Dashcams - talk to me?

[981Boxess]

A mate of mine has just had an accident where he was 100% innocent and his dashcam is the only reason he could prove it, so reluctantly I have decided I should have them on my cars.

I want something a bit better than what you would find in the middle aisle of Lidl but it doesn’t need to be the best all singing and dancing model. Not bothered about rear cameras or battery back ups, just a decent front dashcam footage.

The two brands that seem to stick out so far are Nextbase (not too keen on looks) and Blackvue (looks a bit better, less visible) but open to other makes.

I will be wiring into the fusebox and want the parking facilty, other than that I am open to suggestions, budget around £200 each, a bit either way won’t matter.
Not bothered about GPS/what3words/Alexa, basically all I want is decent day/night footage showing whoever drives into the front of my car and then claims it was my fault (eg).

Also, from user experience, what size of memory cards do people have and how long is the recording loop based on your resolutions?

Many thanks in advance for any input.

[mikef]

I suspect you will want GPS, as that s what gives location and speed (even if you don t want to stamp that onto the images)

With NextBase, the models with higher resolution images seem to come with Alexa, etc. I just don t use Alexa, but when you need to check images, 4K is a good thing to have

NextBase also offer a professional at-home install service at reasonable cost, I ve used that a couple of times

It s hard to fit a NextBase rear-view camera to convertibles and some couples (with the Cayman they can t use the window suction cup and would have to drill to fit, which I didn t want). The NextBase on-camera rear-view modules seems to be designed to work with LHD cars only

[scrounger73]

Have a look at Viofo. All 4 cars in our household have the A229 model.

[981Boxess]

scrounger73 said:

Have a look at Viofo. All 4 cars in our household have the A229 model.

I did thanks, they sound just the job technically and not silly money but look a little bulky to me, maybe they look better in real life than on google images? I will have to have one simply because that is the way insurance/driving is today but I hate clutter on the windscreen and was even pleased when tax disc went.

Out of interest, given you have a few, have any of your insurers actually knocked anything off for having a dashcam?

[981Boxess]

mikef said:

It s hard to fit a NextBase rear-view camera to convertibles and some couples (with the Cayman they can t use the window suction cup and would have to drill to fit, which I didn t want). The NextBase on-camera rear-view modules seems to be designed to work with LHD cars only

Came across this if that solves your problem (I have a Boxster):

eBay item number:125949755973

[Furbo]

981Boxess said:

A mate of mine has just had an accident where he was 100% innocent and his dashcam is the only reason he could prove it, so reluctantly I have decided I should have them on my cars.

I had an incident in my only car that had a dashcam, the bus driver who hit me lied and my dashcam saved the day. So I had them fitted in our other cars.

I bought Finevu because that is what our preferred ICE supplier suggested. Aside from being a bit "chatty" - they do indeed "talk to me" - if you don't turn it down a bit they seem fine.

[mikef]

981Boxess said:

Came across this if that solves your problem (I have a Boxster):

eBay item number:125949755973

Cool,

Thanks

[alltalk]

Assume it cuts both ways if it is your fault you will be expected to share the footage, I'm sure the first question on a claim now is "is there any dashcam footage ?".

[981Boxess]

alltalk said:

Assume it cuts both ways if it is your fault you will be expected to share the footage, I'm sure the first question on a claim now is "is there any dashcam footage ?".

If it is my fault I have no problem sharing the footage or taking the blame for it, I don't expect anyone other than me or my insurers to pay for my mistakes.

However, in the accident mentioned in my first post the guy who hit my mate's car came around a bend more than a foot over the middle line, took the side out of his car and then claimed my mate was driving on the wrong side of the road and hit him. Try proving that with no witnesses (everyone drove around them and cleared off), his dashcam clearly showed that.

[LOTUS110]

Porsche club GB members can get a discount of Nextbase products.

[Jones the cat]

[981Boxess]

Jones the cat said:

My cover is blown

[sgrimshaw]

Just an FYI ....

If you have a Porsche Warranty, original or extended, hard wiring a dash cam is considered a modification and will jeopardise your warranty.

[Furbo]

sgrimshaw said:

Just an FYI ....

If you have a Porsche Warranty, original or extended, hard wiring a dash cam is considered a modification and will jeopardise your warranty.

Hmmm I’ve seen them continue cover on cars with dash cams.

[981Boxess]

sgrimshaw said:

Just an FYI ....

If you have a Porsche Warranty, original or extended, hard wiring a dash cam is considered a modification and will jeopardise your warranty.

There are plenty of things in life that we would be right to worry about, that isn't one of them IMO.

[bad company]

981Boxess said:

sgrimshaw said:

Just an FYI ....

If you have a Porsche Warranty, original or extended, hard wiring a dash cam is considered a modification and will jeopardise your warranty.

There are plenty of things in life that we would be right to worry about, that isn't one of them IMO.

I have a dash cam and Ghost immobiliser fitted. I’d be amazed if any manufacturer used that as an excuse to void a warranty claim.

[Popolou]

IIRC they cannot attempt to void the warranty for an unrelated item so your dashcam won't invalidate a claim for the PDK failing. I cannot recall if that was also the case for the extended policy too but someone who knows may be able to say.

[PaulD86]

For similar reasons to the OP, I'd like one (recently very nearly went into the back of someone who changed lane right in front of me while doing about 45 in a 70 and I was doing 70 - it could easily have looked like I just hit them and got me thinking). However, I want an install that can't be easily seen from the outside of the car should, for example, an officer wish to view footage as they've been impressed at my rate of progress. I've been looking at weather proof "bullet" type cams which I could try to hide in the front of the car. Anyone ever managed something like this? Another idea had been to the a Porsche rear mirror surround from a car with the various cameras for sign recognition etc, none of which my car has, and put one in there so it looks factory.

[Orangecurry]

For simple and constant recording, I bought a Miofive as a mid-price, highly-rated solution - apart from talking too much, it survived 4000 miles mostly off-tarmac and produced excellent footage on the correct SD cards. You just stick it inside on the windscreen behind the mirror, so that may bother you.

Only annoying thing was it kept telling us we'd had an accident when all we were doing was driving off-tarmac

Edited by Orangecurry on Thursday 16th October 09:09

[bad company]

From my dash cam. If I didn t have it the biker could have accused me of causing the accident.

https://youtu.be/1AlTOLKgkz0?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/tjujQ2dLfwU?feature=shared