Not bad.

Pretty good detection overall. The only issue I have with it, is I wish it was louder. I can't seem to hear it a lot of times over my music or if my windows are down. Other than that it picks up radar quite nicely, I thought it was going haywire one day while in town, only to find out it was picking up the radar from the auto-enforced street light.

Beware - defective product, poor response from Bel

Purchased from Amazon and has not worked in Ka band since new. No alarm passing traffic boxes that display speed, or patrol officers using Ka band. I received two tickets from radar patrols, one only a warning, thankfully. Also, if left in the heat, will display "service required" and not work until it cools down. Betronics people trained to provide lame excuses; claims Amazon is suspect retailer, may have re-packaged defective unit as new, traffic boxes not calibrated or don't use radar. Made me pay another $59.95 to get repaired even though it has NEVER worked, right out of the box. Even though using two detectors in a car is not advised, I ran this unit side-by-side with my 15 year old 9500 Passport and the Bel remained silent as the 9500 alarmed in Ka mode. In all other modes, it performed as well, or better. I didn't know for sure that it wasn't working until I performed this test. Until then, I was believing the Beltronics BS. By the time I returned it, I was one month out  more

Seems like a good radar detector

I bought this radar detector because in independent testing at www.radartest.com, they said that they found the Bel Vector 985 to be the best model under $200 that they've ever tested (Bel Vector says that the 955 and 985 models are the exact same product with the only difference being a plate on it, one's a radio shack model). So that's why I originally bought it. I know that amazon.com ratings may not be as good as expert ratings because experts usually compare many models together and so they know how they compare, while customer ratings usually compare a product to what they think the ideal product should be like. Customer ratings are also usually biased towards those who either had really bad or really good experiences, since most people who buy don't fill these reviews out.

I gave it a four star rating because I believe that it's more sensitive and has less false alerts than a lot of other radar detectors that I've seen while being a passenger in other peoples' cars. It still  more

Beltronics 955 - Peace of Mind On A Long Commute

My wife and I live 100 miles away from where we both work and we commute daily to and from. Prior to getting the Beltronics 955, I was a nervous wreck driving a total of 3-4 hours a day. I have been driving the commute now for well over a year and I received only 1 ticket but I had to be constantly hyper-vigilant. I did not purchase the device to speed at will, just to provide peace of mind on a long dangerous commute.
The device has performed quite well so far. During the first quarter of the drive there are speed limit postings with embedded Ka band to give you a readout of your speed versus the posted limit. Consistently, I pick up the Ka signal from the sign at 1.4 miles out---long before it can ever pick me up. By the time the sign picks up my speed (something you can see on the readout for at least 1/4 of a mile) I have been aware of its presence for over a mile and had plenty of time to react. I have been made aware of 6 individual situations over the past week where I had  more

Great at any price

The 955 is a great detector that has only less features, not less range, than its more expensive stablemates. But if you are upgrading from a detector that's a few years or more older, you'll still find the features on the 955 to be great. More importantly, the range on the 955 is spectacular. Now, Bel has had some quality control issues as of late, but unless your unit pops up the dreaded "service required" message, chances are your detector is finding each threat the best it can. What some people don't realize about police radar is that police can use "instant on" radar which can be flicked on at practically point blank range. Using radar in such a fashion limits or completely prevents radar from being detected. It's not the detector's fault, police and radar manufacturers have just become savvy to the downside of leaving their radar units constantly on. Being popped by "instant on" radar has led many an inexperienced radar detector owner to throw their detector in the trash because  more