I feel like an old man for saying this, especially because I'm far from the oldest guy here, but that radar detector is far from a be-all-end-all to keep you from having a speeding ticket. It will save your ___ if you're smart and you understand how radar/laser works, but most likely if you are thinking that it's a "cop detector" you will find yourself with quite a few tickets anyway. Half of the issues many people buy radar detectors for are things that radar detectors won't protect against, and those same issues are the ones that would've given you a ticket in the first place. All of those issues are due to driver inexperience.

I've got an Escort Passport 8500 X50 now, and at this point it's safe to say that I know a decent amount about how radar travels, the range of my own detector, and just what I might run into on the road. While the Escort has certainly had some killer detection range compared to my old crap Cobra, even it is not right 100% of the time, and I've had police sneak up on me on blind corners or use LIDAR, which you're still fully unprotected against.

Think of your V1 as a warning device, not a device that's going to give you carte blanche to haul ___ on the road. A V1 will not save you from reckless driving, from street racing or "speed contest," or any other such thing. A V1 will not save you from LIDAR. A V1 will not save you period - the only thing that saves you in the end is the ability to interpret the information it's giving you at any given time. Go out on a lot of test runs before you start thinking you can speed. Learn what the detector falses on, what is generally a true alarm, and what kinds of ranges you have in the city or on the highway. Try to find the blind corners in your neighborhood and try to figure out what types of radar the police are using. Once you know what's up, you'll be much better off. Really, the key to any radar detector is that it's meant to help you be more aware. The more aware you are of road hazards (and by that I mean police and other cars,) the better you will be able to move faster than traffic. That's what a radar detector does - allows you to move faster than common traffic with the warning time to fall back in line - not give you the ability to rip down a freeway at 120 or treat the local scenic drive as your autocross circuit.

My 0.02.