Radar detector - installation cost

[E90potentialbuyer]

I have been doing some research into radar detectors / jammers. I don't like the cigarette lighter plug-in ones given the wires and annoying sound (does not go with the interior) and are not that good apparently? Seems like Escort Passport 9500ci is one of the better ones for laser and traditional radar?

Questions
- anything better than 9500ci in market?
- asked my dealer and he said an outside installer will come in and install it but didn't give price. Any idea what this thing costs installed? Looks like the retail is 2000 but people have said that 1200-1300 is doable
- is it really that good? I saw a video in M3 forum of a guy who tested the valentine one and 9500ci. Looked pretty spot on.

I don't intend on speeding and consider myself a responsible driver. But in a car with this much power, doubt the cops will cut much slack even at 5-10 mph above limit which they otherwise might in a more normal car. So, I'm happy to invest some money to prevent racking up tickets. Thanks

[soooma]

Here 2500$
I asked

[Spinny02]

$849 for bel STiR+ ( best hard wired detector)
$1299 for ALP laser jammer ( best jammer to date)
350-650 for both to be installed. If you mount the stir controller in then rear view then add some $$$.

Good luck

[bronch]

The 9500ci, Bel STiR+ are really good remote units. The V1 is windshield mounted. Now that the 9500i is getting or has already gotten band segmentation and radar detector rejection it is supposedly on par or will be better than the STiR+ at detection speed, false alert elimination and range. (Don't hold me to that) The all seem to flip flop every year or so as far as what's considered better. AL priority seems to be the consensus best laser jammer right now and the Escort ShifterPro on the 9500ci is felt not to be so good. The big complaint on the V1 were all the false alerts and that apparently has been significantly improved with the app YaV1. I don't know a lot about it, it is Android only. I think they are all good detectors and you really can't go wrong. If the 9500i is going with band seg soon that's the way I'm going so I can use Escort Live with it. Which is kind of like Waze, but Waze isn't so popular in my area. Not sure about the install cost yet.

[GladiatorOwner]

Not that it matters to most, the BelStir+ is stealth, the 9500ci is not. Meaning cannot be detected like the redline.

[bronch]

Originally Posted by GladiatorOwner

Not that it matters to most, the BelStir+ is stealth, the 9500ci is not. Meaning cannot be detected like the redline.

The 9500ci is not detectable by radar detector detectors either.

[stealth.pilot]

Originally Posted by Spinny02

$849 for bel STiR+ ( best hard wired detector)
$1299 for ALP laser jammer ( best jammer to date)
350-650 for both to be installed. If you mount the stir controller in then rear view then add some $$$.

Good luck

This is what you want. I paid $2000 for hardware and $700 for installation.

Is it worth it? It depends what your salary is, but at my salary one day in jail is going to cost me a lot more than this entire install.

[GladiatorOwner]

Originally Posted by bronch

The 9500ci is not detectable by radar detector detectors either.

Ooops, sorry for spewing bad info.

[E90potentialbuyer]

Originally Posted by stealth.pilot

This is what you want. I paid $2000 for hardware and $700 for installation.

Is it worth it? It depends what your salary is, but at my salary one day in jail is going to cost me a lot more than this entire install.

Thanks. All good info.

[E90potentialbuyer]

Originally Posted by Spinny02

$849 for bel STiR+ ( best hard wired detector)
$1299 for ALP laser jammer ( best jammer to date)
350-650 for both to be installed. If you mount the stir controller in then rear view then add some $$$.

Good luck

Thanks Spinny

[DrewM5]

Call Todd at Ai Design in Tuckahoe for a quote. (914 779-9000). They will be more expensive than your dealership, but their work is top notch. Your M5 will be one of the least expensive cars in their shop. They have done my E60, Acadia, Traverse and the F10. Tell Todd that Andrew Sherman referred you.

[E90potentialbuyer]

Originally Posted by DrewM5

Call Todd at Ai Design in Tuckahoe for a quote. (914 779-9000). They will be more expensive than your dealership, but their work is top notch. Your M5 will be one of the least expensive cars in their shop. They have done my E60, Acadia, Traverse and the F10. Tell Todd that Andrew Sherman referred you.

Thanks Andrew. My ED is in May with redelivery probably in July? So have a few months but thanks for the info.

[mvigod]

Originally Posted by DrewM5

Call Todd at Ai Design in Tuckahoe for a quote. (914 779-9000). They will be more expensive than your dealership, but their work is top notch. Your M5 will be one of the least expensive cars in their shop. They have done my E60, Acadia, Traverse and the F10. Tell Todd that Andrew Sherman referred you.

I agree. I did alot of research on this and if you are in the northeast Todd at Ai Design is the place to go for perfection install. The jammers have to be installed properly and most shops don't know how to. Ai Design does. He'll be doing my M5 once I get off my ass to bring it all the way up there! Just wish they were closer!

From what people and references have told me he would be trustworthy with any high end car or exotic (ferrari, lambo, rolls, bentley, bugatti, etc).

[E90potentialbuyer]

Thanks guys. Now another question - how would it work in a leased car? If I lease the car, and install something like this in it, is it allowed? Guessing this will need to be taken off upon lease return? Thanks

[DrewM5]

You would need to take it out. But when I sold my Acadia and bought the Traverse, I had them move the system (9500ci) from one to the another and it was a(relatively) affordable way to go.

[E90potentialbuyer]

Originally Posted by DrewM5

You would need to take it out. But when I sold my Acadia and bought the Traverse, I had them move the system (9500ci) from one to the another and it was a(relatively) affordable way to go.

Thanks. Makes sense.

[darkz]

Have been using V1 since my first car, just look how many models Escort had came out since V1 was introduced to the market, and yet with that price tag, you still dont have a direction display on where the radar is coming from. pretty useless in my opinion.

[mvigod]

Originally Posted by darkz

Have been using V1 since my first car, just look how many models Escort had came out since V1 was introduced to the market, and yet with that price tag, you still dont have a direction display on where the radar is coming from. pretty useless in my opinion.

I have 2 Valentines and a Passport Max. Depending if you live in even a moderately populated area or not the Valentine has become almost worthless, even with the arrows. False alarms and multiple bogey counters for non-real threats are constant. When you get a real alert among the 100's of false alerts you ignore it because you don't trust it.

The Passport Max has very few false alerts and marks via GPS and frequency the areas where duplicate alerts are found or where you mark it as false. Again it is rare and a very small fraction compared to the V1 now.

You can see Nick Murray's review of the 9500ci vs V1 here:

This will give you an idea of how the detectors compare.

Regarding arrows, I believe the patent has run out on that so we will see if Escort puts them on new detectors. Their rationale before was you should slow down with any alert so it doesn't matter where it comes from. I would like to see arrows on the Escort products personally.

[darkz]

After looking at that vid, I must say Escort did improve after hundreds of models they have introduced, bravo! for a $2000 piece, I would hope it performs better than the V1, but laser jammer is pretty much illegal in anywhere these days, so if you get caught, your ticket will not just be a speeding ticket anymore.

If V1 ever comes with a $2000 product, I'm sure it will be a better version as well, just not a big fan of those radar companies poping out new models every few month if you know what I mean.

I do like the GPS feature to block off the false alarms, not sure how V1 does it, but I have upgraded mine a few month back, they have a Junk-K fighter feature (just found it off their website), I'm going to turn that feature on and see how it performs.

[bronch]

Originally Posted by darkz

... but laser jammer is pretty much illegal in anywhere these days...

Here in the US laser jammers are illegal in only 10 states.

[E90potentialbuyer]

Originally Posted by mvigod

I have 2 Valentines and a Passport Max. Depending if you live in even a moderately populated area or not the Valentine has become almost worthless, even with the arrows. False alarms and multiple bogey counters for non-real threats are constant. When you get a real alert among the 100's of false alerts you ignore it because you don't trust it.

The Passport Max has very few false alerts and marks via GPS and frequency the areas where duplicate alerts are found or where you mark it as false. Again it is rare and a very small fraction compared to the V1 now.

You can see Nick Murray's review of the 9500ci vs V1 here:

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This will give you an idea of how the detectors compare.

Regarding arrows, I believe the patent has run out on that so we will see if Escort puts them on new detectors. Their rationale before was you should slow down with any alert so it doesn't matter where it comes from. I would like to see arrows on the Escort products personally.

Thanks. I saw Nick's video (that's the one I referred to in my OP but couldn't remember his name). Like Bronch said I know that the jammer is legal in Ny and NJ - two states that I drive in most.

Escort is pricey but it does the job. If it saves me a few $500 tickets and insurance bump, it's worth it (have no points so far). I will call the installer that people referred to here.

From Nick's video seems like Bel Stir and Escort passport are the same things just different names and that escort had more bells and whistles. But looks like people here prefer Bel + ALP combo?

[bronch]

Originally Posted by E90potentialbuyer

...From Nick's video seems like Bel Stir and Escort passport are the same things just different names and that escort had more bells and whistles. But looks like people here prefer Bel + ALP combo?

They are not the same, passport is windshield mounted and STiR+ is remote and more capable. Perhaps he meant 9500ci and STiR. Escort just released an update that gives the 9500ci band segmentation and radar detector rejection. Prior to this, the STiR+ had that (9500ci did not) and it was preferred by many because RDR helped with Cobra radar detector falses and band seg made the RD more efficient at scanning and hence gave faster alerts by ignoring frequencies that weren't used. I think now they are closer than ever. They're made by the same company BTW and that's another interesting topic, lol.