I have a Petrol Prices sourced voucher for 25% off a Nextbase dash-cam from Halfords.
No I love a deal, but in the real world what are the plus points for these, are they a gimmick for the "one-up" brigade and is a dash-cam at£49, less 25% worth having?
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Well look at it like this. I guess you have been driving for around 60 years. Have you ever found a a need for a video of your driving? If you have managed up to now I wouldn't bother.
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If you don't drive into and become part of problems you don't need one, if you have a bump let the insurance sort it out, that's what you pay them for.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 19 May 16 at 20:44
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If you drive large annual mileages then I think a dashcam could be very useful. Some scroats tried to scam my ex in a car park in South Yorkshire... Single female, Passat which looked like a company car. Police were involved and told her a dashcam would have saved lots of time & aggro.
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>> Police were involved and told her a dashcam would have saved lots of time & aggro.
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Who, saved them time and aggro?
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 19 May 16 at 20:55
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A dashcam would have immediately shown the police the actual circumstances. Ie they reversed into her, not she drove into them. They had an old car, wanted her insurance to pay for some repairs and claim for whiplash.
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I thought so, save the police the hassle of investigating and reporting to the insurance company and the insurance company investigating a fraud.
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>> I thought so, save the police the hassle of investigating and reporting to the insurance
>> company and the insurance company investigating a fraud.
>>
Surely a good thing, the quicker they find out what happened the quicker it'll get sorted.
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Notwithstanding LL's valid comments, they're a bit of a trendy "must have". If you've got the spare cash, by all means get one. As has been said, in 45 years of driving I've never come across an occasion where it would have been of any use, and I'm not about to rush off and buy one.
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Can't be long before a dashcam becomes part of the standard kit. After all, even fairly ordinary cars now come with forward-facing sensors to drive lights and wipers, so integrating that with a lens and a storage system would be trivial. As with navigation systems, it would be more discreet than a bulky aftermarket job too.
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Surprised they aren't already on the options list
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And it could all be uploaded to Google. Handy for the police too.
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Ye gods, haven't they got enough cameras to access. You can't drive far without featuring on a roadside or ANPR camera. If you are really lucky it will be a speed camera. I could monitor the local cameras online to check up on Mrs ON if I wanted to.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 19 May 16 at 22:52
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It's all very well saying you haven't needed one for the past 40 odd years, but driving conditions have changed an awful lot in recent years. As cars become faster, road holding and brakes have improved immeasurably and as an occupant, you feel far more cocooned than ever in your safe passenger cell. Personally I think that this separation from reality with modern cars has led to an increasing amount of stupid death defying driving standards. Especially on some of the country roads in my part of the world. And inner city areas.
A recent local case, where tragically a cyclist was killed, led to a prolonged court case. The driver was eventually found not guilty of careless driving, and if a dashcam had been installed in said car the case would have been far more black & white.
I've almost talked myself into getting one....
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Since I started my 40 mile commute I regularly witness "something". Got a good discount on a Roadhawk HD - nice bit of kit. Plug and play.
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>>Can't be long before a dashcam becomes part of the standard kit. <<
Then becomes part of the MoT Test?
All in the pursuit of safety and investiagation.
How long before the historic data can be down loaded on the fly passing a police'acces point'? NIP follows by electronic mail and non compliance results in disabling of the vehicle remotely. No need to remove and crush then! Welcome to 1984.
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>> Then becomes part of the MoT Test?
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It already is, leave it stuck to the screen within the wiper arc and it should be a fail.
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>> Then becomes part of the MoT Test?
How so?
There are many things fitted to a car that aren't part of an MOT test.
eg,
Front and Rear Position Lamps and Registration Plate Lamps
Additional or optional lamps are not included in the inspection. e.g. spot lights, front fog lights. Unless they pose a hazard to other people. i.e. broken glass.
Roadwheels
This inspection applies to: the road wheels fitted to the vehicle at the time of inspection only. The vehicle presenter should be informed if a defect is noticed on a spare wheel. i.e. the spare tyre could be as bald as a badgers backside and it would still not fail an MOT test.
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>> There are many things fitted to a car that aren't part of an MOT test.
eg,
Front and Rear Position Lamps and Registration Plate Lamps
Really? My present car failed its first MOT as follows:
Reason(s) for failure
Nearside Registration plate lamp not illuminating the registration plate (1.1.C.1e)
Offside Registration plate lamp not illuminating the registration plate (1.1.C.1e)
It was paint on the lampbulbs, which they scraped off during the test (in a way they had to as they supplied the car and clearly failed with their delivery checks). I couldn't help thinking that they were merely keeping their MOT failure rates high.
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My SAAB failed on reg plate lamp this year:
Test date: 5 April 2016
Test Result: Fail
Odometer reading: 137,657 miles
MOT test number: 5873 2878 3302
Reason(s) for failure:
Registration plate lamp not working (1.1.C.1d)
Advisory notice item(s):
nearside rear upper Suspension arm has slight play in a pin/bush (2.4.G.2)
offside rear upper Suspension arm has slight play in a pin/bush (2.4.G.2)
offside front Brake pad(s) wearing thin (3.5.1g)
sill covers fitted
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>> Front and Rear Position Lamps and Registration Plate Lamps
>>
>> Really? My present car failed its first MOT as follows:
I was quoting the header from the MOT Testers Manual. Sorry if it mislead you into thinking they weren't part of the test.
www.motuk.co.uk/manual/contents.htm
And then sub quoting items that aren't subject to an MOT test. eg front fog lights.
www.motuk.co.uk/manual_110.htm
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Worth having in my opinion.
Our own, and friends experience suggest that there is a greater than even chance that the person who crashes into you, apologises and accepts full responsibility, will tell a different story when it comes to informing their insurer.
It may also be useful as a contemporaneous, provable record of your own conduct. The boss learned something interesting - she ran into the back of another car about 18 months ago that she was absolutely certain had set off and stopped again. She was bang to rights anyway of course, but the video showed that it had never moved. Memory is unreliable.
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Sometimes you might capture something interesting, weird or funny, and make your fortune on YouTube. I have recounted here before an artic doing 180 degrees in front of me on the M6, that was quie spectacular and would have attracted a few hits I expect.
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Some have posted that if you've not had an accident in the last xx number of years, it's not worth investing in one now. That's a bit like saying I've never had a crash in 40 years so I won't bother with insurance! Yes, I know insurance is compulsory, but you get the idea.
Like insurance, the camera is there just in case you need it. Video evidence might just make the difference between sorting your claim in weeks rather than months or years.
These days the camera's are fairly unobtrusive and the Nextbase ones will turn on and start recording the moment you start your engine. What's not to like.
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That's a bit like saying I've never had a crash in 40 years so I won't bother with insurance!
No it's nothing like saying that.
I can't remember ever having an incident where the the fact did not more or less speak for themselves and the insurance claim quickly resolved. I can conceive of incidents where a video might be useful in a claim but they are vanishingly rare.
Dashcams seem to me to be a device for the paranoid or even worse, motoring vigilantes desperate to post incidents on YouTube or report them to the police.
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Oh dear, someone does not understand even the basics of probabilities. Leaving aside weighted double sided coins, the odds on throwing a head on a coin toss are a half. But if you throw 99 tails in row, apart from it being an unlikely event, the odds on the next toss are still 50% for a head.
One of the reasons why the Monty Hall problem attracts so many wrong answers, even from folk who should know better. The explanations on the web are mostly tortuous and some are just plain wrong too, I provide a better one on my website. Just Google my screen name...
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Always enjoyed the Monty Hall debates :-)
Like talking to Flat Earthers.
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I might be tempted to a camera at some point, but the thought of adding to the spaghetti of charging cables on and near the dash of my car puts me off at present. Maybe when they are built in.
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I can't understand why they have to be powered full time and not work on rechargeable batteries. I have one wire danglng down the screen slightly to the left of the mirror.
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Batteries won't last long running an HD camera and guaranteed you'd forget to charge them every day or two.
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>> Like talking to Flat Earthers.
There's a very funny Kipling story, 'The Village that Voted the Earth was Flat'. At one point someone burns the slogan: The Earth IS Flat' into the landowner's (he is the butt of the piece) park wall with acid, making the slogan unremovable.
One wonders whether people really did things like that in Edwardian times. I do hope they did.
Kipling was always a schoolboy really. My kind of guy but harder than me and more cruel. .
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Back to dash cams.
You can get a 1080 HD dash cam from Aliexpress ( big Chinese site-I have had various items inc 2x phones without probs, if you will wait for delivery from China) for less than £10.
It comes with a car charger and a windscreen sucker. Will take a 32GB card-also cheap off Aliexpress.
May be worth a punt-very little to lose.
I have just received a blue trace mouse which works well on m y patterned sofa arm for £5.04 delivered of an Aliexpresss seller.
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Techmoan speaks well of the G1W - the latest version is the G1W-CB, the 'C' means a capacitor instead of a battery, and 'B' means black bezel (I think)
£44.95 on Amazon tinyurl.com/jkeg7sr
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Techmoan is a very good reviewer of dashcams and various products. He lives not all that far from me, so I recognise many of the roads he demonstrates the value of various dashcams on his website...:-)
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I don't want one and have never had an instance when one would have been useful. Same view as I have on horn blowing in truth. In 40 years and many many miles I've never felt the need to use that either. In that same period I've not so far anyway, ever had an accident either. I rely on using my own judgement to avoid the proximity of those who are driving badly rather than filming them or blowing horns at them. I'll leave that to those who are paid to do so.
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You ever thought of teaching your missus the same driving principles???
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I have a Mobius dashcam.
First got one for our Americsn road trip and I have great videos of Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Vegas and LA.
I just leave it to record away and every couple of weeks I just take the card out to check it's still recording.
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>> I rely on using my own judgement to avoid the proximity of those who are driving badly
I don't think your judgement would have avoided this one.
www.itv.com/news/2016-05-26/driver-in-road-rage-crash-that-left-two-girls-paralysed-faces-prison/
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"I don't think your judgement would have avoided this one."
It seems to me the fact that the collision was recorded on the victim's dashcam ensured the perpetrator was suitably convicted and sentenced.
It's certainly not always possible to protect yourself by driving carefully and if I were on the receiving end of something like the case mentioned above, and there were any ambiguity in other evidence, I would hope my dashcam would provide something useful.
A dashcam of course also provides evidence of one's own driving.
Last edited by: Focal Point on Fri 27 May 16 at 15:10
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My desire to play with toys has overcome my reluctance to spend money - I've bought a dash-cam!
I've gone for a lower end one, the Nextbase 212, from Halford's, discounted to £59.
Nextbase branded 32 GB SD cards are a whopping £15, so I managed to find a special offer at Sainsbury's, of all places, on a Sandisk class 10 32GB card, with adaptor, for £9.60.
I jury rigged the camera to trial it and it seems good enough to have it hard-wired in to the car, so I have an appointment tomorrow, Sunday, for this to be done.
I could not face the hassle of securing droopy wires inside the car and finding a way into the fuse box, so Halford's are doing it for £30, to include the vastly overpriced, (£20) Nextbase hard wiring kit.
So all-in cost will be £98.60.
SWMBO has graciously consented to the expense, partly motivated by a dash-cam shot of a severe RTA, resulting in serious injury to two young girls. (Shown in this part of the world on TV news recently.)
Now I start the campaign to have a rear facing cam, as well :-)
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Roger, Ive never met you, I don't know you, and therefore I am not entitled to any opinion about you. So please accept in advance my apologies in advance for what I am about to type next.
But, in my very personal opinion, anyone who feels the need to use a dashcam, is either a techno nerd, or a knob, or more than probably, both.
No possible need for them, it's simply a really good plan to use your eyes, your judgement and your cynicism to avoid the "others".
;-)
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X2
If someone is going to try and take you out a camera will not stop them. Your attention to the task of driving might. If it all goes pear shaped the insurance will pick up the pieces.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 28 May 16 at 22:15
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The whole thing is going to hell in a hand cart. If we allow and accept a society that needs and wants photographic evidence to pass on on to Big Brother every time we encounter a bit of local difficulty then we need our collective backsides kicking.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sat 28 May 16 at 22:41
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What big brother are you talking about, Car insurance companies?
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'No possible need for them, it's simply a really good plan to use your eyes, your judgement and your cynicism to avoid the "others".'
As has been said above, it isn't always possible to avoid the others, and the case mentioned showed this.
I hope you aren't suggesting that if anyone has a dashcam it proves they are not using their other faculties.
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It's almost always possible to avoid the others. Most "accidents" or more accurately collisions, involve someone doing something stupid and someone else not noticing in time.
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To be fair, Roger's post does start with "My desire to play with toys ..."
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Let me tell you a story:
I entered the motorway and was confronted by a pair of cars in front of me whose occupants appeared to be having a conversation. One car passed the other and at an exit, the front car left the motorway suddenly and the following one braked hard. I was, fortunately, following at sufficient distance to avoid rear-ending them.
I bought a dash-cam.
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Or, in other words, because you were paying attention, an incident occurred and nothing bad happened. Filming it wouldn't have helped in any way. Life went on.
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So why do you bother with insurance? I guess because it's a legal requirement. But do you have personal, household and travel insurance or do you manage to foresee everything which could happen and thereby save yourself some money? :-)
Anyway it's a bit of fun... and you might capture something which goes viral on YouTube!!
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The firm I work for has to have them installed in all of their lorries as part of their Insurance company (Aviva) terms for our vehicles.
This is a pretty common thing now for HGV's and most insurance companies insist upon them so how long will it be before their is a reduction in premium for having one fitted in a car?
Pat
Last edited by: Pat on Sun 29 May 16 at 05:24
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so how long will it be before their is a reduction in premium for
>> having one fitted in a car?
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not very long i wouldn't have thought.
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Only if it is cost effective for the insurance companies, HGVs do vast mileage compared to the average driver. The average car spends most of its time stationary as a driveway or car park ornament.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 29 May 16 at 07:58
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>> Only if it is cost effective for the insurance companies,
That goes without saying, I was thinking more along the lines of the black boxes that available for those under 25 that cut their premium if they fit one.
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I think that the description of those of us who have opted for a dash-cam is as techno-nerds or worse, is a bit harsh.
Having one fitted will not change my approach to driving, although some reviewers have said that it has improved theirs. I hope that I'll remain aware and forward looking in terms of traffic ahead of me - I'm a lot more cautious now, without being a mimser, than I was a few years - OK a LOT of years ago.
I try to observe good lane discipline and correct road positioning and, in the interests of fuel economy, don't thrash my Jazz - the OAP's car - as I did when I had a Cooper S.
Yes - it's a bit of a toy for me and is probably not fully justified by the limited mileage we drive these days. but you never know, an accident may happen and it's very easy to blame an 80 year old for causing it.
The day WILL come when I'm not safe to drive: it will be a huge blow, but I hope that I'm man enough to realise it and give up gracefully.
Last edited by: Roger. on Sun 29 May 16 at 09:47
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I have a dash cam in my car and a GoPro on my bike. I use to to capture photos of the unusual cars and other vehicles I see on my travels...I love cars and bikes...I'm a techno-nerd and possibly even a knob !
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I'm just back from Halford's having had the cam hard wired in.
I must say the lad who fitted it did an excellent job of hiding all the wires and it looks very neat.
It took him about half an hour, so I reckon the price was a bargain. I had to produce my purchase receipt, to prove I'd bought it there, to qualify for this price.
First impressions of daylight playback footage on my laptop, using VLC media player is pretty impressive. The recorded files are in .mov format which VLC can handle.
My only caveat is that the unit is fitted on the passenger side of the car, making it a bit of a stretch to reach it for settings and positioning to get a decent road view.
I was told that such positioning is a legal requirement, but I doubt that - I think it's OK on the driver's side as long as it does not protrude into line of vision by more than the legal amount.
A night time test of video quality is scheduled.
Pleased with it so far............
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I don't want a dash cam, but can see their usefulness in places where there is an above average rate of appalling driving. I see it every time in drive in Bradford & Keighley. Obviously I try yto keep out of the way of these idiots, most of whom are uninsured or no licence, but quite a few other motorists don't. You not have to read the local press to see the scale of it.
Apart from that it could be very embarrassing having a film of my occasional German tune ups, especially being an IAM member. Tut tut LL!!
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I'm with Rog on this one too. We might all be perfect drivers, but there is always the (tiny) risk of something bizarre happening, and video evidence might just help your case.
Now that the technology has become so plentiful and cheap, why not?
Bet your LEC has a reversing camera, Runf? We all got by for years without them, and you may never use yours, but no harm in the masses having them, if they prevent one impact or injury!
All that said, I don't have a dash cam installed! Will probably get around to it one day, when the right (cheap) offer, and help with installation, comes along (just like Rog has)...
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>I use to to capture photos of the unusual cars and other vehicles I see on my travels...
You've nearly talked me into one! I see quite a few interesting things on the road, as I do similar mileage to Runfer, but I can never remember the details to try to look them up when I get home.
Capturing an accident would be, a possibly useful, by-product.
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>> Filming it wouldn't have helped in any way.
It has actually. There was a gang going round deliberately slamming on their brakes in front of people in the hope they'd get rear ended and claim for whiplash, etc. Someone's dash cam footage managed to eventually catch them and they got took to court over it.
Another example was a woman who was trying the same trick in an old beaten up estate car. She'd claim the person behind hit her car, but it was proved via dash cam footage that no one had actually hit the rear of her car. She too got prosecuted over it.
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Dashcams - CGNorwich
