Having had a best miss with a car jumping a red light at a roundabout yesterday, my wife is suggesting that we ought to consider at least a front dash cam. I’m not interested in DIY fitting one. 

 

Does anyone one have any recommendations about where to get one fitted, and which model to look for? Should I just pop it along to a Skoda dealership or Halfords?

Most auto electricians will do it. Bread and butter work for them!

Yep its actually really easy to hardwire one in with a piggyback fuse.  

I know that some dealers where offering to fit dash cams bought through them for free during  a service visit.

 

 

I can't remember which thread it was in, but I'm sure a member on here mentioned their local franchised Skoda main dealer were fitting Kenwood dash cams for a little over £200.

 

That sounds very good value to me. It should also mitigate against any potential warranty queries vs. an aftermarket or DIY fitment.

 

It would be interesting to know how the Skoda dealers are fitting them i.e. are they using piggyback fuse holders like most others?

 

If you did change your mind and consider a DIY fitment I've created a guide and posted it in the 'Kodiaq Guides' forum.

28 minutes ago, silver1011 said:

I can't remember which thread it was in, but I'm sure a member on here mentioned their local franchised Skoda main dealer were fitting Kenwood dash cams for a little over £200.

 

That sounds very good value to me. It should also mitigate against any potential warranty queries vs. an aftermarket or DIY fitment.

 

It would be interesting to know how the Skoda dealers are fitting them i.e. are they using piggyback fuse holders like most others?

 

If you did change your mind and consider a DIY fitment I've created a guide and posted it in the 'Kodiaq Guides' forum.

 

I had my dash cameras front and back installed by the dealer prior to delivery.  They charged me the retail price for the cameras and fitted them for free. I asked them how they powered them and it was the piggyback fuse solution.

Edited 17 August, 20187 yr by Jfhuk

It's a really easy job.. (even I managed it on both our cars) - given the simplicity, and if you really don't want to do it yourself.. I'd be happy to let Halfords do it.  They do them all day long, so I'm sure they know what they are doing by now...

On 17/08/2018 at 20:37, mantrahalos said:

... I'd be happy to let Halfords do it ...

 

You're a braver man than I am!

 

I've heard horror stories about the "fitting" done by halfords and wouldn't let them within 100 miles of my bear. The guy who did the audio and camera fitting on one of my other cars was telling me that he has a steady stream of customers wanting stuff re-fitted after it was either incorrectly and/or poorly installed by halfords. 

 

anyway on topic ... i'll get round to fitting dashcams to both Bear and Bex (our 120d) so would be interested in recommendations. 

10 hours ago, robdav said:

I've heard horror stories about the "fitting" done by halfords

 

And yet, as with all such large chains, there are also employees who take pride in their work and make sure they do a good job. I've been on the receiving end of service at both ends of the spectrum when buying bikes (through the Halfords cycle2work scheme so had no choice) - the first one I got was superbly set up and the bloke did everything he could without proper kit to make sure it was adjusted / fitted as well as it could be. The second one I got (from a different store) was just handed over to me and required me to go over it and double-check everything had been put together / tightened properly.

 

Unfortunately, the Internet is fantastic at attracting people's tales of woe, but good stuff tends to be ignored. Appreciate that's a generalisation as people on here do shout out when they receive good service...

@WiggosSideburns - hear what you're saying and yes there are some really good people out there trying to do the right thing. However, personally, I wouldn't risk taking Bear to Halfords for any installation work. I have a guy up near Nottingham (One2One - https://www.one2onecaraudio.co.uk/) who did an outstanding job fitting a new head unit and rear camera to one of my cars so despite the fact that he's now 3 hours drive from me I'd rather trust someone I know.

 

I don’t disagree one bit - once you’ve found someone who you trust to do a good job, it’s worth the slight inconvenience and extra expense for that peace of mind... and for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t let anyone from Halfords anywhere near Yogi either. I was only happy to get bikes from them because I can check / maintain my own bikes, and Boardman Bikes are actually really good value for money - even more so on a C2W scheme!

fair play

 

anyway, back on topic. 

 

is it actually worth investing in a sub-£100 dashcam?

 

do you actually get what you pay for and therefore the more £££ you throw at it the better spec and more functions you get on a dash cam? 

 

 

I just bought the nextbase 412GW for £93 and after a couple of weeks use I have to say that I am pretty impressed with it. I don’t have much frame of reference as I’ve never had one before, but the app is sensible and easy enough to use, and it has all the features I would need for a fwd facing camera. The resolution is really good and it’s a pretty wide angle lens, so I would be pretty happy to recommend.

I do close to 30,000 miles a year so my dash cam is on for around 3 hours a day. I've been through a few dash cams over the years.

 

The only advice I would offer would be to avoid those with an inbuilt battery. They can get hot and expand and fail over time.

 

The better cameras store their energy differently and more reliably.

 

I'm currently running a Garmin 30. No audio or GPS but less to go wrong.

Have a look at the aukey dr02d as mentioned above batteries can fail and leak etc under the heat esp right on the windscreen.  The aukey uses a capacitor rather than a battery. Has front and rear cameras and gps can be added. My previous camera (just front was also a capacitor version and had in my octy for 4 yrs and was still working when i removed and upgraded to a dual camera setup

well interestingly enough I was talking to the Mrs this evening about Dash Cams and between us we've agreed that we'd want the following spec:

 

• 2 Ch (Front / Rear)
• 1080p minimum recording resolution
• Parking Mode
• Parking Mode battery 
• Wifi and/or SD CARD

So I'm guessing we're not going to be looking at sub £100 cams??

 

A Thinkware F770 ticks most of your boxes it’s around £240 plus about £80 to £90 for auto electrican to fit. Often suppliers will fit for less.

Garmin 45+ from Halfords comes with a polariser now too, I fit one before they added the polariser, and it's great. The Voice detection is about sensitive and the speed camera alerts are not much use without subscription, but the dash cam itself is great

22 hours ago, Jfhuk said:

A Thinkware F770 ticks most of your boxes it’s around £240 plus about £80 to £90 for auto electrican to fit. Often suppliers will fit for less.

 

I'm seriously considering this. As you say it does tick most, if not all, the boxes. I'll be fitting it too so that's a few £££ saved.

I have the Thinkware F800 front and back hard wired into the car. Works very well and simple to use. I paid for the installation though. I don't like dash cams with a screen and these units are very discrete

I fitted a Nextbase 412 thingy, the other day in my Transit connect, took about 3 mins to fit and well pleased with it.

 

Had umpteen Chinese £20 units but they last about 3 - 5 months then pack up so thought I would try one of the more expensive ones, it had good reviews from some trucker.

Not prepared to pay £200+ for one just yet.

Had my last dash cam for 4-5 yrs and suspect its chinese as only cost me 45quid or so. But it was a capacitor one as mentioned above.  Never missed a beat and only changed as i wanted a front and rear camera set up.  

On 17/08/2018 at 18:22, MrTrilby said:

Having had a best miss with a car jumping a red light at a roundabout yesterday, my wife is suggesting that we ought to consider at least a front dash cam. I’m not interested in DIY fitting one. 

 

Does anyone one have any recommendations about where to get one fitted, and which model to look for? Should I just pop it along to a Skoda dealership or Halfords?

I was wondering if the front camera could be incorporated into the system and recorded as in a dash cam. Or even using a video breakout to a recorder somehow. 

I dont think its possible, dash cams arent that expensive anyhow and some are quite discreet.  

1 hour ago, Lendanear said:

I was wondering if the front camera could be incorporated into the system and recorded as in a dash cam. Or even using a video breakout to a recorder somehow.

 

I don't think the resolution/quality of the cameras (any of them, I've got the area view) are good enough to act as dash cams - they're brilliant for what they are there for, which is to see big objects before you drive into them when parking etc., but I don't think you'd be able to reliably read a registration plate from any distance with them which would make them useless in some circumstances.

 

Having said that, it really wouldn't surprise me if manufacturers start putting in better cameras and having integrated dash cams (both front/rear and maybe side as well). The Kodiaq (and other Skoda/VAG cars, and probably other marques as well) already have a 'black box' feature that records driving data etc. - take a look in the manual for details.