I did an extensive side by side comparison of the Valentine 1 and the Escort 8500.
The ergonomics of both units were good. The V1 has a problem with the windshield mount not releasing well so you have to undo the suction cups to remove and hide the unit when parked. The Escort windshield mount is excellent, but you have to bend the metal bar to adjust to your windshield. You only have to do this once though and the release mechanism is first class...easy. I often will pop it off and slip it in my pocket so I can leave my convertible top down without worrying that it will be stolen.
Volume of both were excellent. I like the Automute feature on the Escort which lowers the warning sound after a few seconds so you don't go crazy with beeps and braps. The V1 requires you to manually press mute.
The V1 has direction arrows. I found these often very confusing. Radar bounces all over the place and I often had arrows pointing in all directions at once. Both units require you to become familiar with the pattern of warning signals to verify real threats vs false alarms. I almost always can tell where radar signals are coming from with the Escort using pattern recognition. Even when I had the V1 telling me where it was coming from, I responded no differently than had I been using the Escort....I slow down until the radar source stops.
Speaking of false alarms. The V1 falsed approximately 10 to 1 to the Escort. I had one strip of road where the V1 did not stop beeping for at least 2 or three miles....all falses! It did somewhat better on the logic modes, but still much worse than Escort. Escort has an Auto mode which automatically sets filter to city or highway and this mode reduces falses to nearly zero. When you get a warning, its usually the cops (except x band...some falses here and there). The bogey counter was more of a distraction than a help on the V1. The Escort has "expert meter" which can also track up to 8 radar signals and show the strength of them all. On the V1, the strength of only the strongest signal is shown.
The band is prominently displayed and lighted on the Escort, but the V1 only lights a dot next to the printed band on the front. At night, you can't see this and have to rely on the different audio tones, which are sometimes confusing, especially in the case of the V1 when a new audio alert anounces all the multiple bogeys (usually all false alerts!)
Escort trounces the V1 in instant on Ka band when the V1 is set to full logic (which I had to use due to the constant falses). The other bands are maybe slightly less sensitive than the V1, but x is almost always false, and K is also often a door opener. The fact that the V1 falses so much, it desensitized me to the point that if a real radar threat occured I would probably ignore it until it was too late!
Both units have good programability, but you need the manual for both. I like the Smart Cord for the Escort much more than the remote for the V1. On the V1 you can't have both giving alerts at the same time, where on the Escort you can have them both or just the remote.
The Escort is a hundred dollars less ($140 if you include the remote on the V1, the remote is included with the Escort). That is a lot of cash, which if the V1 was so significantly better then the Escort would have been worth it. But the way I see it, the Escort is the better product. The only way I might recommend the V1 over the Escort is if you do 100% rural, highway driving, in an area where x band is still in use.
The Car and Driver report did not take many of these issues into account in their scoring. I have seen other reports and they all use different measuring techniques and scoring. The V1 may indeed be slightly more sensitive than the others, including the Escort, but at a very high price with falsing. The Escort may have a slightly lesser range, however it is more than adequate for most purposes. You can't forget that there are instances where you will get a ticket with any detector! There are planes clocking you overhead. There are clock type VASCAR units that do not emit radar and there are new radar devices that are supposedly unable to be detected by radar detectors!! Laser detection is virtually useless on all the detectors. You may have a 1 in 5 chance in detecting laser before its too late....maybe...
For those of you who love your V1, I would recommend keeping what you have. Its a good radar detector if you are used to it. If you are thinking of buying one, don't go by any one or the many reports out there which places one over the other. There are about as many who rate V1 higher as there are that rate Escort higher. For me, I rate the Escort higher based upon the above findings and not just on the slight differences in radar sensitivity. I packed up my V1 and sent it back yesterday. I don't think I would use this detector if you gave it to me for free!...(IMHO) I'm heading to Best Buy tonight to pick up my second Escort 8500. I will probably be giving one to each of my son's for their birthdays coming up in the next few months as well. As long as I am still the guy who pays for their speeding tickets, I figure its a good investment......:nixweiss
H
The ergonomics of both units were good. The V1 has a problem with the windshield mount not releasing well so you have to undo the suction cups to remove and hide the unit when parked. The Escort windshield mount is excellent, but you have to bend the metal bar to adjust to your windshield. You only have to do this once though and the release mechanism is first class...easy. I often will pop it off and slip it in my pocket so I can leave my convertible top down without worrying that it will be stolen.
Volume of both were excellent. I like the Automute feature on the Escort which lowers the warning sound after a few seconds so you don't go crazy with beeps and braps. The V1 requires you to manually press mute.
The V1 has direction arrows. I found these often very confusing. Radar bounces all over the place and I often had arrows pointing in all directions at once. Both units require you to become familiar with the pattern of warning signals to verify real threats vs false alarms. I almost always can tell where radar signals are coming from with the Escort using pattern recognition. Even when I had the V1 telling me where it was coming from, I responded no differently than had I been using the Escort....I slow down until the radar source stops.
Speaking of false alarms. The V1 falsed approximately 10 to 1 to the Escort. I had one strip of road where the V1 did not stop beeping for at least 2 or three miles....all falses! It did somewhat better on the logic modes, but still much worse than Escort. Escort has an Auto mode which automatically sets filter to city or highway and this mode reduces falses to nearly zero. When you get a warning, its usually the cops (except x band...some falses here and there). The bogey counter was more of a distraction than a help on the V1. The Escort has "expert meter" which can also track up to 8 radar signals and show the strength of them all. On the V1, the strength of only the strongest signal is shown.
The band is prominently displayed and lighted on the Escort, but the V1 only lights a dot next to the printed band on the front. At night, you can't see this and have to rely on the different audio tones, which are sometimes confusing, especially in the case of the V1 when a new audio alert anounces all the multiple bogeys (usually all false alerts!)
Escort trounces the V1 in instant on Ka band when the V1 is set to full logic (which I had to use due to the constant falses). The other bands are maybe slightly less sensitive than the V1, but x is almost always false, and K is also often a door opener. The fact that the V1 falses so much, it desensitized me to the point that if a real radar threat occured I would probably ignore it until it was too late!
Both units have good programability, but you need the manual for both. I like the Smart Cord for the Escort much more than the remote for the V1. On the V1 you can't have both giving alerts at the same time, where on the Escort you can have them both or just the remote.
The Escort is a hundred dollars less ($140 if you include the remote on the V1, the remote is included with the Escort). That is a lot of cash, which if the V1 was so significantly better then the Escort would have been worth it. But the way I see it, the Escort is the better product. The only way I might recommend the V1 over the Escort is if you do 100% rural, highway driving, in an area where x band is still in use.
The Car and Driver report did not take many of these issues into account in their scoring. I have seen other reports and they all use different measuring techniques and scoring. The V1 may indeed be slightly more sensitive than the others, including the Escort, but at a very high price with falsing. The Escort may have a slightly lesser range, however it is more than adequate for most purposes. You can't forget that there are instances where you will get a ticket with any detector! There are planes clocking you overhead. There are clock type VASCAR units that do not emit radar and there are new radar devices that are supposedly unable to be detected by radar detectors!! Laser detection is virtually useless on all the detectors. You may have a 1 in 5 chance in detecting laser before its too late....maybe...
For those of you who love your V1, I would recommend keeping what you have. Its a good radar detector if you are used to it. If you are thinking of buying one, don't go by any one or the many reports out there which places one over the other. There are about as many who rate V1 higher as there are that rate Escort higher. For me, I rate the Escort higher based upon the above findings and not just on the slight differences in radar sensitivity. I packed up my V1 and sent it back yesterday. I don't think I would use this detector if you gave it to me for free!...(IMHO) I'm heading to Best Buy tonight to pick up my second Escort 8500. I will probably be giving one to each of my son's for their birthdays coming up in the next few months as well. As long as I am still the guy who pays for their speeding tickets, I figure its a good investment......:nixweiss
H
