In this edition of CanadianCarStereo.com, I wanted to cover portable radar detectors. You might be thinking, that’s the most boring category in your store, but who can use and benefit from a radar detector…everyone from soccer moms, students, automotive enthusiasts, and professional drivers, etc. With the current landscape, people are getting out and exploring new remote areas in their state or province in unprecedented numbers. Just look at your favorite social media platform. You might have noticed this trend, and so has law enforcement.
When you are on the way to work, driving the kids to school, or running errands it’s very easy to forget to check your speed. Is it fair, if you go 5 miles over the posted speed limit or go through a photo radar spot in these moments, it may cost you over $300 in fines?
I saw this new product from K40 electronics, Platinum100 Portable Radar, this product triggered me to reach out to them. K40 seems to be very up to date on the cutting-edge portable radar technology, this includes photo radar! Photo Radar or MRCD is making a huge comeback within Canada and the US. I was intrigued by how this works; this was one of the biggest things that I noticed in my research – the GPS location for the hotspot location marker. I haven’t seen GPS feature working reliably in a portable radar and I had to find out more.
You have probably known someone who had an inexpensive radar detector that seemed to beep every time they drove by the automatic doors at the local drugstore. Maybe when I was younger, I thought this was pretty cool but now I just think it’s annoying. This was one of the features I wanted to test out. I decided to go through my whole daily routine. I went to the bank, the drugstore, and even took the kids to McDonald’s. I couldn’t believe it; I did not get any false readings. We only have four photo-radar spots in my area, I dove into the instruction manual to learn how to use the “Alert Marker” feature. I was pleasantly surprised all I had to do is go to the corner where they were located then press and hold the “MARK” button and the location is instantly stored within the radar. This meant in the span of half an hour, I was able to mark all the locations with photo radar in my community. Keep in mind I do live in a community of over 100,000 people, I’m not talking about a small township.
I’m not normally one for specs but this radar integrated into my daily life seamlessly. With as much set up as a television, the piece of mind I have now while driving my daily commute is incredible. Now the real test is how will my wife feel about using this device.
My wife was dropping off our daughter at dance and it was late, she even admits she was a little frazzled after a rough day. It was getting dark and she didn’t have her glasses with her. On her regular route home, she was coming down a hill and the detector radar goes off, she simply slowed down. She never had a chance to see that law enforcement was there at the bottom of the hill. My wife doesn’t normally speed, she even sometimes frustrates me on how slow she drives. This was a perfect example of how a simple investment of a radar detector saved my family roughly $460 in fines and demerits!
I was wondering what else this radar detector could do, so once again I took out the manual and had a read. I couldn’t believe that it has an optional laser defuser! If I’m driving on the highway all by myself and I get hit by a police laser from law-enforcement, it will hide my car. This doesn’t mean I can just keep driving and speed because I am invisible to law enforcement, it simply means I can adjust my speed. This alert gives me a few seconds to adjust my speed and allow law enforcement to enforce the law. I have not seen this feature in a portable radar detector from K40 before which made me appreciate K40’s new Platinum100 Radar Detector even more. Inside the box, I found a very sturdy windshield mount, two power cords, 29 User Programmable Options, and remote control.
Why a remote control you may ask? A lot of today’s vehicles now have a very deep dashboard and if I wanted to adjust the mute or even use the power off button, I would have to reach across the dashboard. This would be unsafe without a remote control; I can adjust the volume or even “mark” a new construction area or photo radar hotspot safely. This allowed me to keep my eyes on the road and make changes to the radar as easily as changing a radio station.
One of the things I noticed during my research on radar detectors was K40 had a customer service line. A customer service representative asks you a few questions and even recommends a product for your vehicle and it was available 24 hours. I gave them a call one night after the kids went to bed and they answered! It wasn’t a chatbot or some automated service, a real person answered! In a world of Facebook and email autoresponders, this was a very pleasant surprise and showed me that this company cares about their customers and products.
If you’re in the market for a radar detector go to the K40 website at www.k40.com and have a look around, give the customer service line a call and get a recommendation – it’s all free! A good radar detector is an investment in your vehicle. With products like K40’s Platinum100 portable radar, it’s all about the details which allow for the perfect integration into your vehicle.
I am going to link three videos that really helped in my research:
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CanadianCarStereo.com
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