Dashcams

Just over a week ago, I was the ‘victim’ of road rage. A nice young gentleman decided to cut across in front of me and come to a complete stop while striking the front left quarter of my car against his right rear in the process. He then jumped out of the car and accused me of brake checking him a number of times, all the while adopting an aggressive stance, while his pal circled around behind my car.

After getting out and making it clear they weren’t going to intimidate me, we exchanged details, took photos of what turned out to be nothing more than a few scuff marks and went our separate ways. I’ve heard nothing since so I figure it has likely blown over now. What is apparent is that a dashcam would have captured the moment this chap pulled across in front of me before stopping and then jumping out like a madman, and I could have taken this straight to the police.

Does anyone have any experience of these cameras? I’ve read lots of reviews but thought I’d see if anyone has any tips on what to look for. I quite like the look of the Nextbase 512GW having read a lot of positive reviews but I’m really wondering what sort of experience people have had with either this model or any other.

Oh, I was in the daily work hack, not the Coupé.

I think they are becoming a must have thing. I have a cheap one in my motorhome and a mate has just given me one similar to the one your looking at i think i'll be fitting one of them in the coop. (pity there's no coop versus thread nowadays :))

I haven't done any research but I believe some of them have motion sensors on so you can use them to safeguard your car too.

Got one in my car - it was fitted by the last owner.

Quality is ok. But It’s a few years old now so newer models will probably be better.

I passed on some footage of an accident to the police any they weren’t interested. Well I never got any acknowledgement or follow up.

I’m suspicious of the intent of these things. If you’re driving well and with consideration for other road users then I think the need for these things is minimal. They’ve become quite common for bicycle commuters but there is also a sense that people using them are looking to be outraged.

I had a twunt threaten me after I flashed him for jumping a red just across my bows but I could deal with it without a camera.

A dashcam was invaluable evidence for dlongstaff IIRC when he was rear-end shunted waiting at a pedestrian crossing.

You should have seen the expressions on the faces of people crossing as his car leapt toward them upon collision

I've occasionally used my Gopro as a dashcam and on my motorbike. Normally for events, track days etc, but sometimes for commuting. I did once catch a guy overtake a whole queue of us on the white hatched lines on a slip road which was v. dangerous and annoying.

I'd like a cheap system that just "works" when you get in and drive. Handy for that one time you need the evidence as you say.

Most of them start recording as soon as the ignition is switched on, and record in chunks of several minutes until the memory card is full, then it records over the oldest chunks. You can protect chunks from being overwritten so as to preserve "evidence" and if the DashCam has GPS it can record your position and speed, good for logging progress at track events!

Just having this hard-wired into my ST next week, cost more than I wanted to pay but a LOT cheaper and more secure than some fool deliberately making you crash in to them - and if they do it to me, I would hope the footage would assist Plod in making an arrest........ You can get Dash Cams for as little as £14 off Wowcher and they work ok, just less reliable and far less stable.

http://www.costco.co.uk/view/p/cobra-cdr905bt-dual-hd-frontrear-facing-dash-cam-1145245

I undertand what you mean, but for me, after this incident the other day, if I'd had to 'deal with it' in a different way, it would be nice to have some evidence of how it got there.

Despite this bloke stopping sideways across the road in front of me, no one nearby slowed in the slightest so there was no chance of a witness.

I've also heard and read a lot of experiences about this whole 'crash for cash' thing lately too.

As others have said, it would just be nice to have something in the car you can forget about until that one moment. It's also pretty good to have a decent camera in the car if you ever wanted to record a drive, trackday, or car meet etc. I'v ordered a Garmin 55 one now

they can generate some amusing/total stupidity clips

e.g. To Quote MRS 'Twunts' ...

That's one of the stories my sister told me!

For some good recomendations and reviews check out Techmoan YouTube channel.

I've been following this chap for years and have bought a few items based on his reviews. Unfortuntely, he doesn't seem to have reviewed any of the dashcams recomended by the other sites I use such as TechAdvisor, Techradar etc.

He (techmaon) has just reviewed the YI 2.7k dash cam and recommends it. They can be had for less than £104 on Amazon UK and a bit less if you don't mind it being shipped from China.

Here (currently on special as far as i can tell)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/-/328351...30-0600ec9b8932

I think this would be a good option.





Although having said that, with the camera being so tall, it may be a problem on speed bumps.

The thing with that camera is that you see an awful lot of bare bottoms. This may or may not be an issue for you...

I would just want it to work without any problems. No ifs, ands, or butts.

<Well caught, sir!>

I have had a dash cam fitted and although it’s a cheapy of eBay it has reasonable quality video and pretty much looks after itself. I have not had to use any footage as yet but had plenty of near misses that make me glad I have it as a back up.