Just last month, a Chevy dealer sued a long time customer for $25,000 over recording work done on his car while it was in the shop. The offender, Dwayne Cooney, says that he was merely trying to prove he was overcharged for work done on his car and had the video evidence to back it up. The bill he received charged him for over 4 and a half hours of work, but the video he posted to Youtube states otherwise.

According to Inside Car News, the Chevy dealer claimed the video has damaged its reputation unfairly and also stated that the video had been creatively edited to make it look like the car was worked on for less time than the repair actually took. The dealer also said that it was never contacted by Cooney about the accusations and that management even offered to sit down with him to work out the problem.

At the same time, just this past week, a body shop is taking fire over a dash cam video proving the test driver for the shop drove a customers Suzuki Swift recklessly through the streets of his hometown following a brake job. Here’s the video..

It seems as though dash cams are becoming all the rage and the grey area surrounding the topic seems to grow larger and larger. If one can be sued for recording work done on his car, how can another publicly shame a body shop for recording them during a test drive? A double standard seems to bend the arch of ethics that keeps an industry like automotive care alive.

So technicians, look out for these bad boys next time you’re working on a car. Sometimes, they’re not as obvious as you think they are. With the average price somewhere around $60, just about anybody with a car can get their hands on one!

Here are some of the most popular models on the market today:

In conclusion, it is obvious dash cams are become more of a social norm day by day. With this kind of technology watching your every move, it can sometimes be beneficial, but other times it can be very retroactive. As for recording the car in front of you during a drive, I think most people can agree there is no harm done. But as for recording people doing a service for you, that’s where the controversy takes hold. For now, there are still many more situations and cases just like these that will continue to happen all across America until something is done about it. But the real question is: should something be done about it? You decide.