Is it easy to fit a dashcam?

[DashAwayAll]

I need to get a dash cam and confused about the options available. Do they all have to be plugged into the 12v plug socket? Mine is not conveniently placed and I'm worried about having annoying wires everywhere. Help from people who know about this stuff please? 🙏

I rarely have anyone in my front passenger seat so just have a cheap dashcam with the wire trailing (tucking it behind the sun visor stops it trailing across windscreen!).

It is easy to just plug it in and poke the excess wire around things like the sunvisor as pp said. You might be able to tuck it into the head lining if you are careful - Dh has done this.
I confess I just paid up and got Halfords to professionally install and hard wire mine in. So much easier than it flapping about.

Have it hard wired and get front and back dashcams.

Easy to fit. Just tuck the wires away. If your car has a USB port, it should supply power to work your dashcam.

Hard wiring sounds good - can any dash cam be hard wired to any car?

You can normally hard wire them into the fusebox.

You can get a splitter cable that splits a fuse into two fuses and allows a camera to be run off that.

What you probably have to think about is whether or not you want the camera on all the time. If you want it on all the time (for example to guard against damage in car parks) then you need to wire it into a circuit that is always on, as a lot of them are turned off with the ignition.

If you know anything about electronics/electrical engineering then this is relatively easy but if you don't you're probably better getting a fitter to do it for you.

I had mine hard-wired. It cost me £50 but is so much better than having wires trailing - there's no wire showing at all, and it doesn't take up a usb port.

Does your car have USc port in the rear view mirror ? ( I didn't realise they were a thing)

Even uf you don't they are easy to tuck wires away

My car has only one USB port which I need to plug my phone in for music and sat nav link to the speakers so it's only the 12v plugs that are available. There is one in the boot which would probably be ok but in the front it's on the floor level where the gear stick would be (electric car) so the cable would be a real pita. I think I'll have to get someone to hardwire if. Halfords I guess?

Hard wired all the way. Have them in all of my cars

Any advice on brands? There's a cheap one on Amazon that gets good reviews but I'm wondering if that would be a false economy?

We’ve always had nextbase cameras. Currys or Halfords. I have front and rear facing ones, fitted by Halfords. Never let us down and the night time quality footage is good quality.

We spend around £500 on them to cover front and back. (Inc fitting)

How did you find someone to do this? Would be good for DD.

@Sunshineandrainbow I used a local guy who was also fitting new tyres for me - he's a mobile mechanic.

There was a story a few weeks back that insurers should be told of a hardwired dashcam as a "modification",

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/warning-little-known-dashcam-rule-152342089.html

@SerendipityJane its easy enough to just pick up the phone and tell them. Neither of our insurers were bothered, nor were they bothered about our retro fitted tow bars. Zero cost unless you count a five minute phone conversation.
They do love the footage when there was an accident. Made the claim very clear cut and dealt with in 4 days.

I got mine sorted over a weekend, watched a couple of videos and just followed along. It wasn’t tricky, just took a bit of patience hiding the wires properly. If you’re still deciding which one to buy, this link really helped me compare options: https://www.insta360.com/blog/tips/best-dash-camera-for-cars.html. It breaks things down in a simple way, especially if you’re new to all this.