Garmin - Dash Cam Mini 1

Idk even remember how old my 1 is, but it’s going strong. Got the 2 as a rear for my truck, zero issues and my wife’s car has a 3 in the front and 2 for the rear, both within a year but never had an issue with Garmin yet.

Been using my Dash mini 1 for three years now in Australian weather, no issues.

Yes, ran the original Mini for years until the 2 came out....been running that since release and not one single issue. OP sounds like he has an issue with power supply.

My garmin mini (dc45) lasted me upwards of 7-8 years. I’m on my replacement now (dc46) working on year 3 I think…. 45 was always on, recording 24/7. 46 was in storage for about 2.5 months and then another month later. (Car in shop, car totaled & being replaced). It only records when the car engine is on or if it detects something in parking mode. Edit: it stays in the car always. Temps in my area range from -5* to 110*F.

About a mini 3 years ago. It didn't even last 6 months. Same issue.

It wasn't the mini 3. It was a 1 or 2. I don't know.

I had two Garmin Mini sensors fail after a short time. Which sucks because they're the most subtle form factor cam on the market. Everything else is bulky and ugly (see OP's photo) which ultimately is an important consideration for something that I want to keep hidden from sight. I really did love them...while they worked, at least. Went with Viofo for the replacement and am happy so far, while keeping my fingers crossed.

Garmin mini on sale right now. I've had no issues with it.

I use a Garmin Mini and just hide the wire along the top and side panel and connect the USB to the passenger charge port. Works fine for me!

I like the Garmin Mini or Mini 2 because it doesn't have a big ass screen to take away space from my window screen, particularly as one of my cars has a very small window.

3rd Gen here, not sure if it's the same on other gens. But I have the Garmin Mini and the mirror plug and it's an extremely easy install and the camera is good. I have one of the older versions of the Mini so I'm assuming that in the newer versions it has an updated camera.

https://preview.redd.it/ffu40m6eg39e1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=218c46f90014349b35dd77d00ae29f1bb2fdd32a If you wanna do it without splicing anything and don’t mind spending the extra cash go with the garmin mini + constant power cable. Just tuck the cable in the head liner and behind the weather stripping in the door all the way to the obd port. Edit: The constant power cable has two ports if you ever wanted to add a rear camera as well!

I have had very bad luck buying dashcams from brands I never heard of. For the last couple of years I have been using Garmin minis. I have one on the windshield and one in the back window. No GPS or screen but they are tiny and unobtrusive enough to leave on the windshield when parked in the city and take razor sharp video. I have never had a corrupted file or the problems accepting certain SD cards like I have had with others.

Garmin Mini , direct wire to fuse box

I'm running a Garmin mini with a dongle to connect it to mirror power so I'm not running cables. It's been great & you can connect multiple cameras and sync them in the app

I second the Garmin mini.

Whatever you do don’t buy the Porsche dashcam. Hot garbage. The garmin mini is my favorite because it’s tiny. I just used a 12v to usb mirror tap and pushed it into the power and ground for the rear view mirror connector up in the overhead console. It’s easy to get in there.

Garmin hd mini. Got it on sale on Amazon for 50 bucks A couple years ago. Comes with a little ball and slot attachment you can just pull it off and store it if you need to, I also use window shades to block the sun.

I run two Garmin Minis hooked up to the OBD port with Garmin's easy install thing. Extra long cable for the rear. Wires tucked under head liner and the rear wire ran through the rubber hatch boot. Very clean install.

Check out the Garmin Mini dash cam. Mine is mounted behind the mirror so it’s discreet, doesn’t affect my field of view, and doesn’t interfere with Eyesight. I have one in the rear window too.

I have the mini, but have never had an incident that required me to pull footage or anything. But set up was easy, and it’s small so it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s been my one and only dash cam so I don’t have anything to compare it to. Sorry this isn’t much help, but I just don’t have anything to complain about.

Picture quality seems great. But I’ve never had to use it to look at someone’s license plate or anything. Pulling footage is easy, you can either do it from the app or just download it from the microSD card.

Garmin mini installed by car detailer for free during a regular detailing. Super cheap, serves all purposes.

Garmin Mini with the hardwire kit - you cant see it from the drivers seat. It has its flaws, no screen, 1080 max resolution, app is slow to respond… BUT i got it to have something to show my POV if I ever need to defend a they-said-i-said issue. Bonus it can integrate with the trackattack app and/or be used as a footage overlay when combining the telemetry and video in RaceRender. There are better cameras with dual channel out there but this one suits my need and thankfully I’ve not needed it.

I use Garmin mini

Garmin mini is a great cam. One of the best ultra discreet cams

Nothing I’ve found is perfect. After several Viofo failures/issues, we tried the new cheap little Garmin. The LED’s on it are big and bright, which I find annoying, but my wife does not.

Garmin Mini for size, function, reliability, price and reputation.

If you do find a dash cam you want and it doesn't have an obd connector you can get a generic one like [this one](https://a.co/d/1MSWjPu) and it will work. I got one for my Garmin mini and works great

I’m on my third Garmin dash cam mini replacement in a year. Not overly happy with it. They now want to replace it with a new model. That means I have to buy a new anytime cable and the old cable and other accessories I bought are a loss.

I have a Garmin Mini with a USB C to A convert I had sticking around. Works great.

Get the Garmin mini dashcam and a very nice (don’t cheap out, this thing will potentially hold legal evidence for you) 64gb or more SD card. This thing could save your ass in court, so don’t cheap out on the camera either. $99 gets you a reliable Garmin dashcam that is always recording and will save the last 30 seconds of footage (plus anything after activation) if you press the button, activate it with your voice, or its impact sensors get triggered. I drive in the city and can’t believe I drove so long without one. Plus it is super small and mounts perfectly behind the mirror.

My Garmin mini is unobtrusive and gets the job done. Less frills than some, but it works well

I have the Garmin mini and it’s good

I installed mine. It wasn’t confusing or hard. I’m using a garmin mini which is pretty small which I like. Just take the long cable and feed it around your door paneling, and around so no one can see the cable at all. Took around 5 min to put up.

I have been using the Garmin mini camera for a long time now. Video quality is excellent, the connection to the cell phone works really well, it's a little too far from my house when I'm parked to connect to the house Wi-Fi. The lens is really good. I would buy it again except for one thing, the Wi-Fi in the camera interferes with the Wi-Fi in the car and there's no way to turn it off, or to change the band.

I've been rolling with the Garmin Mini on my 2021 Taco for a couple of years now; I often forget it's there, which is the way it should be.

The Garmin mini is extremely small. It doesn’t have a screen and you need to pull things off manually but for emergencies it’s perfect.

if you want a tiny hidden dash cam to record if an accident happens i’d get a garmin mini

I called Volvo about installing a dash cam and they said not to put it near the radar system as it can interfere with it ! I installed a Garmin mini on the driver’s side. The manual shows a risk area around the radar system - indicated by a red line.

I never installed it by the radar, avoided it due to Volvo advice and other folk reporting issues!

I put a Garmin mini dash cam in the wife’s Highlander using the mirror tap for power and a rearview mirror mount. In my pickup I run a 2 channel VIOFO. Thought I needed one with a screen but finding out it’s not that important. I like that the Garmin connects to home WiFi and automatically dumps saved videos.

Garmin mini because I don't want to see it, I don't want others to see it and it's only purpose is to show I was driving correctly if something goes wrong.

Before buying mine a did a quick YouTube search and found some sample videos. These days most are pretty good. I like the garmin mini’s because they are very unobtrusive.

I've had the Garmin mini...small, but not the easiest to connect to unless you just take out the SD card to view clips...my preference is Vantrue...much more user friendly for viewing in my experience..great picture quality, easy to set up, but more expensive than the Garmin

https://preview.redd.it/55mpyfx1k2re1.jpeg?width=1320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=32af7ef6e0e25ce5a683a29b22d6966bb70af40a I can’t see mine when I’m in the drivers seat. Garmin Mini.

Both of my garmin minis were bought before covid. One car only gets driven once or twice a week, the other does most of my 12 mile commute. No problems with either.

I had Garmin Mini on my previous car. It was okay but not 4k.

You have to have a power mirror. Unfortunately I do not, but was able to hide the cord easily on my Garmin mini.

My company has lytx in the trucks, but in my 4 wheel, I use the Garmin mini. I've tried a lot of dashcams so far, and the Garmin has been the best, although it has no screen, so you have to Bluetooth, or USB to your computer to see the vids/change the settings. Video quality is good. The three other cams I tried just couldn't survive an arizona summer, the Garmin has done three so far. 

The mini has voice control as well, that works decently well

I like my garmin mini cam

+1 on the Garmin mini, I have the original mini on my '20 with the wire routed the same as described. Works great and small enough to mount without interfering with EyeSight.

I've been using a Garmin mini. It works well enough for my budget, and I got the garmin OBDII port adapter for constant monitoring. Videos are decent enough to protect yourself in the even of a collision. https://preview.redd.it/771vvn49zn0e1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc8d98f1ec670a4f4a51bffbcdf8fd8115684286

Garmin Dashcam Mini. Very good, does not obstruct the field of vision and US made.

Garmin mini with the adapter

Get a real dashcam, seriously. I have the Red Tiger F7NP and it's freakin sweet. Only cost me $80 on amazon, unfortunately it's not on sale anymore. 4k forward camera, 1080 rear camera. Quality is excellent. My wife has a Garmin Mini, it does its job but costs twice as much as mine and has half the features. GoPros already have heat problems, that thing is going to die on your dash. Also they dont all suck, I dont know where you're getting that. If you're going off youtube videos, remember that youtube compresses the hell out of videos. It's all going to look bad.

I've been using a Garmin Mini dashcam for a few years and it's fine. No huge complaints. But I didn't want to pull the panels apart on the Bronco and route the cable properly, so I just shoved it up int the cracks along the windshield and panels and it's mostly out of sight and out of mind. What I don't like about it is that the app sucks and the cable is still visible, even if it's not really in the way. FitCamX makes dash cams that are integrated in to the housing behind the rear view mirror and pull power from the auto-dimming mirror's power supply. It's slightly bigger than the housing that's already there, but when it's installed you really can't see it behind the mirror. Installation was very simple (took like, 5 minutes), they included a pry tool to remove the original housing, and the instructions came with a QR code for a video on how to install it if you needed, which I always think it nice, especially with Chinese made products because written instructions aren't always easy to follow. The app is really easy to use and works great. You connect to its wifi signal and view the footage. It's great. That's how the Garmin worked too but it always gave me problems. I did have ONE issue with the app. I tried resetting the original password to connect to the wifi signal, and it it wouldn't let me access it. The new password wouldn't work, and neither would the old one. I contacted the customer service through Whatsapp and they gave me instructions pretty quickly on how to reset the password. Again, for a Chinese company I was very impressed with the customer service. Usually they just have an email and you're kinda SOL until they MAYBE respond to you after a few weeks. So I was happy that they responded quickly and answered with a fix without having to explain the issue a million times. It was like 3 messages exchanged and it was resolved. The quality is supposedly 4K, but when I view clips and download a clip from the app it's very clearly compressed. I can't read license plates. I want to pull the microSD and see what the footage looks like straight from the card. Maybe it compresses it through the app, and not when it stores it. If it's better that way, I'll update this post tonight. That's my main nitpick. 4K doesn't really mean anything if it's so compressed that you can't see the details. It's still reasonably clear, but if you got hit and run and you need a plate number, you might be in trouble. Hope the data from the card is better. Pros: * perfectly integrated in to the car. It looks OEM. * Camera quality is good enough to see brand logos and models * It has crash detection and parking mode, but I haven't been able to test to see how those work * Able to work with a rear facing camera (soft top owner so I didn't get that) * super easy to install * app works like it's supposed to * excellent customer support Cons: * It's pricey for a dashcam. Almost $200 and that's just for the front camera. * footage from the app is pretty compressed All in all I definitely recommend it. ANY dashcam is better than no dashcam. But considering that you won't be accessing the footage very often, it's best for it to be out of sight and out of mind. I like that this looks clean and OEM.

I’ve got a Garmin Mini you can have for $249

Garmin mini dash cam Pequena, ninguém repara nela, e quando acontecer alguma coisa, vais agradecer que ela existiu Já tive a primeira geração, queimou o sensor de luz. O suporte da Garmin enviou a 2 geração sem custos Já uso a uns 7 anos

I went with 2 Garmin Dashcam minis and they have been great along with the constant power adapter. Not sure about installation shops bc it’s fairly straightforward to install yourself.

I run a garmin mini with a dongar setup to power both my rear mirror and the dash. All in 100$.

Yes $230 for 1080p single channel only is rather expensive. I can't even find a equivalent Viofo since the current ones are 1440p minimum. Garmin have a lithium ion battery to provide up to 30 minutes of extra recording when power is out, while most others use a super-capacitor to only close video file safely when power is out. Lithium ion battery are known to not last long in high heat, but I haven't seen Garmin having battery bulging issue. Garmin have their own software with a unique feature that let you sync multiple Garmin cams. Other brands just modify Novatek base software stack, all their apps have similar look and features. Garmin also have lots of accessory options although somewhat expensive, like you can use a suction cup mount instead of sticker mount.

I know 2 guys with them that have been really happy. They are still selling units. There are a lot of action cameras but I went down the rabbit hole and two issues hit most, battery life (I wanted at min 4 hours) and dashcam mode that was useful. I ended up getting the Garmin front (recently) and rear (over 2 years ago) and have been really happy. For me integration to make it easy and on every ride is key. I move them between bikes in 30 seconds too this way.