Home > Consumer Reviews > Cobra ESD 9210CS Vehicle Radar Detector

I'm selling this item used, but that's NOT going to effect this rating. I'm an honest person.

I bought my Cobra for $99. This is the best radar detector you can buy for under $400 as far as I know, and I know a lot of speedsters and mechanics. The next step up from this, in my opinion, would be a Valentine (I think their website is valentine.com or valentine1.com). Those are the best you'd need within reason, and they're $300 more. My friend owns one of these. Passports are almost the same price as Valentines, but give you basically the same quality as a Cobra.

So exactly how much better is a Valentine than a Cobra? About 50% better, I'd say. My friend has one and we were curious. We got one of those double things for the cig. lighter and placed my Cobra 9210 next to his Valentine and went "cruising" around in his beamer. Eventually, we found that the Valentine will give you a heads up about a fraction of a second sooner. You can also adjust the sensitivity and customize it a little more.

I still trust my Cobra to this day, but unfortunately my days of speeding are over after crashing my car. If you're rich, buy a Valentine. If you're normal, these are the next best.

This is the 3rd cobra I have bought. I owned the previous version of this model that I purchased for about $200.00 - 3 years ago. My previous one was stolen out of my vehicle. Everybody keeps complaning about the accuracy & distance. As for false alarms I haven't gotten any. Obviously its is picking something up or it wouldn't be going off! I simply set mine for the city mode & shut off the VG2 alert. Mine basicly goes off for the K alerts only. I have had mine for about 3 weeks now it working just as good as my previous one did. Yes the range is on the shorter side but if you can not afford the $400 for a Valintine this will work. I used the under 13 to avoid registering an account.

I couldn't be happier with this detector. Easy to use, windshield mount is very solid, and it detects a wide array of signal types. From the speed traps it's already helped me avoid I'd say it's paid for itself several times over.

I have this Cobra for three years now. The speaker has just blown out from some reason besides volume maxed. For paying around $100, it has saved me from all types, to include laser. The emergency alert has only come on twice in the three years. I am not an excessive speeder, but love the warnings around curves and hills. If you are looking new, good system for 'normal' drivers. Due to the speaker, I would not buy used.