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I never understood just how vital dashcams were until I really needed one. Oddly enough, I spent countless hours last year scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, watching myriad scary, eye-opening dashcam videos that captured insane auto accidents, road-rage incidents, car break-ins, and more auto-related events. And while I was definitely taken aback by many of these videos, I wasn’t convinced to pull the trigger on having a dashcam in my own car because I wondered if I would ever actually need one. Well, I learned very quickly that I did.
A few months ago, a driver swiped the front side of my car in a parking lot and drove off, and because I wasn’t able to identify their license plate and didn’t have the event recorded on camera, I was up a creek when it came time to file an insurance claim that cost $1,000. It was after that upsetting, costly event that I decided to trust all the signs and look into investing in a dashcam that would be easy to operate, affordable, and super reliable. I certainly didn’t want to be in a bind like this ever again, and after looking into it, I was surprised by just how affordable dashcams are.