Escort Passport 9500ix Radar/Laser Detector

I was taking a 4000 miles trip with my new sports car and thought a new state-of-the-art radar detector would be a useful things to have, and the 9500IX looked like the best of them based on reviews, etc.

So after the trip, I have to report that even though it’s technologically advanced, from a practical perspective I found it useless, and frustrating to drive with.

As I said, I did about 4000 miles - from southern California up through Nevada, Oregon and Washington to and around British Columbia, and back. About half the time I was on freeways, but lots of 2 lane roads as well. Even with Escort’s GPS and the database (which I did update before leaving), the false positive rate was still over 99% - I lost track of how many times I stopped passing another car because the detector went off, only to figure out it was just another false alarm. Particularly annoying was getting warned about red light cameras (presumably on nearby intersections) when cruising down the interstate at 70 MPH. There ought to be something to figure out that I am on the highway, and not give me those warnings.

Worse though was the fact that the false negative rate was over 95% - when there is a police car with a cop inside by the side of road watching me, and the detector gave no warning. I realize that the police are probably using instant-on something or visual estimates, and its not the detectors ‘fault’, but if I have to rely on my eyesight and reaction time, why bother with a radar detector and the gazillion false alarms? I must have seen 40-50 police cars in various places on this trip, and only got advance warnings of 2 of them, one of which was monitoring the other direction, and the other was out of the car with flashers on, both were very visible. So, the detector never helped me in the entire trip. The detector did pick up a couple of oncoming police cars on the interstate, but went off when I was like 100 yards away, which I know from experience will get you a ticket if you are over the threshold.

Particularly alarming was the time I was about a quarter mile behind someone, we were both going pretty fast up hills, and I see a cop on a motorcycle at the side of the road and then see him pull out behind me. He went after the other guy and pulled him over, narry a peep out of the detector. Was there a laser blast just before I got there? I don’t know, but it sure made me realize the detector was not helping a lot. And the time I came whipping over the top of a hill to see a state police car sitting in the median. Again, nothing out of the detector, and I braked quickly, no ticket, but another loss of confidence in its usefulness.

The only thing the detector seemed to be good at was picking up those fixed speed signs that take your speed and warn that you are going too fast into a reduced speed section (like for sharp curves) and ought to slow down. It would warn about those a mile in advance, so I would slow down way in advance for something that looked like a real radar trap, only to find out that it was just an unmanned warning, and that I really had no need to slow down at all. After a dozen of those, it just became one more frustration rather than anything that was useful. And then if there was another of those signs further on for oncoming traffic entering the zone, the detector would send another false alarm about that one too.

If I had to say something positive it would be that there is a button on the AC adapter plug to mute the alarms, which makes its easier to turn off false alarms than on other detectors I have owned, where you had to reach forward to press a button on the detector itself.

So, luckily I bought this from a local electronics store and can return it. And concede technological superiority to the police.

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