17 responses so far ↓

• 1 Gump

  This clip holds the radar detector fine. It doesn’t move or flop around which is a plus. I was a little concerned that I would lose some of the radars functionality since the bubble that detects signals from behind is covered up, but it still works great.

• 2 Dolby

  Excellent visor clip. Holds radar detector tight to the visor. I would recommend this visor clip to anyone.

• 3 Ju

  Does the job well and keeps the detector cool and out of the direct sun.

• 4 Vernon

  I’ve used a 8500 with a visor clip on my 2004 suburban since new, and the detector works flawlessly up there. Couple this with a direct wire cord either to the fuse block or the powerport on the rear view mirror and you have a truly built in look. I laugh when I see people with the suction cups and wires going all over the place. What a mess !! 2 other reasons to use a clip:
  1) my neighbor who is a police officer has told me that it REALLY irritates him when he pulls over a car and their “fuzzbuster” is in plain view stuck to the windshield. Any hopes of getting off with a warning thereby go down the drain.
  2) thieves see a detector stuck to the windshield and SMASH, its stolen !!

• 5 Sahakian

  I couldn’t find this clip in any local retails stores so it was nice to be able to just add it to an Amazon order. Price was average, but at least they had it. It allows easy mounting to visor, which works as well or better than dash mounting.

• 6 Beegle

  I have been using the Escort C-65 for a month now and the performance has been great. The dsiplay is simple and easy to read, and the voice feature is helpful in keeping your eyes on the road. Minimal false alarms, even in the city, and the long range has saved me more than once. The Smartcord is cool as it has the mute button on the cord, so when it does go off, you can simply reach down and mute it without the reach to the window. Very happy with the unit and would recommend to friends.

• 7 Eldridge

  This is my first radar unit. I do a lot of highway travel in Arizona. Unlike some of my friends that have detectors I do not consider myself a “speeder.” However, in Arizona, the common practice on the highway is to drive at least 5 to 10 mph over the speed limit. There have been times I’ve been driving at 80 mp only to notice someone right on my bumper, who will then give you a dirty look or the one finger salute when they pass you at 90. Drive at the speed limit in Arizona and you’re setting yourself up for a road rage situation. I’m not saying that you should drive at an unsafe speed just because other people are. My point is that just to keep up with traffic you have to go somewhat over the limit.

  I’ve had this detector for about a month now and have been satisfied with its performance. It has warned me several times when a cop with a radar gun is ahead. I don’t think laser has really caught on in this state so I do not know how well the laser detector works. Arizona has a lot of “photo radar” locations and I know people that have bought detectors after getting caught with photo radar. What they do not realize is that the permanent photo locations use sensors in the road to detect vehicle speed. A detector is useless. The movable photo radar vehicles do use radar though.

  Pros:
  * The unit, while a little on the heavy side is fairly compact.
  * The display is very bright and easily readable day and night, even with polarized sunglasses.
  * The volume is adjustable and when set at high is quite loud. My hearing is not that great and it is fine for me. My daughter even tells me to turn it down sometimes when she is trying to listen to music on her headphones in the back seat.
  * There are various detection modes and options that you can set. However the “autodetect” mode works very well.
  * The smart cord is very handy if you have the detector located somewhere hard to reach.
  * There are a lot of nice features which you can read about in the product description which I won’t repeat.
  * It comes in a nice carrying case and they provide extra suction cups.

  Cons:
  * The manual, while fairly well written, is dated. It describes the Safety Warning System (SWS) as a new technology that is growing every day. However, SWS was started many years ago and never caught on. It’s my understanding that the company that create SWS declared bankruptcy a few years ago and almost no agencies use SWS anymore. The SWS website the manual tells you to go to is gone. I have never had a SWS alarm and don’t think it’s used anymore in Arizona.
  * Every time you power it on it goes through a start-up mode and sounds off all of its various alarms. It’s very annoying.
  * While the display is very bright, the red alphanumeric display reminds me of old technology… something you’d find on a 20 year old LED wristwatch. I’d prefer amber, green or blue.
  * In Phoenix the detector sounds off , with a low grade signal, when approaching many traffic lights. They must have radar emitting detectors set up for red light cameras and to detect traffic flow. There is probably a way to program the detector to ignore these. However I get a lot of false alarms at many major intersections. This is not really a con of the unit,it is doing what it is supposed to. Just a negative of using detectors. You will get false alarms at times.

  Overall I’m satisfied with both the performancea and feature of the unit.

• 8 Ham

  This is a very good unit!!! I have an issue with the sound though. I have an RX55 and the sound on that unit is loud. The sound comes on loud enough for the alert, however you can’t hear the verbal announcement. The unit is fairly heavy also. Little pricey as well. Some better units out there for less money.

• 9 O'Bryant

  Actually, this is my first review I have ever written for anything else. I have owned couple of radar detectors before (Omega Japan, which is mainly oriented for Asian market and Cobra XRS 9330). Both of them were pretty good but
  were very much sensitive to false signals like X band, KA bands.
  I bought Passport 9500i three months ago and it turned out to be the best radar detector comparing to the ones I have owned before. There are
  a lot of cool features like ‘true lock’, ‘mark location’ which uses GPS technology,’speed alert’ etc. It has very long range of detection for x-band signal as well.
  But…there is big drawback! This radar detector has absolutely NO reaction against so called K-pulse signal used in Russian radar guns like Iskra-1, Berkut, Vizir etc. These radar guns are becoming quite popular in Russia and in some
  former USSR countries. So my review is basically oriented for customers from Russia.
  I would probably put six stars for this product if I lived in United States but in the country where I live, this radar detector has become pretty much useless!

• 10 Eastland

  The 9500i works pretty good except on laser speed units. With laser it just tells you that you can prepare to get a ticket. I works pretty good on radar if you can manage to keep it stuck to your windshield.

  What would seem to be a fairly simple problem Escort is not willing to address. The unit weighs 8 oz. It hangs from your windshield with 2 small thin cheap vinyl suction cups for only a short period of time. A hot day will have your 9500i bouncing off of your dash and falling to the floor; so will a cold day. Over a few weeks the cups start losing their ability to hold the detector to your windshield and it falls on the floor. I have tried proping it with the rear view mirror or spraying the cups with hair spray (a customer support suggestion) to make them hold. This works for only a little while. Customer support will send you a dozen or so suction cups if you talk to them; sales is only too happy to sell them to you without even telling you to go to customer support. They will also sell you a visor clip but the 9500i needs to be positioned so that the top of the unit has an unobstructed view of the sky so that gps satilites can comunicate with the unit.

  All of the buttons controling the unit are on the top of the unit and not visible to the operator. So now it up to you to try to remember which button does what. Good luck. Or fumble around trying to remove the unit and put it back so that you can read the buttons.

  It appears that Escort/Passport is trying to live on their laurels and fails to address some vary simple issues. I would look around for a company more concerned with addressing their customers legitimate complaints.

• 11 Poe

  Waste of money and time. All the positive reviews have to be employees. This radar detector is the worst thing I have ever bought. I have had it two weeks now (unfortunately not returnable). There are soooo many false alerts, it will drive you crazy! You don’t get 5 minutes of peace and quiet. Who wants a radar detector that picks up EVERY signal in the vacinity. And you can’t block false alerts, after a point it just tells the device to ‘mute’. then it comes back in 3 minutes, until you unplug it. I think it was invented and sold by the police dept, because there are so many false signals you just end up ignoring it, so you will never know which one was in your path. Save your money, time and peace of mind.

• 12 Paulsen

  I am a veteran user of radar detectors (this is my 6th). This unit is by far the best one I have owned. It is feature rich and includes things like adjusting the volume of the alert based on the ambient noise inside the vehicle so you don’t miss alerts. The ability to turn all the lights on the detector off at night while still receiving alerts on an LED mounted on the power cord (audible alert also still goes off). That eliminates everyone knowing you have a detector at night. Support for all bands used in the U.S. including POP radar & laser detection. It allows you to use GPS to mark speed traps, school zones and red light/photo camera locations. The detector will also increase the distance you are given to respond when entering the area of a marked location based on your speed. The faster you are going the more distance given.

  It is not necessary to mark locations on routes that you travel frequently when there are false alarms. Once you enter an area 3x and receive the same alarm on the same band at the same frequency the detector recognizes it as a false and blocks out that false alarm in the future. Here is the cool part it will still recognize a change in frequency and/or band from the same location (police) and then alert while still having blocked the false alarm.

  I love this detector and I would only ever consider getting rid of it to go one step up to the 9500ix model. I live in a state that doesn’t use red light cameras or photo radar cameras (I’m in Michigan)so not having the ix doesn’t hurt at all for me. I don’t run redlights so I’m not worried about those even when I travel which is often. This detector can be updated easily with a usb cable and a laptop. It will also allow you to back up your marked locations onto your windows based PC (doesn’t work with a Mac).

  The most important thing for any radar detector is how much time does it give you to respond to a real alert. There is no problem in that area. This thing has range. Just put it on automatic and let it work. It will automatically detect your speed and increase the sensitivity of the detector. Slow down and it also dials down the sensitivity. This gives you range when needed and not a ton of false alarms like other detectors (ahem, cough cough VALENTINE!!). Did I say this doesn’t give you a ton of false alarms.

  This detector is well built and nicely packaged. It comes in a black hard case that is covered in a rich looking vinyl with a molded velvet interior. It comes with a mounting bracket that is very easy to use and an additional set of suction cups. It has a coiled cord with an additional mute button on the power cord along with led’s there for when you turn off the lights on the detector at night. The owner’s manual fits right in the top of the case. It’s very easy to put in and take out. I put mine in the case and lock it away or take it with me when out of the car.

  I bought this on clearance from the evil Best Buy (lol). It was on clearance for $360.00. I also had a $10.00 Reward Zone certificate so it was 350.00 for me. That was $100.00 cheaper than I could find it anywhere else. If you don’t have one of these get one especially if you can find one that cheap!

• 13 Ibarra

  I have owned this product over a year and used it occassionally on long drives. Last week of June I went long driving and on an isolated highway in Wyoming I got pulled over and cited for speeding. The passport 9500i was on the windshield all this time and did not even make a single sound or any indication that it picked up the radar of the trooper. I asked the trooper to validate what equipment he used and it was radar not laser. If it was laser maybe that would be an excuse for the company that makes the radar, but it’s an old device and my very expensive detector did not do a darn thing to warn me. DO NOT BUY , DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS PRODUCT.

• 14 Curren

  If you have an Escort or Bel radar detector with a SmartCord, this is really your only option to hardwire your detector without losing your remote display and mute button.

  The wires are long enough to route across the headliner, down the A pillar, and to your fuse panel. I was planning to put this in my center console, but the wires weren’t quite long enough for that.

  Escort makes two very big assumptions with this cord:
  1) You want to splice one of your 12V wires
  2) You know how and where to locate a 12V wire in your vehicle’s electrical system

  In my case, #1 wasn’t true, so I opted to use a fuse tap instead of the included wire splice. If this is what you want to do, too, you’ll need either the Wirthco 30001 Fuse Tap Kit, or if your car uses mini fuses (like mine does), the Wirthco 30800 Mini Fuse Tap Kit. Using a fuse tap, you don’t need to locate or splice any wires — just a switched fuse in your fuse panel (many owners manuals will list which ones are switched).

  Escort ships this with a ring attached to the ground wire, which may or may not fit the location you plan to use as a ground. In my case, it didn’t fit. So, clipping off a bit of the ring was necessary. Alternatively, you can just remove the ring and crimp on one that’s the proper size.

  The part of the the cord that makes it “smart” is where things can get tricky. The power cords all originate in the back, which can make installation difficult if you’re planning on integrating this with a knockout in your dashboard. Escort includes some Velcro for mounting it, but it takes a fair amount of trimming to get it mounted without looking cheap.

  All said, if you’re willing to put in a half hour or so to make everything look nice, and have a very basic understanding of vehicle wiring, this is pretty decent. A bit overpriced for what it is, though.

  A word of warning… there are loads of people selling simple power kits (basically phone jacks with two wires) as the same thing. Make sure you buy from Amazon to be 100% sure you’re getting a genuine Escort product.

• 15 Glazier

  The guy below me, Norman, said exactly what I wanted to say about the product. It is a bit expensive for the simple circuitry (I should have just made one as a EE major…).

  The only thing I want to note is that if you are buying this, you need to access your car’s fuse box. It’s rated at a certain current rating (I can’t remember what, I think its 10 or 15 amps), which means you need to find an open slot for it to work it…

  … If you are like me, and may not have any open slots with this requirement, you’ll need one of these:

  http://www.f150online.com/galleries/images/1408-2028-51119.jpg

  That is called an “add-a-fuse”. It will allow you to plug that into a fuse slot, and piggyback it for your hardwire setup (this way, you don’t void any warranties). This is a less than 5 dollar buy at most hardware stores, I know pep boys has them. It’s worth it to check out your fuse box before you buy, so you can have all the components in-hand when your setting it up (which should take you 5-10 minutes, depending how you want to cleanly run the wires).

• 16 Lindgren

  I bought this to install in my 20007 Subaru Impreza STi. I like how the interface is small, so I secured it where there was room for OWE switches on the left of the dash. The ease of use makes this little puppy well worth not having a stretch cord hanging in front of the window.

• 17 Ceja

  Sorry, but I felt pretty deceived and disappointed when I opened this up. (Quick shipping, however). The picture on Amazon was of an original “EXCORT” brand cord, and yet the price was more reasonable. Words like ‘original’ and ‘Excort Direct Wire SmartCord’ led me to believe this was the real thing, and possibly worth the money, even with the shipping… Not So!! What came in was obviously just another Chinese Knock-off with what I assumed would be the typical cheesy quality of such ’stuff’. I wrote the seller, and did receive a quick response. stated that the picture was something that Amazon controlled, and they would be happy to refund, (but no address was included,) and now there’s still the inconvenience of getting out in Christmas traffic, standing in line at the PO, plus the total shipping expense, plus the time and gas. After re-reading the ad, I still feel taken advantage of by the wording at the time. There is certainly the possibility that the cord will provide good service over time, but one should be aware that what you might believe you’re paying for may not be what arrives in your mailbox.

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