How many RS4 owners use radar detectors...?

[P_G]

i have the pogo alert, had the b2 also. cant fault it and its saved my ass so many times.

one thing only is that when the laser alert goes off - its just letting you know there will be a letter in the post. the only way you can block a laser gun is through a jammer, which could end you up in court if youre found with one on your car.

Sorry, disagree, when the laser detector goes off on the b2 it gives you time to slam the anchors on, checking your rear view first, of course, they use these a lot from jam sandwiches on motorways, it's saved me LOADS of times !!

i beg to differ - unless you have a very fast reaction time you dont have time to think about hammering on the anchors. lasers capture your speed in under a second.

Your field of vision is further than the effective range of a laser speed gun. I have never had one of these devices, drive approx. 15,000 miles a year and the last time I had points was from a Gatso on the North Circular 8 years ago.

[victor2vt]

Plod picks places where he tries to nab you very carefully, one of their their favourites is when the sun is shining in your eyes, another is where they are hiding behind bushes, facing forward, either side of motorway bridges, i'm only speaking from experience, i've seen them doing it, if you don't know the area well, you don't know where they will be !! PG i agree, you would only have yourself to blame if you see a fully marked police car and then drive over the speed limit, but they don't sit where you can easily spot them if they're out to do you, like tucked into the outside lane of slipways onto main roads, where they have the painted white marks on the road for the vascar. For example, on the dual carriageway on the way to Newcastle airport !! What purpose does an un marked police car serve other than, amongst other things, catching speeding motorists ?? They even put child sunblinds on the rear passenger window behind the driver so as to make you think it's a "family car", i've seen them, and they wear police pullovers, not uniform, so as you can't easily spot them in your rear view mirror. They will try every trick in the book to do us motorists, especially when we drive cars like ours, so we have to employ every tactic to protect our licence.

[Dom81]

I always drive out of town with a Road Angel Plus, but not so much for laser detection (where I agree with P_G that eyes are better than electronics - especially as the beam scatters so little now that it's all but worthless)

I find the main benefit is accurate and easy indication of speed, devoid of the over reading that all cars give, and less distracting to check. Since I'm sometimes on A roads that were fine for 60mph 30 years ago but somehow only legal for 40-50mph now, the other benefit is warning of the nanny state in operation. I don't condone reckless driving, but hate driving at half sensible speed in case a revenue generator is just round the corner.

[P_G]

Victor, I drive one of the worst sections of road for unmarked cars, the A19 pretty much every day, and it is so because Durham Police invariably use unmarked cars on it including a Leon FR with tinted windows and an old 5 series BMW saloon. Cleveland have two 'special' places they park up randomly in side turnings near Hutton Henry but again awareness to the level it is thought you should have on the road should see you through. Anything that looks suspicious, treat it as so. They even operate two white S-Max, and X6 and a Skoda Superb amongst the Octavia VRS and Scooby's FFS!

I have only been caught once by a Vascar and banned for it but I still saw the car and suspected it was the Police and had hauled off a lot of my speed. IF I had kept my foot down I would have been a full 35-40mph faster than what I was convicted for.

Like said it is all about awareness of your suroundings, somthing that ADA teach you about. If you do a Police driver training they ask you to do running commentary of what is going on whilst you are driving, what you see as potential threats, speed, road conditions etc and describe makes of car as well. Maybe that is what puts me in good stead.

[Steve_C]

I have only been caught once by a Vascar and banned for it but I still saw the car and suspected it was the Police and had hauled off a lot of my speed. IF I had kept my foot down I would have been a full 35-40mph faster than what I was convicted for.

You scrubbed off 40mph and were still banned? What speed were you doing - 130mph?

[cmcm3]

I have only been caught once by a Vascar and banned for it but I still saw the car and suspected it was the Police and had hauled off a lot of my speed. IF I had kept my foot down I would have been a full 35-40mph faster than what I was convicted for.

You scrubbed off 40mph and were still banned? What speed were you doing - 130mph?

Having had a chance to give it a bootful through a couple of gears today (first clear roads I've seen since owning the car) it would be all too easy to be clocked at ban-territory speeds...

[P_G]

I have only been caught once by a Vascar and banned for it but I still saw the car and suspected it was the Police and had hauled off a lot of my speed. IF I had kept my foot down I would have been a full 35-40mph faster than what I was convicted for.

You scrubbed off 40mph and were still banned? What speed were you doing - 130mph?

A bit more than that. It was 14 years ago and not in an RS4.

[Steve_C]

You scrubbed off 40mph and were still banned? What speed were you doing - 130mph?

A bit more than that. It was 14 years ago and not in an RS4.

Lol - youthful exuberance? I got caught in a similar fashion about 10 yrs ago on my bike - got 6 points from the courts who didn't realise that the corner before I was doing 40 mph more!

[stoddie]

i agree with whats been said completly - however how many can actually put their hand up and say "i never speed"?

If you dont then you should of bought a citroen C1 instead, i dont agree with speeding but we all do it.

the gps camera detector gives you that extra warning when youre driving on unfamiliar roads as to where the speed cameras are. Coming from fife, we have 2 camera vans constantly situated on the A92 along with several unmarked 04 plate beemers. you know on your patch where and when you can put the foot down, thats not the problem - its the unfamiliar roads that theyre good for.

[PetrolDave]

I use a Pogo Alert.

Like the vast majority of drivers I occasionally, but never knowingly, go over the speed limit (77 in a 50 in 2003, and 39 in a 30 in 2008).

I don't regard that as anything like as dangerous as the idiot that tailgates you, and the TRL statistics prove that speed is a factor in only 5% of accidents.

However, the law is an ass and says that speeding is a act carried out only by the devil, so I find the warning from a GPS detector like the Pogo Alert a useful warning.

BTW the Pogo Alert, like the majority of devices now on sale, is NOT a radar or camera detector - it's a GPS device with a database of possible/probably/proven camera locations, so it CANNOT warn you of a camera in a new location (which is what got me in 2008) so you MUST still use your eyes.

[sidzz]

just to clarify on a point made a few posts back in this thread. will you get done for having a 'jammer' if it is used for lights/garage door opener at your house? i.e its just coincidence that the frequency the car emits to turn on security lights/open the garage door will also jam a laser speed gun?

[irvind]

With reference to spotting jam sandwiches, it is possible during the day, but not at night which is when I do a fair chunk of my driving.

[stoddie]

just to clarify on a point made a few posts back in this thread. will you get done for having a 'jammer' if it is used for lights/garage door opener at your house? i.e its just coincidence that the frequency the car emits to turn on security lights/open the garage door will also jam a laser speed gun?

i read into them in great detail a few years back. It seems to depend on where the force is that you get caught is. if its your local force they are more prone to come and take away your car for searching.

from what i worked out in most cases though is if for example you jam a speed camera van at the side of the road, they will take the picture and log this against you and that the car returned an error code on their equipment. If it happends again they will see this is the second time your car has jammed a laser and probably come and take away your car.

some shocking info here: http://uk.autoblog.com/2010/10/27/speed ... om-driving

[sidzz]

Have read that too about cars being taken away. I was under the impression that if you have a 'valid' reason for having a 'jammer' on board... i.e its a garage door opener which you actually use, then the fact that it emits a signal that jams speed guns is not the main aim of installing one ... and therefore you walk out of court free.
on the flip side if you get caught having a 'garage door opener' that jams lasers, and when plod comes round to take your car away finds you don't even own a garage, you'll get the book thrown at you

[PetrolDave]

If the Police are unable to get a speed reading using a laser they will make a note of the registration number and then record it on a database shared by all forces.

If they find an entry already there for that registration number you may get a visit "requesting" you to deliver your car for an "inspection", and if they find anything like a laser jammer you can expect problems.