2008AudiA8L

Wireless devices would be ideal and a time saver. The running of the cabling from under the hood to the inside cabin was pretty quick on the A8. If you take out the plastic inner fender in the left wheel well there is already a wire harness running along the back of the fender there that you can tie wrap the radar wiring onto. There is also a rubber grommet you will find behind there for running the wires inside the car. I always like to run my wiring alongside existing harnesses so that they stay safe when you have your car in for servicing. Neatly run wires are much less likely to get pulled apart by a mechanic.

Mcoupefan

You get what you pay for...I have a Valentine V1 installed in the same spot that Brozee did his, and wired it same way too. I used a fuse blade tap to piggy back off one of the fuses (dont recall which but can tell you if interested). Turns on when the car starts. I actually had the remote display down by the HVAC stack, but ended up removing it because it was out of line of sight. V1 just came out with a pretty cool gadget, Savvy, which essentially powers the V1 off the OBD port plus gives you the ability to mute at specific speeds. One of the biggest PITAS with he V1 is driving around town with all of the X and K band alerts (shopping malls, etc) check it out. http://www.valentine1.com/savvy/

As an aside, I wouldn't be caught on the road with another detector. The V1 was a bit more expensive, but it has saved my *** so many times it's paid for itself 10 times over. Just my opinion, Im not looking to start an RD war. One downside versus the installed kits is no laser jammer.

FlyTyinFool

While researching radar detectors recently, I found the merits of the jammers totally debatable.

Can anyone speak directly to their experience with jammers?


Carry on...

Brozee

From my experience of driving the past 6 years with my radar detector. I have been hit with a laser signal a total of 4-6 times. One, yes one, of those times it was actually aimed only on me and I was never pulled over, just quickly slowed down. The other times the laser was directed at someone else in traffic or behind or in front of me and I picked up the signal and slowed down.

Having a custom system installed does improve the distance your radar picks up the signal by an amount, but if that amount is worth the extra 500-1k that is up to you. As you said you drive quite a lot, you can still hide the unit and have amazing performance over the competition without getting a system installed. But it is up to you senor, your never invisible no matter what detector you get; still comes down to common sense and smart driving.

I use a escort 9500ix, as a previous poster stated he had the valentine V1, which is an exceptional radar detector and has the best pickup distance of all of them (hand in hand with escort's new redline). I returned the V1 due to the amount of false alarms though, even with the new add on you still experience the falses all the time. I love the 9500ix with the built in gps filter. For your daily commute or common driving places it will block out all the falses and still provides amazing distance, only second to the V1 and redline, but were talking half a second roughly of difference, if that in certain scenarios. Go with whatever you like! On my commutes though I don't hear the radar detector ever go off unless it is a real threat, or someones POS radar detector (cobras!!) is leaking signal; which very rarely ever happens.

Good luck!

K9COP

.. but any cop with half a brain cell (that'll be me then... not sure where the other half went) will use a radar detector ( I have a Valentine 1) to pick the best spot to sit up among the falsies and malls (following an 'S' class Mercedes/Jag XJ with radar cruise control is a particularly effective cloaking device...) and await Joe 'never had a brain cell' to blast through and 'ker-ching' the radar in the cruiser. Any idiot cop can get 'collars' that way. Get a proper job.. and yes, catch criminals...
Now, I don't agree with getting caught without sport, but if you are stupid enough to get caught, and you're driving like a douche, you only have yourself to blame. If you let me get in traffic behind you, and you drive like an idiot, you deserve to get caught. Fair game I say.
False alarms are a pain, but are they all false? Nope

You don't like it? Talk to the dog, I'll pop the door so she car hear you better.

Education, education, education people..

K9

Mcoupefan

amen brother! RD's are a tool. Situational awareness is paramount. Rely solely on the tool and then YOU become the tool.

Funny aside that has nothing to do with the thread at hand. As told to me by a good friend who flew the missions as a naval aviator: In the early 80's pilots in his squadron flying the Libyan no-fly missons used to velcro the original Escorts in their cockpits as early warning for some Libyan SAM activity. whodathunkit.

mishar

I heard from quite a few guys calling RD's Ticket Detectors. Hope they worked better back than in Libya.

A8 LOOONG

My K40 Calibre rocks! It's saved my hyde more than a few times. I put on about 20k miles per year so I need protection from the revenue generators. Driving like a douche in and out of congested traffic is nonsense. I like to know when the road is 80% open I can stretch it out a little and cut those long trips a bit.

It was installed by the dealer in 2007 and upon visiting their home office in Elgin, IL they inspected mine and mentioned the new ones are virtually the same as mine. Other window mounted versions can take firmware updates. Cool huh? I have one of those too as my portable unit but it's older and works fine.

I can attest to the Calibre's laser jamming. I see that about once every two months. Otherwise it picks out radar so far ahead of me I have plenty of time to slow down.

pmdeaver

I've had the same the luck with my window mounted Escort Passport. It seems to know eerily way too soon (which is a good thing). Each time it goes off, I'm like, "how the heck can this pick that signal up that far away?!?" It'll go off, and a mile later I finally see the trooper.

Definitely worth the money.