Can i just ‘jump in’ here to ask about the rationale for having a dash cam at all? As far as I understand it they serve 2 possible purposes. Firstly to keep an ongoing video record of every trip in case of accident thereby creating evidence. And secondly to record interesting drives (as in driving motion as oppose the drive that you park it on!). Clearly they are very popular and there appears to be a huge market.
Does anyone here have experience of having had an accident where the dash cam evidence actually saved the day? As you’ve probably guessed I don’t have one but I’m curious to understand why they are so popular and if I’m missing a trick?
Thoughts appreciated and apologies to OP for slight hijack.
I had a bad accident in my Volvo a few years ago when I was forced off the road up a bank by another car on a bend.
It’s driver blamed me 100% for the accident and, claimed his top of the range Merc was a write-off, and sued me for the lot.
I had still photos of the cars afterwards but no video. I showed that his car was already part-rusted with a collection of scratches and dents and used Google Earth pictures to support my narrative of the event. So, with help from my insurer’s solicitors, I offered to appear in court. and he backed down.
It would have been so much easier with a live video so I went and had one fitted immediately.
2 weeks ago, in the MX-5, a cyclist pedalled out of a side-road straight across me causing an emergency stop. It was all recorded, including my speed at 26mph. If I had hit him I had my defence!
What more do you need?
I can see that under such circumstances it could help to have one. I was side swiped by a left hand drive lorry on the motorway last December (in my daily driver, not the 5) but I guess a forward or rearward facing camera would not have picked this up.
Good Point “safetymatch”, should have realised that myself.
The fused circuit for cigarette lighter should be a good or best choice to piggyback.
Although the info on hard wiring provided by “essexlad” does read “that the rating of the original fuse is of no importance , however it is recommended that the maximum rating is no more than 20 amps”
Wife works in a technical claims role for a large insurance co. They are using dash cam evidence more and more. Even as a witness and not directly involved it can be of use. The police like it as well as, with video evidence, the perpetrator hasn’t a leg to stand on.
A couple of other uses is in a smash for cash situation or even vandalism if you have a camera with a motion activation setting.
Ideally front and rear cameras are best.
Plus some insurance cos are offering a discount if you have cameras fitted.
I have a forward only dashcam presently, but will be fitting a rear camera also to the MX5 on collection.
I submitted footage of a reckless driver only last week to the plod, but as I didn’t have a picture of the drivers face they could not pursue this idiot.
Looks good so far. Need to route the cables and I have fitted the rear camera incorrectly as the rear view is currently reversed! Will sort tomorrow and post some pictures of the units fitted and some footage.
I know this is an old quote but still may be worth replying to. A while back my wife had an accident while I was in the passenger seat. It was very clearly 100% the fault of the other driver and as she genuinely had a neck problem making it a personal injury accident I called police. Now cut to four months later when my totally innocent wife was offered a safe driving course, which she refused. She was then charged with Driving without Due Care and Attention. We then saw the total and complete lies the other driver wrote in a statement which had massively out of scale drawing attached.
A not guilty plea followed by me spending time making proper scale drawings and photographing the road, engaging a solicitor and then a barrister. The resulted in a Not Guilty verdict some two years after the incident with full costs awarded to my wife. It took another few months for insurers to accept that Not Guilty also meant the other guy was guilty (although never charged) and for her no claim bonus to be reinstated and a cheque for injuries and her insurance excess to arrive.
We then realised that dash cam footage would have totally proved she was innocent. both our cars have had dash cams since.
Back to topic and I have a small Mio dash cam fitted on the drivers side of the mirror and it was easy to push the cable under the screen trim to hide it. it sits slightly below the mirror but does not obstruct my view and its easy to forget its there. It also has a speed camera warning which is a lot better then the Mazda one so is worth having for that alone. My wife has a Hyundai and uses a Garmin satnav with built in dash cam that I bought for my BMW Z3. Saves a bit of screen real estate and only one cable to hide.
This is my quick review of the above Dash Cam, as fitted to my ND Arctic model.
The main camera and mounting unit is your typical sucker type adjustable mount. Couple of minutes fiddling had this in a suitable position and set up ready to go. There is a ‘Y’ lead from this, with one lead going to the power source, either 12V cigarette lighter socket or a USB. I chose to use the former. The other lead is for connecting to the rear camera. I fed the leads into the trim panels as shown in pictures below, and presently have a loop next to the central mirror, as the bundled cables here are quite thick. I think there is room to put behind the light panel and will do it at some point, but wanted to get up and running and really test the cameras quickly.
