Benefits of Installing a Dashcam

[Mr Plodd]

A cheap dashcam can pay for  itself many times over in the event of a disputed claim. I was involved in a roundabout collision (car only no Caravan) where a lorry to the inside of me on the roundabout decided it wanted to be in my lane, so basically turned left into the offside rear wing of my car. All very amicable at the scene BUT the lorry driver then claimed I had cut across the front if him, and his insurers refused to accept liability. It was looking like a “knock for knock” job, my car had about £4k’s worth of damage and the lorry was unmarked! 

 

Five minutes work to send dashcam footage from my car showing I had remained in my lane the entire time and not changed lanes as the other driver alleged, was more than enough to prove My version of events was correct. Car repaired by the lorries insurers, all my insurers costs reclaimed and, most importantly, with no loss of NCD (and an email from my insurer advising me of that fact) 

 

The dashcam cost me £90, my policy excess is £350 I voluntarily keep it high to keep my premium down because I have not ever had an  “at fault” claim ( the result if all my police driver training)  heaven knows what the premium increase over many years would work out at.

 

Even in the event if being struck from the rear and out of the cameras View (as in my  case) dash-cam footage will still show where on the road your car is/was and your actions prior to any collision (and if you are stationary of course) 

 

They really are worth their weight in gold and I wouldn’t be without mine, it’s more than paid for itself many times over just for this incident. 

[Griff]

My Blackvue dashcam can take up to 30 seconds at times to boot up and is only recording with ignition on.

 

In a recent collision where someone reversed into the side of me, my insurer asked for the footage, they knew I had the cam.

 

I had just fired the car up and started to move when the collision occurred but it had not completed its boot up and when I played it back the impact details were missing.

 

Fortunately the third party admitted liability from start to finish of the claim so all worked out well.

 

Always try and wait for it to complete its start up sequence now before moving off.

 

[longtailtit]

I absolutely agree with  Mr Plodd about dash cams after a friend's car was damaged in an accident thru no fault of hers; but could not "prove it"   even though there were lawyer relatives in the car with her (they were deemed not independent !).  Dash cams are cheap; I wouldn't be without mine now. It's such good advice to have one.   I feel for OP and very much hope it's all sorted soon....  

[Mr Plodd]

4 hours ago, Griff said:

My Blackvue dashcam can take up to 30 seconds at times to boot up and is only recording with ignition on.

 

That’s pretty poor!!

 

My Nextbase dashcam starts recording in 4 seconds of ign being on (I just timed it)  That’s about the time it takes to fasten my seat belt! I have the same regime on entering my car.

 

Enter car, foot on brake, press start, fit seat belt, select drive, prepare to move off. 

[Steven]

1 hour ago, Mr Plodd said:

 

That’s pretty poor!!

 

My Nextbase dashcam starts recording in 4 seconds of ign being on (I just timed it)  That’s about the time it takes to fasten my seat belt! I have the same regime on entering my car.

 

Enter car, foot on brake, press start, fit seat belt, select drive, prepare to move off. 

The power to my Nextbase 622GW comes off the vehicle control module supply which activates on opening a door using the remove key fob, so the cameras are on before you have even sat in the car.

[SamD]

7 minutes ago, Steven said:

The power to my Nextbase 622GW comes off the vehicle control module supply which activates on opening a door using the remove key fob, so the cameras are on before you have even sat in the car.

 

That's the model I intend to buy -do you recommend and have you bothered with rear view cam please?  Also am considering pro installation?

[Mr Plodd]

33 minutes ago, Steven said:

The power to my Nextbase 622GW comes off the vehicle control module supply which activates on opening a door using the remove key fob, so the cameras are on before you have even sat in the car.

 

Ooh get you !!

 

Some of us have to drive more mundane vehicles that don’t have such flash systems (well I don’t think it has anyway) So I have just wired it into an ignition dependant feed. It works just fine.

 

23 minutes ago, SamD said:

 

That's the model I intend to buy -do you recommend and have you bothered with rear view cam please?  Also am considering pro installation?

 

It’s not a difficult job, you just need to feed it from a source that is live when the ignition is on (and an earth of course) and route the wires behind the screen pillar trim and headlining. If you don’t feel confident then professional instal is probably best. 

 

I have the Nextbase 312G, it does everything I want and the image quality is superb. It’s well worth downloading The Nextbase software (it’s free) When you view your dash-cam footage on your laptop using the software it shows the location the footage was recorded at on a moving map! (Dead cool) along with your vehicles speed. It’s easy to save the footage including all of that information. 

 

I have not bothered with a rearview camera. If I get punted from behind the forward facing camera will still show any “jolt”  so I see no advantage.  Others may feel differently of course. 

[SamD]

5 hours ago, Mr Plodd said:

 

Ooh get you !!

 

Some of us have to drive more mundane vehicles that don’t have such flash systems (well I don’t think it has anyway) So I have just wired it into an ignition dependant feed. It works just fine.

 

 

It’s not a difficult job, you just need to feed it from a source that is live when the ignition is on (and an earth of course) and route the wires behind the screen pillar trim and headlining. If you don’t feel confident then professional instal is probably best. 

 

I have the Nextbase 312G, it does everything I want and the image quality is superb. It’s well worth downloading The Nextbase software (it’s free) When you view your dash-cam footage on your laptop using the software it shows the location the footage was recorded at on a moving map! (Dead cool) along with your vehicles speed. It’s easy to save the footage including all of that information. 

 

I have not bothered with a rearview camera. If I get punted from behind the forward facing camera will still show any “jolt”  so I see no advantage.  Others may feel differently of course. 

 

The 622 has park facility I think

[Steven]

6 hours ago, SamD said:

 

That's the model I intend to buy -do you recommend and have you bothered with rear view cam please?  Also am considering pro installation?

I can highly recommend it, I was torn between the rear camera that plugged into the front unit, and the remote one that sticks on the rear window.

in realising the plug-in version was on the right of the front camera it was obvious it would foul the interior mirror so I went for the remote one. 
 

My step son works for Jaguar so I asked him how they routed the cables

.

From the front camera I took the two cables (power and rear view) left across the headlining, at the near side A pillar the power one goes down to the VCM, I removed the door seal from around the front and rear doors and fed the cable under the headlining ( just be aware of the airbags), across the B pillar and into the rear pillar. The cables to the hatchback go down a corrugated rubber trunking so I was able to feed the cable down one of them to get it to the door, I popped the top trim off the hatchback and then cut a tiny notch to accommodate the cable to the rear camera.

It reads complicated but in reality it was very straight forward and took a couple of hours.

 

With the rear camera plugged in the front camera records front and rear video simultaneously, I also downloaded the Nextbase App which connects via Bluetooth to the camera to transfer any images you want to keep or transfer to your home PC. 
There are various settings for g-shock turn on, parking and other functions.

 

I was going to buy it from Amazon but the Nextbase website were doing a special offer with the rear camera and cable pack which made it a better buy than Amazon.

[SamD]

@Steven

Wow - thanks for the very full reply.  I also now drive a big cat and love it (XF) and I think your point about cluttering the front screen is very valid - 21 day waiting list at the moment for the 622 - China on go-slow?!!

[Jezzerb]

We're dashcam fans after my brother sent in his film of an idiot nearly killing him and a cyclist on a bridge-double whites-he got 6points and a £1000 fine-all our cars now have dashcams-my favourite being the NExtbase 322GW for around £74 brand new on ebay-touch screen gps etc-v impressed. 

[ericfield]

I thought the Nextbase 312G  could be set to wake up when the car is ‘jolted’ in case of vandalism/break ins attempts? 
Mine (I think is the 312 but can’t check as car in garage again ?) wakes up if I shut the car door firmly,  after entry.

[barlyn]

On 12/09/2021 at 09:05, Mr Plodd said:

A cheap dashcam can pay for  itself many times over in the event of a disputed claim. I was involved in a roundabout collision (car only no Caravan) where a lorry to the inside of me on the roundabout decided it wanted to be in my lane, so basically turned left into the offside rear wing of my car. All very amicable at the scene BUT the lorry driver then claimed I had cut across the front if him, and his insurers refused to accept liability. It was looking like a “knock for knock” job, my car had about £4k’s worth of damage and the lorry was unmarked! 

 

Five minutes work to send dashcam footage from my car showing I had remained in my lane the entire time and not changed lanes as the other driver alleged, was more than enough to prove My version of events was correct. Car repaired by the lorries insurers, all my insurers costs reclaimed and, most importantly, with no loss of NCD (and an email from my insurer advising me of that fact) 

 

The dashcam cost me £90, my policy excess is £350 I voluntarily keep it high to keep my premium down because I have not ever had an  “at fault” claim ( the result if all my police driver training)  heaven knows what the premium increase over many years would work out at.

 

Even in the event if being struck from the rear and out of the cameras View (as in my  case) dash-cam footage will still show where on the road your car is/was and your actions prior to any collision (and if you are stationary of course) 

 

They really are worth their weight in gold and I wouldn’t be without mine, it’s more than paid for itself many times over just for this incident. 

A few years ago my son had an almost identical experience. Going around a roundabout in his car, a lorry on his off side side-swiped his car resulting in an £8k repair bill. The lorry driver denied all responsibility and his employer explained that the driver was very experienced and acted as a mentor to many of their less experienced drivers. My son produced his dashcam footage and the other side then accepted full responsibility.

[Silversurf]

Front and rear cameras for me, though in a rear end shunt or a side swipe, a front facing camera may show enough evidence as to cause and responsibility .............and may not.

 

The other thing to think about with both cameras is that as well as seeing the results of a shunt or near miss, events around the car leading up to the incident are recorded, which could have a bearing.

 

One thing I do like, is hitting the capture button to save the frames before, at the button press and after the press, of to put it politely, silly folk, then uploading to one of the dash cam idiot sites.

[Mr Plodd]

1 hour ago, ericfield said:

I thought the Nextbase 312G  could be set to wake up when the car is ‘jolted’ in case of vandalism/break ins attempts? 
Mine (I think is the 312 but can’t check as car in garage again ?) wakes up if I shut the car door firmly,  after entry.

 

It can, but (I think) that requires a permanent rather than ign dependent supply (or maybe it works via the cameras  internal battery?)  Either way I haven’t bothered with it as it only starts recording after it senses a shock (impact of another vehicle)  

[Trek]

I used my dashcam footage as evidence recently.  I sent the footage to the insurance company to show the accident but had to do some careful editing to remove some of my expletives just after the third party hit our car.

[Artleknock]

I have the 522GW, that can be set to start on a shunt if parked. I had to switch it off, two or three times a day I drive on a road with humps on it and every time the car bumped over one the camera saved the 15secs before and after it - finished up with a memory card full speed bumps.

[The road toad]

This plonker tried to accuse me of driving through a red light at a pedestrian crossing until I produced this pic off my dash cam.

Dash cam also great for capturing scenic routes - got some great footage in the Alps

[flashgordon]

We had a similar incident when returning to the Clitheroe C&CC site, we were passengers in our friends car who followed a motorhome  off the main road and on to the narrow lane leading to the entrance when the motor home stopped for a few seconds and then reversed back down the lane and into our friends car, the motor home driver got out and apologized and said he hadn't seen our car behind him and it was all his fault as he didn't want the C&CC site but the one further along the road. Insurance details exchanged etc and all seemed well until the Motorhome driver decided to change his tune and claimed we had tail ended him, our word against his and insurance decided they would accept a knock for knock claim, we wouldn't be without our camera it's like a little guardian angle riding along with you.

[rslsys]

Not only is a dashcam helpful for you but for others too. This morning, number two son-in-law was following a Fiesta down a country road when a tractor came the other way. The tractor made no attempt to slow down or permit the Fiesta to manoeuvre out of it's way. The tractor opened up the Fiesta like a can of beans. All captured on Son-in-Law's dashcam and now winging its way to the Fiesta's insurers.

 

Cheers

 

Keith

[DougS]

Also useful in any incident you suspect could be careless or dangerous driving.

Police forces have a portal where you can upload videos for consideration. You do need to  commit to go to court if the defendant does not accept the points and fine.

This process worked well for us.

https://www.nextbase.com/en-gb/national-dash-cam-safety-portal/

You could be busy all day!

[robbie244]

i have a front and rear dual cam  going to 1 sd card in both my cars wired in comes on with ignition, takes 5 seconds to start so i wait for it, by the time i start the car, unfold mirrors etc lol, pricless things to have but hopefully never needed

[Wildwood]

I agree with Mr Plodd. Having dealt with a large number of accident cases for insurers I do know that there are numerous disputes as to what happened and it is often impossible to find the truth. A dash cam image is irrefutable evidence in most cases and makes life far easier for the insurers claims staff and helps you sort out your case if the other driver will not accept the truth. I have had an accident where the other driver was at fault and in that case he admitted it but if he had disputed this I had the proof on film. Possibly it makes you a better driver as you are less likely to do things wrong when you know you are filming yourself doing it and you might even get a discount on your insurance. 

[Coldog]

You would think that with so many people having dash cams nowadays that the other idiots on the road would be a bit more careful, expecting their every move to be recorded by someone.

 

Nah, who am I kidding, once an idiot always an idiot 

[DougS]

Another thing is to record any accident involving an uninsured driver (scum of the Earth!) where you have to give your insurers as much information as possible (will they stay around to give a true address etc?)