Your point is a very good one. There's a price to be paid for having all that sensitivity. I have an older detector that I did not bother rewiring into the new wheels, and, while I've been thinking about a V-1 or other detector, I start asking if I really want to add another $400 temptation for somebody to smash my window and/or do I want yet another piece of hardware to tote to/from the car. I'm thinking no. If I parked in a secured garage my analysis might be different.

About a decade ago I was obliged to make a hasty 3-day trip from Boston to Seattle and that (admittedly older) detector went off about 200 times during the trip. I encountered precisely zero real radar traps, however. I just started leaving it off more and more (as I grew older!!).

Another angle: on the occasion of getting paced and ticketed at night a few years ago, the young WSP trooper leaned in the passenger side window, took a good long look at that detector, and wrote me up for the full boot. Having that baby up there does tend to limit the ability to feign innocence. If I install a detector, it may well be one of the overpriced hardwired units (even with their reduced effectiveness) that I would not have to haul out of the car every night (or when valet parking!) and that would not be so obvious to troopers and/or car prowlers.

I used to be a lot more commited to exceeding the speed limit by significant margins, but much of this was when a 55 MPH limit (on highway sections now posted at at a more appropriate 70) could lead you to lapse into a coma if closely observed. To Tony's point, I do think that speeding, to some extent, helps thoughtful people stay on their toes -- check overpasses, check on-ramps, look for planes, scan big, generic sedans, etc. I still do it now and again, but more and more I find it gets tiring. I've also developed a slightly more relaxed philosophy. If I get a ticket every 1-2 years, I just roll with it; I just try to save those occasions for out of state. As I told the cop in New Jersey "Hey, a ticket every year or two helps confirm that you're still alive". He laughed.

Finally, on the vehicle paranoia front, a good friend who commutes daily in Seattle on I-5 reports several sighting of WSP in a white Volvo wagon in one of their fave spots northbound under the bridge at North 145th. no idea about the "buy 'Merican" issue. Perhaps this was a seized vehicle?

Jim