Why did you buy a dash cam?

yogibear1

yogibear1

yogibear1

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3 Feb 2015
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Hi everyone

I’m thinking about buying a dash cam for my car, people I speak to about it say I’m being over the top and a bit strange for wanting to record my journeys. How common are dash cams, if you’ve got one what made you buy it?

Thanks
 
I bought one so I could put myself in difficult situations and record other peoples bad driving so I could have some good footage for youtube. I also overreact to situations, that makes some great footage.
 
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I watch every trip to work when I get home, just so I can admire the sights.

Nice rear on that. Good body kit on that one. Lots in the trunk there. I'd like a closer look at that exhaust pipe.


..and that's just the women ;)
 
A few reasons for me:

To protect myself against the potential of being penalised for an incident that is not my fault simply because it's someone else's word against mine.

To protect my car. Over the years, I've sucked it up and taken the financial hit one too many times now due to damage being caused when parked up. On all occasions, the police couldn't do anything because there was no proof - having video evidence will hopefully change that and at least offer an avenue of investigation.

As a bonus, whenever it's just parked up at home doing nothing, it would also act as a (limited) security camera for the house.
 
Although there is an existing thread for daschcam users this seems like as good a place as any to discuss why or why not you might have one and not derail the other thread with ‘why bother’ comments.

I don’t have a dashcam and neither do I want one – infact the increasing prevelance of them is IMHO not exactly a good thing. We have enough surveillence in our society without introducing even more.

I don’t have a dashcam. I have been driving now for 13 years and in that time I have had precisely zero experiences on the road where I felt a dashcam would have been useful.

From the videos on youtube and scaremongering news stories you’d think scamming third parties are lurking on every street and it’s a case of when not if you are going to get screwed in a fake accident or something. But IMHO in reality the chances of this happening are very rare and the standard of driving in our country is sufficiently high that rigging up your car with numerous front and rear facing high definition video cameras is bordering on a bit weird rather than an essential precaution.

Every so often you see some footage that makes you think a dashcam is a no brainer, until you realise that was ONE event out of what, millions of daily car journeys.

Have a look for Russian dashcam footage on Youtube and you are given hours and hours and hours of completely bizarre driving and often horrific accidents. No wonder they all protect themselves with Dashcams. Have a look for UK dashcam footage on youtube and despite there being more cars and more people on the internet in the UK there is almost nothing other than a succession of tediously dull videos of people whinging about ‘guy who didn’t indicate’ or ‘red light jumper’. This is anecdotal evidence for sure but it seems to me like it’s a total waste of time.

Currently if you go for a drive and overtake the doddery fool in the beige Rover 45 who is doing 30 in a 60 the worst you’ll get is a flash of the headlights but it’s becoming increasingly more common you might end up on YouTube :D

IMHO the best way to avoid being caught out in a ‘cash for crash’ scam is to maintain a safe distance behind the car in front so that if they stop suddenly you can stop too. After all, if the car in front emergency brakes you should be able to stop whether they’ve done it for whippy compo or whether they’ve done it because there is a genuine emergency situation. More alert driving is the answer, not rigging your car up as a mobile recording studio. Though frankly if that’s your choice don’t forget that one day when somebody does an emergency stop because of an obstruction and you pile into the back of them with your video footage of what you assume was a cash for crash scam it might be useful evidence for the prosecution :p
 
[TW]Fox;27587492 said:
Every so often you see some footage that makes you think a dashcam is a no brainer, until you realise that was ONE event out of what, millions of daily car journeys.
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If you had a way of stopping yourself being that potential one in a million statistic which leaves you unnecessarily inconvenienced and put you out of pocket for years wouldn't you want to? Why risk it when there's a way to avoid it for the sake of what, £100?

I too have never had an incident like a 'crash for cash' type scenario and hope I never do but I still got a cam. Although, for me, the primary reason was the potential evidence that would be available should my car get damaged when I'm away from the vehicle.

Plus it's also an excuse to have something a little bit techy/nerdy in your car :p
 
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Six6siX said:
If you had a way of stopping yourself being that potential one in a million statistic which leaves you unnecessarily inconvenienced and put you out of pocket for years wouldn't you want to? Why risk it when there's a way to avoid it for the sake of what, £100?
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Did you seriously just ask why you wouldn't spend £100 to not be a 'one in a million'? That seems like the exact reason not to bother!

I too have never had an incident like a 'crash for cash' type scenario and hope I never do but I still got a cam. Although, for me, the primary reason was the potential evidence that would be available should my car get damaged when I'm away from the vehicle.
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Didn't you used to have a Supra? Good job that wasn't fitted with a dashcam :p
 
[TW]Fox;27587492 said:
IMHO the best way to avoid being caught out in a ‘cash for crash’ scam is to maintain a safe distance behind the car in front so that if they stop suddenly you can stop too. After all, if the car in front emergency brakes you should be able to stop whether they’ve done it for whippy compo or whether they’ve done it because there is a genuine emergency situation. More alert driving is the answer, not rigging your car up as a mobile recording studio. Though frankly if that’s your choice don’t forget that one day when somebody does an emergency stop because of an obstruction and you pile into the back of them with your video footage of what you assume was a cash for crash scam it might be useful evidence for the prosecution :p
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This is a salient point. I see too much dashcam footage on Youtube from road warriors who have seemingly driven themselves into these awkward situations where they can then moan at someone else for making a mistake. The same goes for some of the militant headcam-wearing cyclists. I tend to just give other cars plenty of room and look ahead so that I can predict what's going to happen better.


In answer to the OP's question, I did have a dashcam in my old car. I bought it partly because I wanted a new toy and partly because I thought it would be a useful extra safeguard. I took it out when I sold the car, and then I sold the dashcam because I was unimpressed with its performance considering how much it costed.

I've pondered replacing it with one of the cheaper ones that come highly rated, but I don't think I can be bothered.

A rear facing one would possibly be of more value for the situations that you really can't avoid - for example if someone rear-ends you and then drives off.

I try to avoid getting parking damage by parking as far away from everyone else as possible in car parks, although this doesn't always work:

36d45F8.jpg


:rolleyes:
 
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The only reason I've ever looked into getting one is just for interesting drives and then I remember that 99% of driving is boring, nobody (including myself) will watch it and I could just hook up a camera or phone or whatever if I'm doing something more interesting so it's mostly pointless.

The whole "it's to stop me being scammed" argument is a silly argument really as you say Fox, chances of it happening are minimal.
 
The only time I've used cameras are on big road trips, track days and that's pretty much it. Otherwise it can be used to incriminate you if you **** up, and also just add another layer of needless bureaucracy.
 
I don't have one in my car but did buy one for my other half (a Nextbase 420G).

Why? She commutes around 150 miles a day depending on where she is working and regularly runs in to trouble. I think it's mainly her doing but she says different :p.

I doubt I'd bother with one for my car as I only do around 2000 miles a year now.
 
I have a front and rear facing dashcam.

Giggz said:
Purely for insurance purposes, It's harder to disprove what happened when it's on video.
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This is a big part of why I got one. I bought a new (to me) car and wanted to make sure that if anyone hit me whilst it was unattended I'd know who to charge the damage to.

I also had a couple of incidents where other motorists had road rage where I had to intervene - having video would have meant I could have dealt with the incident a bit differently with extra evidence to aid prosecution.

Whilst I may never need it, I've never need to claim on my or anyone else's insurance either, but I'm still glad I have it (regardless of requirements).
 
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