Okay, I have my new car waiting for me to pick up in september. I am now paranoid about getting done for speeding. I got 3 points back in 1998 which have just come off and i'm worried another load will go back on. I am a careful driver and the only time I knowingly exceed the speed limit is on the motorway, when I will do up to 80 (usually just keeping up with traffic). It would just kill me to no longer be able to afford to insure a car I've literally spent years waiting to get.

To that end, can anyone recommend a good radar detector for use in UK. I've been looking at the Snooper and Beltronics range and found wildly ranging reviews.

It's a Mk2 Renaultsport Clio 172 BTW.

Just watch out that they don't import those (relatively) new blasted radar-detector detector devices from Australia -- nothing is immune to them so far (despite bogus claims to the contrary), and they're showing up around here (Ontario, Canada) in increasing numbers.

Cheers

Radar detectors are legal in the UK. Even better is to combine one with a GPS device (eg. Geodesy) which has a list of fixed speed cameras and mobile camera routes.

Some police forces have spoken out in favour of the GPS devices because they warn you of supposed accident black spots.

Other forces, such as Northampton have a funny idea of accident black spots - the brand new Silverstone bypass has brand new speed cameras installed. What I want to know is was the blackspot designed into the road or was Mystic Meg brought in to predict massive road deaths occuring there?

Gareth (not owning any device, but last weekend I was given a neat "Sussex Safety Camera Partnership" air freshener specifically designed to illegally hang from my rear view mirror)

can anyone recommend a good radar detector

Among the "motorhead crowd" that I hang out with, the Valentine 1 is considered to be completely superior to all others.

tanstaafl.

That's what I've heard as well. The Valentine 1 is the best apparently.

Yup, but you either need a stealth install, or a bigger bag to carry it around with you. But then, I live in a high crime area where I know a $400 radar detector sitting on my windshield wouldn't last six months. Someone on the board had a great M3 install with the unit mounted in the third break light and the display mounted inside the rearview mirror, if you're looking for inspiration.

Matthew

Just add some sticky rubber feet to it, and set it on the dashboard, with a dash-coloured cloth thrown on top if you want stealth. Toss it in the glovebox when not in the car (or into the outer pouch of your Empeg bag).

Cheers

I wouldn't bother with a radar/laser detector as such personally. I have the Geodesy GPS based detector. My reasoning behind this is that I very rarely nowadays come across mobile Gatsos or coppers with handheld lasers. If I do see a mobile Gatsos or copper with a laser it is in a sensible location/situation where I wouldn't be speeding anyway (tends to be just after a 30 or 40 sign entering a village).

The GPS systems work very well, some of the newer ones also know which cameras are uni-directional (my Geodesy doesn't). I want my detector for when I am on a nice A road that I haven't driven before and I want to dedicate my concerntration to getting round the next corner safely, not spend half my effort looking for grey boxes at the side of the road.

I think the general concesus is that laser detectors are pointless without a laser jammer as well. I don't think that the UK police use hand held radar anymore, it's all laser.

Obviously if you live somewhere were they like mobile Gatsos (like Hampshire which has zero fixed Gatsos) then a radar detector might make more sense.

Down South we don't have many of these "camera vans" operated by civilians. I do wonder if the civilians are quite so "fair" about where the choose to set up these vans ?

Forgot to add:

http://www.geodesygps.co.uk/compare-gps-detectors-uk.htm

Also, I think Hugo had one of their new, more complex, RoadPilot devices and returned it because he didn't get on with it. The only two features I wish my Geodesy had are:

- a speed readout, because my aftermarket Momo steering wheel blocks the speedo on my MX5...
- knowledge of one way cameras to further reduce the "false alarms"

like Hampshire which has zero fixed Gatsos

We don't have any Gatsos but we do have seven Truvelos :(

When there is a posted speed limit I always stick to it because mobile speed cameras are hardly ever set up outside them.

My boss recently came back from Oz for a few weeks and, knowing he is a habitual speeder, I told him the location of all seven cameras. The next week he complained that I didn't tell him about the Truvelo about half a mile from our office! He was doing "40ish" in the 30 limit but luckily the next day there was a story in the paper that the police only had two sets of camera equipment, and they weren't in that camera at the time.

Gareth