Best dash cam for the money?

Garmin 10. Not the cheapest but good quality video (and audio) for the price. I've had one for a little over a year now and it's as good as the day I got it.

 

i bought one on amazon for $14 similar to the dash cam pro

 

Ya I bought a Garmin from Costco, works well easy to use.

 

the trunk monkey!!
its an alarm and a driver wakeness inhibitor

 

I learned the hard way the cheap ones only last a few months maybe a year before they eat SD cards or the screen fails. I would suggest spend a little more now so you don't throw away a bunch of money. I would get http://www.amazon.com/Black-Box-X1S...UTF8&qid=1454032648&sr=1-84&keywords=dash+cam that is the one i have

 

I have a garmin 20. Been using it a little over a year. Works great , no complaints. Ordered it from crutchfield.

 

I use a Blackvue DR500-GW. Nice 1080p video, great image stabilization. Always on a five second delay so if your truck gets hit in a parking lot It will still catch it. But not very good in the dark.

 

Cobra.
Not the cheapest, but...
It has the widest viewing angle. 160 degrees. That covered both hood mirrors and then some.
It has the highest resolution. (SuperHD, or something. But it is a step beyond 1080P.)
It accepts a 64GB memory card, while most are limited to 32GB.
It also has very good night vision.

However there are a few things you should consider.
Most of the settings can only be accessed through a smart phone app via WiFi. That highest resolution that I mentioned is one. As is the ability to format the memory card other than a 50/50 split between what is being recorded and the space set aside for long term storage.
But set up correctly it would allow you to store an entire 14 hour shift before anything was overwritten.

I loved it while it lasted, but it died after several months of use. I guess I just got a bad one. Oh well.

It was the abilities of that camera that made me suspect what Swift is telling us about the capabilities of the driver-cams they are installing.
A camera with WiFi can be accessed at will, and any files can be downloaded at a whim.
It doesn't matter if the files are in the looped video folder or in the 'saved' folder. It is simply a couple folders on a drive. Sure, you can't watch it in real time. But you can once that file is saved.
With that camera, and if I had a smart phone, I could look at any of the files that were on it. And I could transfer those files where ever I wanted.
The Swift camera connects to the QC either through a wire or WiFi, and the QC has WiFi and other communications. Either way, any capable camera in that system would be able to be accessed at will by anyone with the right software.

 

I'm going on three years with my GoPro 3+ Excellent video quality and sound quality. I have it on my dash and I take it with me when I leave. I drive a day cab. Best of all is when smokey inspects me they see the camera front and center with the little red light blinking so everyone is on their best behavior.
I say after three years It's been an investment worth while. I've thrown it in my pool many times and keeps on ticking.