Re:Gen 4 reversing camera

George C I am not prepared to pay £235 for a camera that is worth around £20. I am trying to gather information to enable me to fit a camera at a sensible price. Go on have a look at their after market brochure it’s a joke the prices they are charging for tat.

I have to take issue with that, sorry. Fitting a cheap after market unknown device into the electronics of a new car is a false economy. As suggested by George it invalidates the warranty on as a minimum the systems it is patched into and more widely gives the company the opportunity to wriggle out of other potential problems. It also immediately devalues the vehicle because who knows how badly it has been installed and again in a wider sense what else has been done on the cheap. It would definitely reflect in an offer of purchase if I were making one on such a car. Like I said earlier if it were a Mercedes Benz and a reverse camera was going to be a grand plus fitting I would not bother with it but at sub 300 quid that I in keeping with the price point of the car as a whole and not excessive in any way.

Take issue with whatever you fancy, I’m talking about a reversing camera not a cam belt or other major part. The “Suzuki” official one is probably made in the same factory as most others. We are talking about a length of wire and a camera even if you go for a kenwood /alpine it’s only around £100, not even a chance in hell its worth £235. I never skimp on my vehicles I have 3 and a motorcycle. If you think with ALL Oe equipment is good value for money then you are mistaken.

No offense taken . What I saying is that if you fit a spurious electronic device that fails and takes other systems with it, that in turn costs you hundreds or possibly thousands of your pounds to rectify yourself it suddenly makes the initial saving over a genuine part covered by warranty seem inconsequential.

I've looked at this already.

It appears that the Suzuki infotainment system is another of the cheap units knocked out by Bosch (Ask anyone with a Nissan Connect how reliable they are, and how expensive to fix- most go in the bin and are replaced with a Pioneer head unit for less money)

As such, the camera is one of those odd ones that run off 6V and is NOT a standard PAL composite one. :evil: (I don't know whether this just means it is NTSC or if there is some obscure encoding used)

It might be worth getting one of these
car-solutions.com/en/camera-connection-c...-of-2012-2019-my.php

and giving it a go with a £7 NTSC cheapie off eBay

(If you get one, get one for me too, I'll give you the $12)

Otherwise I did find this article which might help

www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-do-yourself/1...-cross-1-6-zeta.html

I have to say that I'm a bit with Lambert, in that there is enough electronics to go wrong expensively, without giving Suzuki the chance to claim that my £7 camera caused the ABS system to go wrong, (which is why I'm paying stupid money for Suzuki to supply & fit the towbar & electrics, then any corrosion or electrical issues are down to them) but as regards the [strike]Connect[/strike] SDLA unit, the guarantee will only be 12 months on audio gear (unless Suzuki are stupid) so I'd be inclined to try it and remove it all again if the car needed warranty work.

I fitted a cheap camera to a Toyota pick-up and it worked very well. I remember I had to splice a relayed feed from the reverse lights but it was fairly straight forward. I was assured at the time that all small reverse cameras were made in China including the Kenwood item I was considering at the time.
I think your viewpoint shifts with age, today if I wanted the camera I'd pay the £235 and save all the hassle.