Car Monitors & Dash Cams

Why it is worth it, in plain terms

An accident often ends up as two versions and no evidence. A dash cam provides the third — the one that shows what happened.

In practice it helps with four things: establishing fault in an insurance dispute, parking damage from someone who drove off, aggressive driving by others, and attempted fraud with a staged accident.

And a less obvious one: many insurers accept dash cam footage in claims handling, which speeds up the process instead of leaving it to conflicting statements.

What genuinely matters in the choice

Low-light performance, not resolution. This is the most important and most overlooked point. Most incidents you would want on record happen at night or in poor light, and that is where cheap models collapse — the other vehicle’s plate becomes a blurred smear. Viofo is known for exactly this.

Rear camera. Rear-end collisions are among the most common, and a front camera does not record them at all. A dual system covers both.

Parking monitoring. The camera activates on impact or motion while the car is switched off. It needs permanent power — a hardwire kit with battery discharge protection, not a cigarette socket.

A memory card for continuous recording. This is critical: a dash cam writes and overwrites constantly. An ordinary camera card fails within months — and you discover it when you need it. You need a card built for surveillance.

Placement and maintenance

Behind the mirror. That is the right position — within the area the wipers clear, without obstructing the view.

Check the card every few months. A dash cam that has stopped recording does not announce it in any obvious way. Look at a recent recording, not just at the indicator light.

Heat is the enemy. In a Greek summer the interior of a parked car reaches extreme temperatures — and cheap cameras with lithium batteries swell. Serious models use a capacitor instead of a battery for exactly this reason, and in this climate it is worth asking for.

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