How many people here have installed a dashcam?

[TheFoX]

Before Christmas 2014, I was involved in quite a serious car crash after I collided with a vehicle pulling out from a side road. Although I had a dashcam installed in the C class, I was driving my mother's SportKA. Thankfully, there were enough witnesses to uphold my version of events.

Still, the reason I installed the dashcam in the first place was so that if I was in an accident, it would prove easier to explain what had happened if I also had live footage to submit.

Now both cars are fitted with dashcams, and I have recorded several bits of footage of dangerous or inconsiderate driving, such as the girl who went to overtake a tractor, then decided to parallel it, blocking anyone else from overtaking it, to the Porche driver who almost took my wing mirror off while overtaking me at over 100mph (I was doing 60mph, and he left me for dust, almost forcing an oncoming lorry off the road).

Ultimately, though, I will use the footage should I find myself involved in another collision or if, as a third party, I witness a collision between two or more other vehicles.

Do you have a dashcam installed in your car, and have you witnessed any notable events?

If you don't have a dashcam, are you thinking of installing one. If not, what is your reason for dismissing this idea?

What dashcams have you used, and how would you rate them.

For me, I have installed a EPRANCE G1W in the B class and a Transcend DrivePro 200 in the CLS. Both have their pros and cons. The Transcend has a better viewing angle, but shuts down when power is removed, while the EPRANCE has its own small capacity charge that allows you to take a few photos or additional video footage before it totally discharges.

 

[Bonecho]

I have a Techmoan - Techmoan - The Mobius Camera - The do-it-all mount-anywhere 1080p Micro Cam dashcam with a wide angle lens which is about the size of a box of matches fitted to my Mondeo.

When my C Class is delivered I will buy a second one with a standard lens for the rear windscreen. With HD picture quality it captures everything and was handy when the car went in for its annual service. Lets just say the car didn't stay in the workshop too long and was worked on by what looked like a 16 year old.

 

[Chrishazle]

I've just bought one, basically to record a trip we're about to take across Northern Spain then back across France - but I am also planning to fit it to our daily driver to take account of today's "no fee claim" mob.

 

[reflexboy]

I have a Koonlung K1S installed in my E Class. I have the brain/screen in the glove box. This system has both a front and a separate rear camera. I wanted a rear camera too as many accidents are the result of people driving in the back of others, something a single, front facing camera would not capture. I have had a few incidents such as people pulling out in front of me at roundabouts and junctions which I have watched later. I was umming and ahhhing for ages, but my mind was made up one day when a guy drove off after ramming into the rear of my brother's car whilst I was a passenger. I ordered my dashcam the next morning. Just do it before it's too late

 

[harvin1975]

I too am considering it.
Key features i'd like:
1. HD
2. Ability to continue recording with motion sensor that doesn't drain car battery.

Optional:
1. Rear camera.

Need to do some research!

 

[Wheelsnuts]

I have a simple and very cheap one I got from eBay. Nothing fancy but it works (maybe I am lucky??) and does the job.

 

[SLKGirl]

I'd be interested to know what people recommend as am thinking of getting something for mine

 

[Bonecho]

This is a great place to start if you are thinking about getting one as he tells you what features you need and what you should avoid. Techmoan - Guide to Dashcams

 

[Alf Barnet]

I think the world has overdosed on Ukrainan youtube videos...

Keep clear of Ka's Corsa's Courier vans and mincabs after dark, and I think your fine. Ultimately you could worry about everything, for the last 12 years I had a 130 mile commute, never got rammed/rear ended/abducted by aliens etc.

 

[baxlin]

I think the world has overdosed on Ukrainan youtube videos...

Keep clear of Ka's Corsa's Courier vans and mincabs after dark, and I think your fine. Ultimately you could worry about everything, for the last 12 years I had a 130 mile commute, never got rammed/rear ended/abducted by aliens etc.

Sorry to say, that's no guarantee of invincibility. Don't forget, if you flip a coin 49 times and it comes down heads each time, the odds for the 50th time are still 50:50.

Even if it was legal not to have your car insured, I bet you would still have it insured. I think having a dash cam is another form of insurance. I feel a bit exposed currently with the Lexus, as the dash cam I had in the C220 doesn't "fit" the Lexus because of the mirror/screen positions, so I'm waiting delivery of one that will.

I even have a dash cam in the three wheeler, and think that they ought to be OE, if not a legal requirement. But as always, see my sig.

Malcolm

 

[kid-jensen]

I'm considering buying a cheap one because I'm not convinced they're worth splashing serious cash on.....mainly because sods law says they will miss the very incident they were bought for.
I love my gadgets, so I'll probably get one soon. Passable ones that have good video quality under street lighting seem to start around £40, so trivial really.

What's holding me back is my "gadget-boy" mate who bought one 2 years ago. I told him at the time I was interested and he should email me the first clip showing some idiot cutting him up or whatever.

2 years on, he still havsn't seen anything worth keeping.

 

[moonloops]

I think the world has overdosed on Ukrainan youtube videos...

Keep clear of Ka's Corsa's Courier vans and mincabs after dark, and I think your fine. Ultimately you could worry about everything, for the last 12 years I had a 130 mile commute, never got rammed/rear ended/abducted by aliens etc.

100% agree - it reminds me of when everyone started to buy blackjax anti car jacking systems. The chance of been carjacked or needing a dashcam are very, very low in the UK, we don't drive like a 3rd world country such as Russia that has 5 times the UK road fatality rate.

 

[TheFoX]

100% agree - it reminds me of when everyone started to buy blackjax anti car jacking systems. The chance of been carjacked or needing a dashcam are very, very low in the UK, we don't drive like a 3rd world country such as Russia that has 5 times the UK road fatality rate.

You see, I disagree.

I have been driving for approximately 30 years, and have only had two accidents, both the fault of the other party, and both at junctions.

The first accident was a 'cash for crash' back in 2000. Unfortunately for the other party, it happened right outside my workplace so there were plenty of witnesses to back my side up.

It was the second accident that I would have really appreciated the dashcam though. In brief, I was driving along the road following a Peugeot 107 that was some distance ahead of us. The car indicated and took a left turn, then proceeded to do a U-Turn back towards the junction. Then the driver stopped at the junction as if they had seen us, but they hadn't. The reason the driver stopped was because she had a telematic box in her car and wanted to register that she had stopped at the 'Give Way' marker. She then pulled out in front of us while I was doing 50mph in a National Speed Limit zone. I was hospitalised for the day, and needed a month off work, while my elderly mother was hospitalised for a week, spent the next month as an outpatient, then spent the next six months recovering from her wounds.

(To give some scale the how bad the accident was, I was forced to ram her because if I had swerved any more, I would have hit a telegraph pole, which would have killed us outright. The doctor was flown in to deal with my mother's injuries at the scene. My mother had to have numerous chest aspirations due to blood build up. The SportKA only had a driver's airbag.)

Accidents happen for two reasons. The obvious one is cash for crash, where people are trying an insurance fraud, but the other one is simply stupidity. We are driving powerful vehicles capable of high speeds, and the prerequisite of driving such vehicles is that we use our eyes.

If I never have another accident before I die, I would never say buying a dashcam is a waste of money. Even if I never have another accident, if my dashcam witnesses an accident between other drivers, it can still help the Police in portioning the blame.

It is so easy to say something with hindsight, but we need foresight to know how to best protect us, and in my opinion a dashcam is a must have device to record what is happening on the roads today.

 

[ioweddie]

I've got this, high quality item well worth the money, I spent a long time reading all the reviews on all types and this one is the best for me:
Transcend Drivepro 220 (2.4 Inch) Car Video Recorder 16GB (Black) - Ebuyer

Hers the write up re fitting it:
I thought I'd share how I wired my dash camera in my W205 sport line.
The power lead plug supplied with the camera would not allow the lid to shut on the cubbyhole on the centre consul. I decided to use one of the USB slots instead. I bought a long USB 'A' to USB 'B' cable but initially it conflicted with data on the camera, after a little research on Google I found out how to adapt the cable to power only:
Make an incision in the cable about an inch long, carefully cut through and remove the silvery wire screen to create an inch long gap, then carefully expose the 4 wires (white green black red) cut the white and green wires only, snip them at the direction of the 'A' USB connector, this should leave the white and green wires about 1 inch long, remove a little of the insulation and twist the bare wires together, (this will short out the data part of the USB cable).
Fold the wires back towards the USB 'B@ small end and tape up with electricians tape. The Red and Black wires now also need wrapping in electricians tape to strengthen the weekend area. The camera will now be powered via the USB socked with no conflict of data. The connection automatically switches on and off with the ignition, with about 20 seconds delay on turning off. I positioned the camera (transcend 220) just to the left of the rear view mirror as high as possible, I ran the cable over the mirror mount, tucked it up behind the head lining, down inside the drivers windscreen pillar and behind the door rubber, back across under the dash where it tucks up nicely, then I fed it into the small gap along the lower edge of the centre consul where it joins the carpet right along to the back end of the centre consul and up into the back edge of the arm rest, the door shut ok and you can only see a very small bit of wire where it exits the join of the centre consul and carpet up to the arm rest.
The USB cable needs to be 3.5 metres long. I used a 2.5 and an extension as the first one I bought was not quite long enough.

 

[T5R+]

Fitted in all my cars - solely because as a society we have more liars, cheats and dishonesty than ever before.

Never (luckily) had an accident but do believe that would hold up my hands if it was my fault HOWEVER given the stories of blatant lies and fraud in the various forums thought it may be useful to fit dashcams "just in case".

 

[uumode]

If I look at my own driving history of 27 years, despite having seen stupid acts of driving, careless drivers and near misses if I had a dashcam for those 27 years I wouldn't have called on its use from a legal / claims point of view. It would however provided lots of amusing and shocking behaviour videos for YouTube entertainment/enlightenment.

Having said that its like a fire extinguisher or house insurance. You might not need to call on it in a lifetime but it's there for a reason.

My father was invoked in a fatal accident, but we don't know what happened. A family friend was involved in a head on collision, and he can't recall what happened as his mind was totally blanked. He just remembers waking up in hospital.
In those cases it would be useful.

I'm thinking of installing into my new car.

I'm disappointed that there is no dashcam on Mercedes option list since the car already has surround cameras - front, rear and side cameras which it could hook up to the onboard storage and augment this with the onboard radar systems front, side and rear which are already used for the anti collision systems.

Then append the GPS data for speed and location to form an integrated dashcam solution.

 

[j.schmeltzer]

I have one in both cars. £50 off ebay, another £50 to hardwire in by a professional auto electrician. Isle of Wight roads are narrow and mainland visitors in large 4x4s
tend to drift into oncoming traffic. Also many bicycles wobbling around in the holiday season. They won't prevent an accident/incident but could provide valuable evidence after the fact.

 

[B33fy]

A couple of RoadHawks installed front and back, after being hit whilst parked then the driver lied stating I reversed into her..

 

[bpsorrel]

we don't drive like a 3rd world country such as Russia that has 5 times the UK road fatality rate.

I'm currently driving around Russia and totally agree with this comment.

The driving standard here is atrocious. Already I've had three near misses, one I averted last week could have been a tragedy and only by a LOT of luck and observation skills (something Russians don't seem to have) did we come out of it unscathed. Dash cams are an absolute must here. In UK I'd disagree.

Take it from me, the driving standard in the UK is 100s of times better than here!

 

[John Jones Jr]

If not, what is your reason for dismissing this idea?

I know I'm on hiding to nothing but here goes.

They may be cheap and they can assist in an accident. That goes without saying but I really believe there's far more to these cameras that just that.

For starters I think they create a vigilante mentality among some and also distract drivers from concentrating on the road while trying to capture footage of other drivers and their behaviour. Also too, I suspect they make drivers feel a bit more safer and possibly a little more invincible too.

Then there's the insurance aspect. What's ultimately going to happen is premiums will not decrease for those with cameras but rise for those that don't. Plus there maybe an obligation on those that have cameras declared on their policies to make sure they are functioning correctly and if they are not it could affect the outcome of the insurance claim. Speculation on my part some would say, but that's what I truly believe.

Besides all of the above, the very nature of cameras watching our every move is bad enough, especially from a road uses perspective (e.g cash cameras), ridiculous speed limits etc is one reason I won't add to it with a dash camera. If I did, to me that would mean I endorse cameras everywhere and support the low level of road policing.

One other point, if we are really concerned about road safety and protecting our insurance NCB and feel the need to fit cameras, why not take advance driving lessons too, buy the very best of tyres etc, etc. Oh, and learn to read the road ahead!

Yeah, I know I'm in the minority but I'm totally happy driving without one even in the S.E..