Anyone Hardwired Radar Detector To Rear View Mirror In 2014 Model?

[spaulhus]

Without a 12V power receptacle (outside of the center console), I need to hardwire to rear view mirror for a clean look...

Thanks

[JJFranco]

I am fortunate enough to live very close to Escort Radars. I went to the showroom and picked up a Passport Max and the hard wire kit. Took it to Lexus and they installed the cable, out of sight coming out of the cable cluster cover behind the rearview mirror. Only charged me an hours labor. I do not regret it!

[LEX-SV]

Wow, sounds like a nice setup in the IS350.

What's your opinion of new Max detector?

Also, do these things have any useful detection of Laser?

[JJFranco]

Sorry it took me so long to answer but I have been extra busy. The setup is amazing! The Passport Max is without a doubt the best radar detector you can buy. I have already detected well over 20 cops many of them in POP and in LASER! If you are planing to buy a RD that one is the way to go!

[LEX-SV]

^ Thanks for report.

[13IS250C]

Another option is a battery powered Escort. Hubby and I both have one. Love it and I can mount it anywhere I want.

[JJFranco]

Another update here on the Passport Max... Yesterday it payed for itself :) I was speeding (I mean 80 in a 35MPH back road) cop behind the bushes about half a mile down the road, very hilly, gave me a full alarm. I stopped with plenty of time, not even a bad look from the officer!

[13IS250C]

I can't understand why anybody would drive without a radar detector. Even if you aren't a die-hard speeder you can ease up over the limit. I have been saved lots of times. Last speeding ticket I had was 1977.

Glad you were spared.

[LEX-SV]

Keep those reports coming on Max detector, around here everybody drives 10 over, but laser is feared still...

[VBdenny]

I've had several Escort detectors, including the very first. Buy a Valentine instead, you will love the arrows and there is no better detector.

[LEX-SV]

Since laser is so hard to detect with any detector (in time to be useful that is), the Passport Max does offer another tool to improve awareness of laser traps by getting feedback from other users that have passed through laser zones.

PASSPORT Max is compatible with ESCORT Live, exclusive real-time ticket-protection network, which warns you of upcoming alerts received and reported by other users in the area, and gives you access to local speed limit data for over-speed alerts. (Requires Optional SmartCord Live and app subscription)

Anybody using this yet?

[13IS250C]

y'all are too fancy for me. All I need is a beep!

[VBdenny]

Oh no. Beeps only are terrible things as they contribute to make you begin ignoring beeps. I had the first Escort and Passport and they are top of the line detectors. The new feedback thing is interesting. Wake app has a live cop feature as well but like anything else, you only need to miss one to spoil your day.

Just drove from Boston to Syracuse in search of snow, and found it. Not much radar on 90 today.

[LEX-SV]

Good point about too many false beeps leading to bad endings.

Until some company improves laser detection (it will probably have to be derived from something that's military grade), the feedback thing from Escort is interesting.

[13IS250C]

I always wished someone would come up with a detector that would send its signal through the radio. Sometimes I'm playing my radio too loud to hear the beep.

[VBdenny]

I seriously doubt there is any way to improve laser detection simply because until the beam is transmitted, there is nothing to detect. If (IF) you are lucky, you will detect a scatter beam of another potential victim before you are locked on.

There is a wide variety of laser jammers which intercept the beam and send back two signals, one at a very low speed (maybe 5mph) the other at an excessive speed (a few hundred mph) which confuses the computer and prevents a speed display. I suppose kind of like the military might use to jam tracking signals and such. They work well from what I have read however they are illegal in most states as (unlike a detector which is a receiver) the jammers transmit a signal.

The deal with LIDAR is that you can NOT prevent getting caught unless you have a clear line of sight.

[LEX-SV]

^ Yes, most of us know all about that, it's the same excuses radar detector companies have had for years and therefore cannot grow business significantly. Laser jamming is another technique, that for all practical purposes might as well be considered illegal in all states that matter. Laser is growing in use in the states with most cars, so the technology must improve or face a EOL situation/slow death with its detector products. The business always has been and always will be in a technology race.

And big budget US military pushes the technology (at considerable/outlandish cost at first) to break through the old barriers again and again. Some of that technology trickles down to common consumer products on the shelf today.

So maybe Escort as it advances its solution as counter-measure to laser with the feedback tools to take input from other users and laser hits on others, (plus laser scatter eventually) to tell of locations of upcoming speed monitoring activity will be the winner eventually. Probably the biggest advancement in the business for a decade, hope it continues to evolve.

[VBdenny]

Certainly with the evolution of the technology, both them and us will have better equipment. The traffic app WAZE often shows locations of cops and sometime descriptions of what they are doing. In my truck I have a good old fashioned warning system from other drivers, that being a Galaxy 949DX CB. Pretty good for traffic, weather and cops.

[13IS250C]

Breaker breaker good buddy.....you got your ears on?????

[LEX-SV]

Roger that, always good to monitor and observe those monitoring us.

[VBdenny]

Ha. Had my first CB in 1974. I only use it in the truck because putting a CB antenna on a Lexus would be .... Well, can't quite think of the word? Years ago they made what was called an "In-tenna" which went inside the windshield. Performance was poor so they never caught on. When my friend Jim bought a new 1983 Cadillac Fleetwood Broughm de Elegance the radio had a built in CB. Of course he also had his ROTARY dial, car phone. A radio telephone if I remember correctly, prior to cell phones.

[13IS250C]

Yeah, a CB antenna on a Lexus rates right up there with big plastic eyelashes.

I had a friend that was the original owner of a '78 silver anniversary Corvette with a factory CB radio. He wouldn't even discuss selling it to me. Of course, those Vettes were POS!!!!!

[LEX-SV]

Lol, but I am also not fond of cars that stink of fibreglass/plastic in the summer and rattle a lot.

[13IS250C]

They were slow too.

[VBdenny]

Got that on correct Becki.

Had a guy who had a new corvette, mid seventies. Think it had 165 hp and wouldn't even do a burnout unless you power braked it wicked hard on wet or gravel. They get more horsepower out of a 1.6L engine now.