Max 360

[MCarsFan]

Long time 9500ix user here (about 8 years I believe), with the Shelby as the second car, I placed an order for the new Max 360. Is there anyone here who has used it? What do you guys think? I love my 9500ix, it has saved me so many times.

I was leaning towards V1, but I dont have an android and I guess without YaV1, its not really great. The apps in iOS arent complete and you have to use at least 2-3 apps at the same time to accomplish the same functionality.

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[GT_Dave]

I went with the Redline model for my GT350, mostly for my travels and the undetectability feature that the Max 360 doesn't have. The Redline is much improved over the 9500ix that I have been using in my cars and on my motorcycle for the past 10+ years., The Max 360 should serve you well, it is the top of the line.

 

[Spacebird]

I have one. It's my first radar detector in 20 years so I really can't compare, but it definitely works. I have had few false alarms as best as I can tell.

My only complaints: it's large and seems a little plasticky. I've only seen the V1 in pictures, but it seems smaller and like it's made of plastic that's a little nicer to the eye and touch. As the app is Android only and apparently it takes some manual tuning to really perform I didn't consider the V1.

 

[MCarsFan]

The biggest problem with V1 is to do a firmware upgrade, you have to send your unit in to them and pay for the upgrade which is $79 for the upgrade and $19 for shipping. What takes literally 1 minute with escort by plugging it in via USB to your PC (and for free) takes 1 week and costs $100. To me that is the biggest limitation of V1.

And yes, it needs android to really operate it properly. Where I live, there is no way I could use something like a redline, it would false all the time driving me crazy and honestly rendering itself useless because at some point you stop taking it seriously due to all the false alarms.

 

[Algerad]

I run a Max 360 in mine. Mounted to the mirror with a BlendMount and drawing power from the mirror with a MirrorTap. Works quite well. I used V1s for years and while they worked well, I wanted the more advanced GPS false positive lockouts and such that were built in to the Escort detectors. I've been quite happy with mine. Good detection range, similar to the V1, maybe a tad bit shorter, but not enough to make a difference usually. There were a couple of early issues with them like some K band signals getting detected as Ka and the detection arrows being slow to update when you pass the source of the signal. Firmware updates have mostly fixed all of that stuff though.

It is definitely larger and sticks out a bit more than a V1 as Spacebird says though. It is quite heavy as well, but I've had no problem with that with my BlendMount.

 

[MCarsFan]

I need to look into hardwiring this. In my BMWs, I run their smart cord with a fuse tap, its actually very harmless and easy to do. I'd rather not mess with the existing electronics in the car, but I'll see what I can do.

 

[Algerad]

A MirrorTap is the easiest way in my opinion. You seriously just have two probes that you stick in the back of the already exposed wiring on the back of the mirror. It's a switched power source, so no worries about leaving the detector running when you turn the car off. I've ran MirrorTaps on probably 5 or 6 cars I've had over the years and never had any issues with them, and they've never interfered with the operation of the auto-dimming mirrors. I've done fuse taps as well, and while they work just as well if you tap the right fuse, they're a lot more of a hassle since you're usually having to worry about where to route and hide wiring. The only difficulty I've run into with MirrorTaps is some mirror wiring is tighter than others. In some, the probes will slip in easily and fit snug. In others, the wiring is too tight and you need to file down the probes a bit, but usually they'll fit in fine then (I had to do this on my GT350).

 

[MCarsFan]

A MirrorTap is the easiest way in my opinion. You seriously just have two probes that you stick in the back of the already exposed wiring on the back of the mirror. It's a switched power source, so no worries about leaving the detector running when you turn the car off. I've ran MirrorTaps on probably 5 or 6 cars I've had over the years and never had any issues with them, and they've never interfered with the operation of the auto-dimming mirrors. I've done fuse taps as well, and while they work just as well if you tap the right fuse, they're a lot more of a hassle since you're usually having to worry about where to route and hide wiring. The only difficulty I've run into with MirrorTaps is some mirror wiring is tighter than others. In some, the probes will slip in easily and fit snug. In others, the wiring is too tight and you need to file down the probes a bit, but usually they'll fit in fine then (I had to do this on my GT350).

Let me google this to see how it works for the mustang, sounds simple. Thanks.

 

[OW_GT350R]

I upgraded from the 9500 to a 360 Max. I used the long hardwired cable. Radar is great, has already prevented multiple issues. I thought about the mirror tap, but wanted the remote mute/mark button. The headliner in these cars isn't exactly a "tight fit", so there is plenty of room to hide the excess cable.

 

[MCarsFan]

I upgraded from the 9500 to a 360 Max. I used the long hardwired cable. Radar is great, has already prevented multiple issues. I thought about the mirror tap, but wanted the remote mute/mark button. The headliner in these cars isn't exactly a "tight fit", so there is plenty of room to hide the excess cable.

How does 9500 compare to 360 just generally? Range/responsiveness/etc

 

[Superdog]

Check out Waze if you haven't already.

Thousands of users online at any given time telling you about all sorts of things, including police officers up ahead.

 

[MCarsFan]

Check out Waze if you haven't already.

Thousands of users online at any given time telling you about all sorts of things, including police officers up ahead.

I always use waze alongside with my 9500, but I have to say that at least where I live its 30-40% accurate when it comes to cops:(

 

[Computer Guy]

How does 9500 compare to 360 just generally? Range/responsiveness/etc

In 2010 I bought an Escort Passport 9500ix and a Beltronics V940 Vector to go into a 2011 Mustang GT that I had on order. When the 2011 Mustang GT arrived I put the Escort Passport 9500ix in the car on a bean bag mount that sits on the dash, and never took the Beltronics out of the box - it still sits on the floor of the garage in the box. I was impressed with the built-in GPS in the 9500ix that would filter out radar alerts for areas where the same radar signal was found at the same location three times, but was also concerned that passing by a speed trap area three times would cause the 9500ix to stop alerting when there is a police radar signal in that area. The laser detection in the 9500ix was good with it mounted close to the dash, but I suspected that it provided a few false alerts. I never noticed any issues with it false alerting due to radar crash avoidance in cars, but also noticed that the 9500ix was far too late at alerting radar signals from time to time, either due to instant-on radar or from flying off the dash too many times due to the bean bag mount.

The Escort Passport 9500ix on the bean bag mount was a poor choice to put into the GT350 - just about every shift into second would cause the radar detector to fly off the dash. So, after a couple of days I bought an Escort Max 360 and used the included window mount (see the attached picture) to put the unit as close to the dash as possible for the best chance of picking up laser that is aimed at the car's grill.
Thoughts about the Escort Max 360, more or less in random order:

• It is much wider than the 9500ix, but does not seem to be much heavier.
• The window mount works well. The magnetic attachment point allows the radar detector to be quickly removed from the windshield.
• The radar detector provides a continuous display of the car's MPH, while the 9500ix only showed that information when the radar detector indicated a radar or laser signal. When the cruise control is set in the GT350, the radar detector reports 1 MPH higher than the digital speed indicated in the GT350's dash.
• The radar detector provides an "over speed" audio alert when traveling faster than 70 MPH (the default over speed setting). Since there is a 1 MPH difference between the GT350's cruise control indicated speed and the indicated speed on the radar detector, there is always an annoying "over speed" warning when traveling at the 70 MPH speed limit with cruise control enabled.
• When running through first gear quickly with surrounding traffic, the Escort Max 360 will sometimes signal a nearby radar detection event even though there is no police car nearby. It has happened often enough that I have discounted the possibility of an undercover nearby police car, but have not discounted that it is a crash avoidance radar signal from another car.
• The radar detector has given a couple of GPS lost audio alerts, and then 60 seconds later it alerts that the GPS signal was found - even though there should have been nothing blocking the satellite signal from above.
• The directional arrows on the radar display are helpful, but sometimes might report that the radar signal is coming from behind, then 500 feet down the road that the signal is coming from the sides or in front - likely due to the radar signal bouncing.
• The radar and laser detection in the Escort Max 360 seems to be just as good, if not slightly better than the detection in the 9500ix.

I try to travel at the speed limit as much as possible, but I occasionally run the car up to redline in first gear just for grins. Having a radar detector in the car satisfies more of a curiosity for me than as a speeding ticket avoidance tool. Traveling at the speed limit, the instant on radar and laser used by some police departments is too good - in several cases, had I been traveling faster than the speed limit, it would have been too late to do anything other than pull over and wait for the police car to arrive.

If you are happy with the 9500ix, the Escort Max 360 is a good replacement with a few helpful enhancements.

 

[MCarsFan]

In 2010 I bought an Escort Passport 9500ix and a Beltronics V940 Vector to go into a 2011 Mustang GT that I had on order. When the 2011 Mustang GT arrived I put the Escort Passport 9500ix in the car on a bean bag mount that sits on the dash, and never took the Beltronics out of the box - it still sits on the floor of the garage in the box. I was impressed with the built-in GPS in the 9500ix that would filter out radar alerts for areas where the same radar signal was found at the same location three times, but was also concerned that passing by a speed trap area three times would cause the 9500ix to stop alerting when there is a police radar signal in that area. The laser detection in the 9500ix was good with it mounted close to the dash, but I suspected that it provided a few false alerts. I never noticed any issues with it false alerting due to radar crash avoidance in cars, but also noticed that the 9500ix was far too late at alerting radar signals from time to time, either due to instant-on radar or from flying off the dash too many times due to the bean bag mount.

The Escort Passport 9500ix on the bean bag mount was a poor choice to put into the GT350 - just about every shift into second would cause the radar detector to fly off the dash. So, after a couple of days I bought an Escort Max 360 and used the included window mount (see the attached picture) to put the unit as close to the dash as possible for the best chance of picking up laser that is aimed at the car's grill.
Thoughts about the Escort Max 360, more or less in random order:

• It is much wider than the 9500ix, but does not seem to be much heavier.
• The window mount works well. The magnetic attachment point allows the radar detector to be quickly removed from the windshield.
• The radar detector provides a continuous display of the car's MPH, while the 9500ix only showed that information when the radar detector indicated a radar or laser signal. When the cruise control is set in the GT350, the radar detector reports 1 MPH higher than the digital speed indicated in the GT350's dash.
• The radar detector provides an "over speed" audio alert when traveling faster than 70 MPH (the default over speed setting). Since there is a 1 MPH difference between the GT350's cruise control indicated speed and the indicated speed on the radar detector, there is always an annoying "over speed" warning when traveling at the 70 MPH speed limit with cruise control enabled.
• When running through first gear quickly with surrounding traffic, the Escort Max 360 will sometimes signal a nearby radar detection event even though there is no police car nearby. It has happened often enough that I have discounted the possibility of an undercover nearby police car, but have not discounted that it is a crash avoidance radar signal from another car.
• The radar detector has given a couple of GPS lost audio alerts, and then 60 seconds later it alerts that the GPS signal was found - even though there should have been nothing blocking the satellite signal from above.
• The directional arrows on the radar display are helpful, but sometimes might report that the radar signal is coming from behind, then 500 feet down the road that the signal is coming from the sides or in front - likely due to the radar signal bouncing.
• The radar and laser detection in the Escort Max 360 seems to be just as good, if not slightly better than the detection in the 9500ix.

I try to travel at the speed limit as much as possible, but I occasionally run the car up to redline in first gear just for grins. Having a radar detector in the car satisfies more of a curiosity for me than as a speeding ticket avoidance tool. Traveling at the speed limit, the instant on radar and laser used by some police departments is too good - in several cases, had I been traveling faster than the speed limit, it would have been too late to do anything other than pull over and wait for the police car to arrive.

If you are happy with the 9500ix, the Escort Max 360 is a good replacement with a few helpful enhancements.

Thanks for this, very useful.

The thing is, I could buy the 9500ix for probably 1/3 of the price of Max 360. You sound like the improvements Max 360 provides are just gimmicks. I certainly dont care of speed limit warning. I was expecting Max 360 to have far superior range, much more than 9500ix. You have to remember that not only 9500ix has only 1 antenna vs the 2 in Max 360, but its antennas are very old. 9500ix is a 10 year old technology, I expect Max 360 to be far more superior for that much money.

In layman's terms, if escort 9500ix is iphone 3, I expect Max 360 to be iphone 6. I dont want the difference to feel like I am moving from iphone 5 to 5s if that makes sense.

 

[Computer Guy]

Thanks for this, very useful.

The thing is, I could buy the 9500ix for probably 1/3 of the price of Max 360. You sound like the improvements Max 360 provides are just gimmicks. I certainly dont care of speed limit warning. I was expecting Max 360 to have far superior range, much more than 9500ix. You have to remember that not only 9500ix has only 1 antenna vs the 2 in Max 360, but its antennas are very old. 9500ix is a 10 year old technology, I expect Max 360 to be far more superior for that much money.

In layman's terms, if escort 9500ix is iphone 3, I expect Max 360 to be iphone 6. I dont want the difference to feel like I am moving from iphone 5 to 5s if that makes sense.

Here is what I paid for the three radar detectors that I mentioned, rounded to the closest dollar:
Escort Passport 9500ix $455 (2010)
Beltronics V940 Vector $135 (2010)
Escort Max 360 $643 (2016)

The Escort Max 360 was not significantly more expensive than the Escort Passport 9500ix was in 2010. I still use the 9500ix in my 2011 Mustang GT - it is good enough for what I use a radar detector for, but seemed to be late at reporting some radar detection events (it is set to auto-adjust based on speed). In some cases with the 9500ix, I was expecting to receive a radar warning a mile or two before I reached the area where the police car was sitting, only to visibly see the police car, and then have the radar detector alert of a nearby radar signal when I was 500 to 1000 feet past the police car. This might simply be a symptom of advances in instant-on radar and police officers not leaving their radar gun on continuously.

I could have purchased another 9500ix for significantly less than the cost of the Escort Max 360, but I did not for a few reasons:

• Both radar detectors include red light and speed camera indicators. I thought that because the Max 360 was newer, its database of red light and speed camera would be more up to date out of the box, and I expected that it would be easier to update the database in the Max 360, while updates may no longer be provided for the 9500ix. I try not to run red lights, so that information is marginally helpful for me. The Max 360 uses a fat USB connector, similar to what was used on BlackBerry phones from 5 years ago - so it might take a bit of effort to locate a compatible USB cable to perform the update since one is not included with the Max 360.
• I had hoped that the Max 360 would provide an earlier warning for those cases where the 9500ix alerted 500 to 1000 feet after I passed the police car. It might do that, but it is hard to judge whether or not it is better at long range detection.
• The Max 360 does come with two antennas that helps it determine if the radar signal is likely coming from in front, in back, or from the back and front equally, allowing the directional arrows to work. The 9500ix seemed to work OK with a single antenna, picking up radar signals from the front and rear.
• The display in the Max 360 is multi-colored - I wanted to see if a color TV was more useful than a black and white (or blue and black) TV.
• The cost of the Max 360 is about the same as the cost for insuring the GT350 for 3 months, and only slightly more expensive than the yearly registration on the car, so I figured there was little point in saving a couple of hundred dollars when I had just spent $65,000+ on the car with sales tax, insurance, registration, etc. At that point, I figured that I might as well buy the best radar detector on the market, regardless of price.

Some of features in the Max 360 that are not in the 9500ix might seem like gimmicks. As I mentioned, I do like the magnetic mount, the continuous speed indicator (the analog speed indicator in the GT350's dash leaves a little too much uncertainty regarding actual speed), and the directional arrows are a nice to have gimmick.

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