JackG,
I don't think you had it long enough. The arrows help in scenarios like this ( from another post of mine of personal experience) ..."I get 2 signals on my V1. One behind, and one in front. Traffic is light on the freeway and it's lightly sprinkling. Only 4 cars including me. The one in front has me puzzled because it's an Infinity, so I concentrate on the two cars behind me. No biggie, I'm going the speed limit. I've traveled this road many times, and sometimes there is a faint false, but it never follows me. Sure enough I spot the car with cop like running lights. As he closes on me, signal gets stronger. I make damn sure I'm going the speed limit. As he passes I spot him. Yup! State Trooper. The other car was probably going 65 but he doesn't pull him over . About 3 miles later, I see flashing lights. He pulls over a white minivan! I'm so glad I got the V1. Any other detector and I wouldn't have known WHERE TO FOCUS my attention."
The signal in front was a reflection. The signal behind was the real one. While you were looking at the arrows and around you trying to figure things out, I was lifting and saving my butt. No arrows (falsly pointing at a reflection) needed.
If falses never occured, then you simply slow down. However, since falses do happen and far exceed real traps, it's annoying slowing down on every warning (false or legit). That's when the arrows help you weed out the falses. The same is true for the bogey counter, on a familiar overpass that gives me 1 false sometimes. Bogey counter told me 2, so I slowed, and sure enough smokey was on top THAT time zapping people.
Maybe the 8500 doesn't false as much as the V1, or it is better at weeding out the real stuff. There are places that I travel through that have weak signals (falses), and I've also encountered "real" radar in those places. The 8500 told me very plainly that there was a different signal there.
That's why I'm here. I wouldn't call myself a cheerleader. I'm like you, here to learn the real deal, and to correct mis-information when I see it. That is my sole purpose in posting this, I have nothing to gain whatsoever and have no agenda. So when you say the arrows aren't that important, you see where I'm coming from. They are important.
Not to me.
I've always felt Car and Driver as being honest and thorough. I also trust GOL. Neither of which have been criticised as biased that I am aware of (which is not to say it's impossible). The Peterson reviews have known critics as you've seen, besides his affiliation makes anything he says suspect.
C&D has an adgenda... it's called advertising dollars. GOL may be legit, but it's just some guys that have a common interest. There's no reason to think that they are using good equipment or a true scientific method to do their comparisons. Besides, as I said, a measurement of sensitivity in a lab does not tell the entire story. There are tons of equipment that measure well in a lab, but perform poorly in the real world. Not saying that the V1 is one of them, just that lab numbers are not the only measurement.
They are comparing it as evenly as possible. It's as good as it gets. Testing conditions are standardized. As for your "anomaly", it does seem strange that it contradicts, standardized scientific trusted sources. I think it was probably due to different sensitivity settings in the respective detectors. I don't know.
You're stretching quite a bit there. Unless you are doing the testing, you simply cant make the statement that "They are comparing it as evenly as possible".
As you said, you just don't know.
In the end, if you're happy with your detector, great good for you. My $100 is well spent on the gas and brake pads SAVED from not slowing down on every single false.
