Garmin states that moving vehicles can be detected up to 150 yards behind. My experience has been about 50 to 75 yards maximum when I get the first screen trigger on my Edge 520. Curious to know what other Varia users are seeing for initial detection distance behind. Even so I find this distance adequate in terms of warning time.
This is a follow-up on my car distance alert issue I posted earlier. After contacting Garmin USA and trying raising the Varia Radar Light as high as possible they decided to send me a replacement.
I did a controlled test measuring off 140 meters or 459 feet with distinct markers at beginning and end on a straight flat road and checking maximum distance for car alert with the replacement unit. The results were around 400 to 450 feet and pretty close to Garmin specifications-an improvement from the old unit. Actually the old unit was more like 300 feet under the same test conditions. Visually measuring distance can be deceiving.
Garmin customer service was terrific and very responsive.
