Non Lexus Dash Cam

[Pin_nick]

I have read some of the posts on dash cams on this very useful site, as I eagerly await the delivery of my UX. despite this I am still not sure which way to jump.

The dealer is quoting £375 for the ‘Lexus’ Nextbase, I presume the 380gw, with front and rear cameras, I believe this is the normal price. Also I believe that this is not Lexus specific, just a dash cam Nextbase supply for manufacturers/fleet, etc.

Nextbase will supply and fit the 522gw, again front and rear, for £313.

As far as I can see the 522gw has superior specs, comes with their 256gb card (far bigger than the ‘Lexus’ one), and has addition features such as Alexa.

It seems a much better option to go for the 522gw although I must admit I would prefer one fitted by Lexus. I am rather precious with my cars.🙄

Does anyone have any views on this?

[Las Palmas]

There are so many cameras that can be installed more or less "invisible" that it is impossible to recommend any.

What fit you best is what you need.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Nextbase+522GW&ref=nb_sb_noss

 

[Marko89]

On 8/11/2022 at 7:04 PM, Pin_nick said:

Nextbase will supply and fit the 522gw, again front and rear, for £313.

Wouldn't go near the Nextbase supply and fit service again. We have the 622GW + rear installed. RS Connect are the fitting agent, they are coming out for a 5th visit on the 1st of September. I was waiting until the issue is finally resolved before posting an update (fitting was in April), but it is still rumbling on. So wanted to fire up a red flag since you are considering them.

To date they have:
Visit 1: Snapped the trim clips on the A Pillar, leading to new ones being required. (ok this happens even to the best of us at times). However the engineer obviously realised this and tried to glue the trim back on, which came lose and was left hanging after a couple of weeks. 

Visit 2: Came out agreed that the clips were snapped and ordered a new set. This was on a Monday and they said the part should be in the following Tuesday. I waited till a week on Friday. Made a call and a guy who couldn't get me off the phone fast enough told me we would receive a call back. No call back the following Monday, so phoned again and was told they'd call once the part was in. 

Visit 3: Engineer came out and fitted the new clips, came to the door and said everything was sorted and the A pillar had been restored to how it was previously. As I was on a work call at the time I took his word in good faith. However, that night when I went to collect my wife I noticed the trim was coming away and on opening the passenger door the roof lining trim was also hanging down. I emailed RS connect the pictures and they tried to argue that I had signed off on the work and wash their hands of it. So I set them right and told them the car was going into Lexus Glasgow that week for a service so any costs to rectify would need to be covered by them, they agreed. 

Lexus had a look at the issue and explained it appeared to be coming from the cabling in the A Pillar being bunched up and pushing the the trim apart. They didn't want to touch the installation as it wasn't their work and said they would if needs must. But, recommended RS Connect do it to avoid voiding any warranty on the camera and installation. RS connect agreed to send their area supervisor out. 

Visit 4: The area supervisor spent the best part of an hour looking at the installation and rerouting the cable so it is no longer bunched up within the A-pillar. However, he notice that the A-pillar housing is now bent, so they have had to order that part now. Another unintended consequence is that the camera is no longer charging via the cable which I only noticed later on whilst driving, and after a couple of days the mount fell off the windscreen leaving the stick pad still attached to the windscreen. 

Overall it has been a miserable experience and whilst I commend RS Connect's attempts to rebuild the car piece by piece is does become waring after a while. I emailed Nextbase following visit 4 and learning about the camera no longer charging. Their response was very much a teflon tam effort. Essentially "we'll keep an eye on your open case with RS Connect" and they suggested plugging the camera in via a cigarette lighter in the mean time. The response from RS Connect about the mount also falling off when they phoned last night to arrange to come out again and repair the latest thing they've broken was simply "just use the spare sticky pad that is in the box". 

All in all it has been an incredibly poor experience. We previously used the much slagged Halfords to supply and fit a 522GW + Rear on our old car and it was absolutely fine for 4 years. The only issue was about 3 1/2 years in the sticky pad needed replaced. I wish they had been an option this time, however their website stated they don't touch electric or hybirds when I was looking for suppliers. 

[DTR]

I have no complaint with the Lexus Service other than they fitted the 380 model. Looks neat but absolutely infuriating in use. An absolute pain connecting to an Iphone and loses connection at random. I resorted to removing the sd card and trying to connect that to a newish Mac; Adapters joined to adapters etc are required and I never found how to reformat the card using the supplied software. Searching the on-line destruction manual only comes up with “Press the protect button for 6s. The yellow light will flash”. Mine doesn’t. Eventually gave up.