nice. My old V1 would false Ka alert whenever a junk detector was around. So far I've had two Junk alerts that lasted a second or two before being ignored. Each time after the alert I saw the car pass by with a cheap looking detector in the front window. With my old detector I'd have to wait longer to figure out if it was real or not before continuing.

3) The unit is about 1/4" slimmer compared to my old unit. It doesn't seem like much, but it seems less obtrusive to me.

4) The new unit has 4 LEDs to depict the band being detected. My older detector had one LED in the main bogey counter window that blinked at different rates to show the band. The good thing about the older style is I could always tell at night what band being detected if I had a hard time hearing the difference in the tones. The good thing about the new LEDs is that each LED will light up for each concurrent bogey band being tracked. I think I like the newer version better. It's nice to see a K and Ka band indicator at the same time for instance.

5) Had one radar trap so far and it worked well. I was driving into town on a 50MPH road and about 1/2 mile away down in a valley (!) I got a single K band brap that disappeared suddenly. As this is a country road there is no reason for any K band to be around. When I came up on the town limit it drops to 25 MPH suddenly. I saw a car ahead of me and then I got full K about 1/4 mile away from town. By the time I saw the speed limit sign (I was driving the limit) I was hit full blast by the police with instant on.

As I drove by my V1 was still giving K band rear alerts as the officer hit other cars. This continued for about 3/4 mile or so as I went down a hill. The front and rear sensitivity was very good. Also the arrows and bogey counter are indispensible. They are really what makes this radar detector so special and they've saved me many times in the past.

6) The cable, 12 V plug adapter, direct wire adapter and suction mount seem better than my old unit. The longer coil cable is a really nice addition and makes it easier to use in my other vehicles.

7) I ordered a remote display but don't think I'll use it. It looks to be of very good quality and the ability to put it on the lighter adapter for hidden indicators is a really nice feature.


Overall I'm very satisified with this new unit. I haven't owned it very long, but I like the whole package slightly more than my older unit.

As I use the detector more I'll give some more reports. I'm looking to get some laser speed traps, but that's just a matter of time around here. If you're thinking of getting this detector I don't think you'll have any regrets.

[bauzer71487]

Great review and its awesome you've already come across some saves with it!

[XOR]

Great review and its awesome you've already come across some saves with it!

One of my better saves (I have many) with my old V1 detector that shows the usefullness of the bogey counter and arrows:

There was an access road near me off a highway. You had to drop from 65MPH to about 40MPH on this road very quickly. The police always liked sitting on these roads because they knew highway drivers wouldn't slow down in time.

One night I'm driving down the access road that I'm very familar with. I always knew that a Target store on the right would give me four alerts on the V1 because of their door openers. This night I got the usual four alerts with the sideways arrow and then suddenly I got a fifth K band alert pointing straight ahead. The V1 was blinking the forward arrow to let me know that this new threat was the most serious.

I immediately slowed to the speed limit instead of coasting to slow down as usual. There were two police in the parking lot runnng radar and pulling people over. I wasn't one of them!

I probably would have ignored my old Non-V1 detector in this case because of all the false alerts I normally received at this location. The V1 indicators and bogey counter really paid for themselves.