Mini Coyote V2 helps you avoid speeding fines
We like to pretend we hoon it up with the best of 'em, so we bagged ourselves a Mini Coyote v2 -- one of Europe's most advanced speed camera alert systems.
Here at CNET UK, we have the utmost respect for the speed limit. Even when driving the 205mph Ferrari 599, we scrupulously stuck to 29mph in 30mph zones, which is why we were keen to test the Mini Coyote V2 -- purportedly one of Europe's most advanced speed-camera alert systems.
It's a tiny device the size of a pager, which attaches to your dashboard with a small but powerful magnet on the base. Once drawing power from your cigarette lighter, it'll locate your position and direction of travel via GPS and connect with a database of speed-camera locations using a GPRS modem. It'll then sit there, audibly alerting you to speed cameras and reminding you of the speed limit for that particular road.
The Mini Coyote V2 has a huge national database of fixed, traffic-light, average-speed and mobile camera locations, and will flash and beep its little face off to ensure you don't do something illegal in the vicinity of one. It'll even display your average speed through average-speed SPECS zones such as those covering motorway roadworks.
The Mini Coyote V2 doesn't have any radar-detection features, so it can't warn you about random policemen hiding in bushes with radar guns, but it does have a neat trick up its sleeve to combat mobile cameras. If you have a close encounter with a mobile camera, you can tap a button on the Mini Coyote V2 to mark its location. This data is then sent via the Mini Coyote V2's integrated GSM/GPRS modem to a central database, where the data is shared with other Mini Coyote V2 users.
All of this doesn't come cheap. The Mini Coyote V2 costs £185 with three months' European service subscription (it'll work in 28 countries and in 9 languages), after which users can opt to renew with one of two annual subscription packages -- UK-only coverage for £89 or full European coverage for £119.
Obviously, it'll pay for itself countless times over if you've a particularly heavy right foot, but it's worth remembering there are smart-phone apps that provide similar features for a heck of a lot less money.
You can buy a Mini Coyote V2 from Coyote's curiously named 69officer.com Web site.