Home > Consumer Reviews > Escort Passport 8500 X50 Radar and Laser Detector (Blue Display)

This is a great radar detector. I bought it and installed it in my car in the parking lot. I turned it on, and as I pulled out of the lot, I got a Ka-band warning. I started looking around and sure enough about 6 cars ahead was a black crown-vic. It has great range and is easy to use. Although its good to go right out of the box, I have customized alot of things on it to make it even better. I reccomend turning on POP band, turning off X-band, and increasing the volume. Great buy.

Escort X50 is plagued by false alarms on the Laser and Pop channels. Please borrow a friends and test in your car first. I have tested in 4 different cars and everything from the horn to the turbo charging spooling up will cause this thing to go wild. I tried working with Escort to resolve problem but they wanted 65 dollars to place foil over the sensor to (Dumb down my detector). I've already given to much money to escort.

I actually bought this unit about a year and half ago. Works great and it's a super product. One big flaw though. I recently bought a 2004 Lexus ES330. Well all of a sudden the Laser indicator starts going off on the X50 for no reason. Just out of the blue here and there. Talked to Escort and they said it would have to be returned to be repaired, for $75 since it's out of warranty. Apparently certain vehicles can do this to the unit. Well my beef is that the 2004 Lexus was already out long before I bought my X-50. I sent the warranty card in, but never got a notice from Escort saying they found a defect with it, and I could get it fixed under warranty for free if I thought I might ever own a Lexus one day. They knew about the problem, only fixed the ones they had to, and let everyone else go off warranty. To me that's bad business. We all don't buy and keep the same car for 10 years at a clip. So before you buy you should make sure you're either getting an updated unit that works the way it's supposed to, or that your car doesn't conflict with the X50.

I just bought this... its better than the cobra series... and has been rated by 5 different magazines as top radar detector in its price range... although the $300 does sound like a steep price... it pays for itself when it saves you from 2 speeding tickets... all you do is plug it in and its ready to go... no need to hastle with functions... everything comes in the box and its ready as soon as u turn on ur car... if u dont want to get a valentine, this is the radar to go with...

After using the 8500 for almost 6 months now, I figured it was time to write up a review. Reading the good reviews on Amazon convinced me to buy the detector in the first place, but my experience with it have been spotty at best. About 50% of the time the 8500 would detect radar or laser before I could see the speed trap and have time to slow down, not great odds by any means. Today I got pulled over for the third time in 3 weeks. Each time I saw the cop before or just as the detector gave an alarm, either way it was always too late.

The detector has always been mounted securely to my windshield, with a clean view of the road ahead. It's possible I have a defective unit, or maybe the state troopers in Maryland just have better tech than the 8500 can handle...either I still have to rely on my own senses. I really wanted a good detector to save me those times when I wasn't paying attention, but as you can see from the 1 star this unit isn't doing the job. The 8500 has easy setup and some nice features, but effectiveness is what matters here, and this gadget falls way short.