+1 for the 8500 X50. For the money it is pretty tough to beat and it has saved my ass several times. I had the old 8500 for years and it was also excellent. That said, I may upgrade to the 9500ix for the GPS features, more of a want then a need admitidly
. My buddy has the MAX and the feature set is pretty cool, but I hate the color display and the size of the housing. The nice thing about upgrading from an 8500 X50 to a 9500ix is that the power cable and mount are identical to each other so I can re use my blend mount and hard wired Smartcord.
