A True Story

[Wass]

Our Lexus has suffered greatly at the hands of others. Mostly of the supermarket dent and scarper variety. The most recent event happened on the road. Someone reversed into it and when realising that it was his word against my wifes word claimed that the lexus had run into the rear of his stationary car.

The result is partial loss of no claims and total loss of excess on the insurance. I would estimate the overall out of pocket cost to be well in excess of £500 for such a barefaced lie on the part of the other driver.

I have now invested in a crash cam for each of our cars since it would seem the the insurers just aren't interested in fraud without being spoon fed easy to digest evidence and neither are the police.

I wonder how long it might be before Lexus fit one of these little crash cam gems as standard to the front and rear of all their models.

In the meantime, I would warn you all that the fraudsters are out there and they are after your insurance payouts one way or another either by organised crashing or opportunistic try ons such as my wifes recent experience.

In the mean time, as well as the fraudster getting away without losing his no claims since his vehicle sustained minimal damage, the insurers will get away with charging me more for insurance for the next five years. Everybody wins except the innocent party! ( those of you who might think it reasonable that I should have my payments increased for this by the insurers could consider that I have been paying for insurance on a regular basis for cars and motorcycles for over 40 years without a single claim against my insurer. Imagine the amount of my money they have already collected during that time)

[steve2006]

It's a sad world and typical of today's society, a while ago I clipped a Landrover's wing mirror when passing but stopped up the road and walked back to the other car. The back casing has cracked and fell off. Cost me £80.00 for a colour coded replacement but at least I can still sleep at night.

I am getting also one of those cameras too many drivers now think indicating is an automatic right to pull out on motorways.

[Bluesman]

It's a sad world and typical of today's society, a while ago I clipped a Landrover's wing mirror when passing but stopped up the road and walked back to the other car. The back casing has cracked and fell off. Cost me £80.00 for a colour coded replacement but at least I can still sleep at night.

I am getting also one of those cameras too many drivers now think indicating is an automatic right to pull out on motorways.

What do you expect when motorway driving does not come under the driving test and there is no law to ensure learner drivers have motorway driving experience. I would bring that in as another test Motorway driving and I would also bring another test in for night time driving. Mike.

[zippyone]

Very sorry to hear of your predicament Geof. such news is heart breaking. In 20013 I posted about car cams, but there was very little interest shown, now however, that trend seems to be reversing. I fitted a Blackvue 2ch to my CT and transferred it to my IS this year, it gives me peace of mind whilst driving. I understand though, that many insurance companies are not interested in cam evidence, or/and will not give discounts for there use. (comments)

I agree also with #2 and #3, I feel that it is time for the German style test to be used EU wide, which includes motorways and a written test to boot. Only yesterday I had a car try to join the motorway in front of me when I was level with his tail end, a sharp blast on the hooter woke him up. On the same busy motorway a new driver, proudly showing his "P" sign, moved from the inside to the middle lane for no apparent reason, accept to block that up. It is quite common also for people to join the motorway with insufficient speed slowing one down by 10/20kmh, having done that, after sorting out their seat, phone, seat belt etc. they proceed to put their foot down, go straight to the outer lane at high speed and disappear into the sunset, then you have to pick up speed again.

When I passed my test (3rd time) in the early 60's, people new how to drive properly, were more curtious and patient, now, traffic is more intense, faster and the drivers, like society in general, have little savvy and sadly think only of themselves. Yes, we all make errors occasionally when driving, I do, but I feel that most drivers today drive badly and just get it right occasionally.

As a footnote. Here in Italy, watching people under instruction is almost akin to watching the blind leading the blind, very worrying.

Regards.

Michael.

[Dim Tim]

I would add my support for fitting dash cams. About 2 years ago I witnessed a crash. By the time I had pulled over got out the car and walked back to them, the woman driver was in tears because the bloke was blaming her when it was clearly his fault. When he realised there was a witness he did back off a somewhat.

My wife and I agreed that a dash cam would have made life easier because instead of filling in the forms I could have simply offered them the video. A little while later we purchased a camera and fitted it.

Then, about nine months later a woman in a BM Wobbly changed lanes without looking and we collided. She got out of her car saying "Just because I made a mistake there was no reason to ram me". Then she claimed to her insurance company that I was responsible for the accident. The video proved it was her fault and that was that. Camera paid for itself. YAY!

The first camera cost £12-ish but we have replaced it with a better one about £36-ish which has better night vision.

[Cracksta]

Fully agree with too much fraudsters about hence why there are legit companies set out to catch these scums.

In Russia for example, its almost the norm to have a dash cam and I was too looking at a good one that works.

Interested to see which dam cams everyone has

[Stuno1]

Getting a dash cam on my next car and it also triggers when stationary if someone walks past it. Sooooo many shisters out there.

[Verbout]

Had a car camera for years, transferred it from my Alfa into the Lexus.

Would not be happy driving without one, I have caught some hairy moments over the years, I really should post them on YouTube but invariably forget.

[Wass]

I have bought a couple of COBRA CDR825 dash cams, one for each of our cars. They don't come with the full instruction manual , instead you just get a quickstart guide.... however after downloading the full manual this box of tricks can do quite a lot if programmed correctly. It can film those mysterious dents which only happen in supermarket car parks while you are away from you car for example.

I always thought that it was the fairies who did the supermarket denting and scratching but according to those with properly programmed dash cams, it is a new species of human called homo couldntcarelessus. The dash cams can catch these secretive animals in their own habitat clumsily going about their ritualistic denial routines during which driving is an unwelcome distraction at best.

[Spacewagon52]

I have not researched Dash Cams but I understand most need wiring into the car's electrics?

Does anyone on here have a truly portable one, which plugs into the 12V (cigar lighter!) socket and can be taken out and placed in another car?

I don't really want the hastle/expense of hard wiring.

Possibly it is me getting old, but I find driving at "normal times" much more stressful than I remember a few years ago. The general standard of driving has deterioriated. People no longer consider it an art / skill to be mastered. Pass your test - get from A to B and sod everyone else on the road.

[steve2006]

By strange co-incidence Car mechanics magazine are doing a best buy feature this month for dash cams.

Best budget buy is the Trancend Drivepro 100 at £64.00 with the RAC 05 at £149.99 taking top place.

[Verbout]

I have not researched Dash Cams but I understand most need wiring into the car's electrics?

Does anyone on here have a truly portable one, which plugs into the 12V (cigar lighter!) socket and can be taken out and placed in another car?

I don't really want the hastle/expense of hard wiring.

Possibly it is me getting old, but I find driving at "normal times" much more stressful than I remember a few years ago. The general standard of driving has deterioriated. People no longer consider it an art / skill to be mastered. Pass your test - get from A to B and sod everyone else on the road.

All the ones I have come across allow you to plug them into the cigarette lighter, it's just that you can permanently wire them into the cars system if you know what your doing via their usb lead, meaning they can be disconnected to view, download etc.

[IS200D]

I've been using cameras in both my vehicles for a while now. The car has mobius cams both front and rear permanantly connected to an external Battery pack so always recording. Obviously, they are mainly there to catch out liars and chancers in insurance disputes, but they also help explain newly acquired dents and scratches etc....even if I dont pursue the perpetrators, it provides a sort of peace of mind just knowing who or what did it.

[C Mclean]

Fitted a Blackvue DR650 front and rear setup. Pricey, but very discreet and good quality recordings.

[Stuno1]

Ordered a 'mi witness hd' for the lotus yesterday. Also offers a 'park' (records when parked using motion sensor) 'event' (for track days) mode. Can also be removed so in the event of an accident you can film the scene and take pics with it.

[Bluesman]

There are plenty of models out there for front and rear cameras which are wireless apart from the power which is usually the cigarette lighter but a word of warning if you cut the cigarette plug off don't hard-wire that in because most of them have a transformer contained within the plug and you will fry the electronics.

I bought the cheapest (below) which they are selling for £28 front & rear with HD pictures and OK it wont do alot of things the others do all you want is a record of who did what and I was speechless at the quality of the pictures. For day to day use you don't need to see the screen and you may have noticed that some of the more expensive ones don't have screens at all. I dont like where mine has been situated so mine is going behind the rear view mirror. Mike.

[Stuno1]

Also , if you do wire one to the car make sure it has a feature that shuts the camera down should the car Battery start to get low!!

[mandon75]

Evening all, I have installed cameras in my car purchased from an app called WISH, on my phone. They cost me £15 each, which the normal consumer might think it's a dummy not the real thing. But they come direct from Japan so are really cheap.

They have motion sensors & night vision, their only downfall is they don't automatically record over themselves on the SD card (not included), so you have to do that manually on the device every 10 hrs of recording. Good quality recording and discreetly positioned.

I am insured with Lexus car insurance and having cameras installed does not lower my premium but may help fight a claim, strangely enough I asked about the Tracking device sold by Lexus and the model they advertise doesn't affect your premium either.

Other apps that sell them if you're interested are banggood & geek.