I live in the SF Bay Area and there are tons of false alarms -- enough to make a typical radar detector pretty annoying. Unfortunately, they aren't even all X band (Safeway doors aren't, for example). The V1 has significantly more false alarms than the 8500 from the tests I have read. See http://www.speedzones.com/falsealerts/false.htm for an independent false alarm comparison. Key sentence from it: "The clear champion in false alert suppression is the Passport 8500...". Again, where I live, that is pretty critical as a feature -- more than the arrows.
However, if you want to hide the radar detector from view, either to avoid it being stolen or to avoid looking like a habitual speeder should a cop pull you over, you will want a move covert hidden system. If so, the Valentine 1 is far better than the Escort, as it puts its full display on the remote system while the Escort's just has a single red LED that comes on for any alert. So if you have that requirement, then Valentine 1 is the only real answer, false alarm issues or not.
Chip
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Chip Alexander
'97 Blue/Tan NSX-T with Tubi Exhaust, Fiamm Horn
'92 Green/Tan Lexus SC400 Coupe
'02 Blue/Tan BMW 325iT Sportwagon
[This message has been edited by calexand (edited 13 November 2002).]
