New 8500 X50 Black owner
 

Bought a new 8500 X50 black old stock detector. How good is it for use today ? Mostly wanted for highway driving. Years ago I had a 4500 and was always impressed by it. Good to hear the beeps on start up again...:D

Thanks,

22R

This was a good unit in its day, but you can expect a lot of K-band false alerts owing to Blind-spot monitoring systems and Collision avoidance systems in new vehicles.

It will blow a 4500 away in performance. Unfortunately unless you live in say California where you can turn K band off it will drive you nuts on false K band alerts. New cars have safety systems that emit K band radar, collision avoidance and blind spot monitoring (CAS , BSM).

Escorts newest detectors have an upgradeable filter called IVT that can filter out most of these systems. It cannot be added to the 8500 line which is why it was discontinued.

I had purchased a 9500ix (similar to your 8500, just with GPS) a couple months ago and took a drive across I-10, for 3,500 miles round trip. The 9500ix was very very noisy with all the falsing...

Yup. The 9500ix was a great unit in it's day. Unless you can run with K turned off it will drive you nuts these days with no BSM filtering.

I appreciate all the responses Guys.


22R