Scratched my RS2

[Colesy]

Glad to see you and the dog are ok, very lucky. Shame about the car but as said it can be replaced.

[diesel des]

This.

Unfortunately I took the decision to fit hard wired dash cams to all the family vehicles after one of my family was hit in a similar fashion. Country road in the fens, night time, no other traffic around, relative stopped before a bridge that wasn't wide enough for two cars, oncoming guy in his bosses Hilux drove down the side of our car and went off the road into a ditch into a tree. No witnesses. Pick up driver made up a witness and 7500 claim to repair the Hilux went down with my family member at fault. Our insurer were not willing to go to court

Cameras fitted a month or two after

Came in handy for another *cough cough* of our family last month, a taxi driver pulled out side road into side of our banger DIY estate car that was crawling along an urban 30 mph road in stop start rush hour traffic, showed the taxi driver the dashcam footage, his boss arrived with 2 minutes, estate car dropped with the bodyshop taxi company used and taxi company paid cash. What the outcome would have been without the camera I'm not sure. After the camera was pointed out in the windscreen, the taxi driver insisted on seeing the footage played back.

The SD card is simple enough to reformat. Only takes three or four button presses to do it, and the format then takes about 20 seconds. Handy if you've been over the speed limit, run a red light at 1am, or you are having an affair (JOKE)

I find I am more relaxed driving with the camera. Its your witness if you need it. The camera doesn't lie. It has the time, GPS, and mph recorded. And I also find I drive a teeny bit more steadily as a result.

The format you have described to hide evidence will be easily reversed if required. Need to overwrite it with data. Just for your info.

Sent from my LG-H955 using Tapatalk

[Ian_C]

The format you have described to hide evidence will be easily reversed if required. Need to overwrite it with data. Just for your info.

Sent from my LG-H955 using Tapatalk

Yeah, you can leave it running whilst parked if needs, to do a 'hard' overwrite. Bit of a faff because its hard wired to the ignition / fuse box, but I have a spare power cable (ie unplug the hard wired cable that runs around the windscreen frame and plug in one into the camera direct from the cigarette lighter instead)

Must admit I ordered a few spare sd cards 'just in case'.

Came in handy after taxi scrape - just put a fresh sd card in the camera and left the 'evidence' one in the house until we got the car back from the bodyshop

[S2central.net]

I have been thinking about dashcams as well recently - the comments about fundamentally poor driving ability of people over here is quite shocking too. For example there is a mini roundabout near me and I see near misses there on an almost daily basis as drivers so rarely give way or take the time to look for some idiot speeding towards if with the same intentions. It really gets my goat. Then you have the mobile phone brigade - being held up by the 40mph brigade who do that speed in a 30 zone or a 60 zone. Then there's the pensioners who cut corners at junctions as they haven't got the physical ability to turn the steering wheel properly.

[K Simmonds]

Or worse still, he knew exactly what he/she had done and drove off anyway.

I hate the thought of having a recording device in my car but more and more people on the roads show me on an almost daily basis how utterly bereft of basic talent they are. It is inexcusable when in supposed control of a 2 tonne weapon.

I was having a big argument the other day with a friend who said speed laws and the way motorists were caught are fair. I do not condone careless speed but to suggest speed is the biggest contributor to accidents is idiotic. Rubbish driving is to blame and that can take shape in so many ways, most of which the law are blind to or cannot possibly police properly.

I live in a very rural area and lose count of the amount of times I am almost run off the road. The biggest issue is people having no clue about the dimensions of their vehicle. It mostly tends to be either the tiniest cars or very shiny/clean 4WDs that have never seen a field. I'm always looking in my side mirror as cars scorch past me on my side of the road, so I can confirm how many feet they are away from the verge on their side of the road. Quite often it is many. It is a joke.

Would love to see this incident caught on in car cam and then be handed to the police so they can actually pursue the fool who basically forced you off the road. They should have their licence taken away before having to demonstrate again that they can actually drive in a safe, considerate manner and also be instructed to pay you for any shortfall in cash that you have to weather as a result of this. Considerate does not equal slow and fast does not necessarily equal inconsiderate.

Far too many numpties on the road.

You couldn't have put that any better, the standard of driving in this country in general is shocking, most of the shiny 4x4 owners around here seem to think their vehicle is 5 meters wide and drive in middle of smaller country roads.

I've lost count of the amount of close encounters I've experienced on the very corner where Charlie so sadly left the road in his RS2 and not just with 4x4's, often it's been an old person pottering along in a small car at what seems to be their mandatory 40mph pre-set speed.

I've resisted so far but installing a dash cam seems like a really good idea given how inexpensive they are now.

[Trist28]

Damage isn't that bad - bit of filler and polish she'll be good as new

First dibs on front bumper and intercooler

[K Simmonds]

Damage isn't that bad - bit of filler and polish she'll be good as new

First dibs on front bumper and intercooler

, You cheeky sod, I want the front bumper as it's the right colour for my car, was thinking the doors might be better than mine as well.

Got your bushes in the freezer ATM

[Trist28]

Really - The bumper is intact?

I tried to pick 2 items that were surely ruined lol....

Good on you with bushes -Actually working on the S2 today - Brake lines finished and rear drive shafts re-built. Not much left really now

[K Simmonds]

Really - The bumper is intact?

I tried to pick 2 items that were surely ruined lol....

Good on you with bushes -Actually working on the S2 today - Brake lines finished and rear drive shafts re-built. Not much left really now

I think it's safe to assume the front bumper is not repairable.

[Trist28]

Ha ha - I know just being sarcastically sarcastic pretending I believed you

Careful with freezer - the plastic out sleeve may crack?

[John.]

Charlie, glad to hear you're ok and Holly too. If that happened to me, like you I think I'd just be glad that I could walk away and that the dog did too.
Hope all goes as good as it can regards insurance.
Regards,
John.

[anthonys2]

I have been thinking about dashcams for a while especially for my wife in the A4 so many times she tells me about bad drivers and then last week a big black Range Rover cut her up on the a1 to come off the slip road nearly hitting her in the process, Caroline flashed her lights only for the 8rsehole to wind his window down head out screaming abuse waving his hands etc. Defo considering it

[ringbearer]

Glad you and the dog are okay!

Machines are easier replaceable and yours did an excellent job of protecting you in a bad situation.

Best of luck with the insurance company.

[cardcrash]

Dash cams - yeah, I started looking into these a little while ago after that news article of that guy pushing a pram getting caught keying the side of some poor guy's Aston Martin, what a jerk! Anyway, I couldn't really make my mind up what to go for, I think I narrowed it down to the Nextbase 512G and Garmin 35, they both seem pretty good. Nextbase also do a unit called the Duo with a rear facing camera but I think the quality is compromised when the two streams of footage are knitted together into a 1920x800 video or something.

I wish I just bought one now instead of being indecisive about whether or not to go with front and rear cameras. I just got fed up weighing up all the different models and options. Sod it I think I'll just go ahead and get the 512G... and then I'll get rear ended

edit: unless anyone has any advice on models they have experience with??

[S2central.net]

Found some independent review sites there to enjoy over breakfast and yes those both come out very well. There is a slightly cheaper Nextbase 402G model as well - only main feature lacking vs the 512G is some extra filtering in the lens.

Being a video person I would only consider those with 1920x1080 and at the highest frame rate. 1080p30 should be plenty.

I need to run a microphone cable up to the cabin light in my B6 at some point for an OE Bluetooth install so that would be a good time and place to run a hardline cable to power a dashcam.

I too like the NextBase 512G.