I just bought the 9500ix for the trip out to the VOI and have used it on trips from the Bay Area to L.A. and Vegas, absolutely the best detector I've ever had...very, very few false alarms and unbelievable Ka range. Just went out with a friend last week for lunch in his car with a V-1 and it falsed in mulitple places that my 9500ix is silent.
But, I kinda screwed up....now Passport has the 9500iq which is a GPS navigation monitor with the 9500ix detector built in. So for about $150.00 more I would have had a GPS, Radar detector and Laser detector all in one package.
Here are the biggest advantages of the 9500iq:
-You can leave it in plain view without too much fear of theft because it looks like a $79.00 GPS.
-If you do get pulled over, the cop is not going to notice a GPS as much as a radar detector if you're trying to talk your way out of a ticket.
-I generally hate the in dash GPS's that come in our cars (Viper is the worst), so having the same unit that can go from car to car and is a radar detector is a huge plus. Good luck with your decision.
Cheers,
George