Advent Driver Safety Package (LDWS100 BSDS-003016)

Excellent Unit!

I purchased this unit when it was first released. I assume I received one of the very first units available. The kit came almost exactly as pictured, and seems of very good quality. The build of the controller units and sensors are very good, as are all the connectors and bindings. All the critical connections have heat-shrink to seal them up. Everything looks to be plug and plug for the most part, except for the power and signal wires.

The unit works great. We had it professionally installed and used it on a weekend road trip. We were thrilled at how well it worked, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone considering it.

It's a must have for all the vehicles we have moving forward. I will be grabbing another kit for my other car soon.

Worth the money.

I bought the two sensor system for my Prius C. No real blind spots but with progressing arthritis in my neck, turning to look is getting more difficult. These work very nicely for my needs. It would be nice if they added a feature that activated both rear sensors when backing up. Parking lots are getting scary these days.

I later bought the upgraded front and rear sensor model for my sister's Honda Odessey. The upgraded model is definitely a better product, where real blinds spots are involved.

Can't say more about durability.., except the covers on the indicator lights seem a possible weak spot.

Features... The indicator lights light up when something is in your blind spot and if the turn signal is turned on there is a single beep beep to draw your attention.

Installation time at a local car alarm & stereo store was $90 for an hour and a half labor.

My experience Goshers Blind spot alert device

The Good. Device works perfectly
The not so good. VERY expensive to install

Nice Product with Less than Reliable Sensitivity

Tested the blind spot device today. Good but Angles need a lot of tweaking. They begin signaling when I can already see the moving objects thru my peripheral. The device is not sensitive enough to my blind spot. I'm thinking this can be adjusted by tilting the angles?

addition, the device seems to be send signal when I drive by concrete such as the lane divider so it was lit all the way on highway.

Overall Nice product but not nearly as good as the Originally manufactured ones.

Good Value!

Had the blind spot monitoring system installed back in February in our 2011 Infiniti QX56. Great value for the cost of the product + install (total of both was less than $700 as compared to the technology package of $4k+). We had it professionally installed and they did a great job. While the sensors are black and our other sensors are platinum gray, it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. There are 2 modes - 1) signals light up and beep only when the turn signal is on left/right 2) signal light and beeps all the time whenever any objects are within 10'. We have ours set to 1). Only issue we have had so far is that it gets a little oversensitive in very heavy rain, but that's not a horrible thing. If a factory blind spot system is not available at a reasonable price, I would highly recommend this as a viable option.

Great but for one problem, still worth the money

I bought two for wife and me. They work fine except neither will "catch" when you want to stop before they are fully wound or unwound. So, to charge my iPhone, I have to pull the wires out and then put a rubber band around the unit to keep it from winding back and pulling the phone off the table. I've tried every way possible to get the unit to lock partway wound, without any luck. So far the springs are holding up.

Works well!

I bought this unit for my wife's commuter car, and wasn't sure how it would perform. We gave it to a local install shop, and were pretty happy with the kit when we tried it out. It works well on our roads, and alerts the driver if there is any object on the side of the vehicle. I found this handy in close parking spots, where there might be a short post or bush which is hidden in the blind spot.

It does work well for the intended purposes, as long as you realize it will give some detections even if it isn't another vehicle in your blind spot. We personally love it and would recommend it.

good buy but less than expected

Forward collision is less than I expected. You must have a monitor to set this up and a monitor should be standard equipment. I would have paid more for the package with a monitor. Lane departure is a worrisome feature as there is no way to adjust for varying road widths.

Caveat Emptor!

The biggest problem I had with buying this is that I didn't have the chance to try it before I bought it. Since the installation costs are significant, simply returning this if you are dissatisfied isn't a viable option. Whether this product will be satisfactory is really going to depend on why you are purchasing this unit. If you are looking for something to replace stick-on blindspot mirrors, this might fit the bill. If you have used OEM blindspot monitors, this will likely be a disappointment..

The good: Prior to this, I tried using stick-on blindspot mirrors. This seems to be a reasonable replacement for them. I prefer having a simple indicator that can easily be seen with peripheral vision over having a small distorted image to look at in addition to the main mirror. Adding another image to look at just slows down my decision making, and these can be particularly troublesome at night when you just see lights instead of vehicles. At night, or in other situations where visibility is compromised (e.g. bright sunlight), the Goshers is a better solution. Even when I don’t plan on changing lanes, I like the added situational awareness of the indicator when someone is pulling alongside me.

The bad: this will detect curbs and objects along the road. If the next lane is oncoming traffic, the light will come on every time a car passes. This isn't really a big deal to me, as there IS something truly there. I also had trouble with it detecting the surface of a particularly rough section of pavement on the highway and had to carefully shim the sensors up slightly to avoid this. This only happened on one highway, so I don’t know how common this problem is.

The worst part about this is the very limited range. The range is listed as 10 feet, however due to the angling it will only be able to detect a car once it is about 3 feet behind you. This is not a good margin of clearance. I would never rely on this, or even an OEM system for that matter, but a longer range on this would have given me more confidence and greatly increased the usefulness.

The ugly: finding a competent installer for this is a must. Goshers offers upgraded LEDs that look much nicer than the surface mount indicators. The wiring on the standard lights looks rather fragile. The upgraded LEDs cannot be surface mounted. I opted to have mine mounted in the A-pillar, but this might not be an option if your vehicle has airbags in the A-pillar. I was able to find a shop experienced with these types of systems to install the 2-sensor system with speed controller (I recommend) and A-pillar lights for about $400. Do not attempt to DIY or find someone to do this on the cheap. You are installing a system in your vehicle that isn't so easy to just take out.

Bottom line: The reviews for this have been overall positive on here, Tom’s Hardware, and even Consumer Reports. However, I cannot recommend this product due to it being an expensive gamble and its limited scope of usefulness. Although I have found the product to be mildly useful and an improvement over stick-on mirrors, the cost is difficult to justify. The only reason I would even consider this is due to the lack of other options. The Boyo Vision VTBSD1 has too few reviews to assess, and the Wistron WNC UMD-RT01 is not available for consumers at this time.

A great after-market safety device

We bought this device for my wife's 2012 Kia Optima which has a very bad blind spot and represented a driving and safety problem. This device resolved that issue and she can drive safely with confidence. Consider professional-experienced installation.