Welcome to the forum David.
The smart cameras that do have cloud have their own luggage to drag around, aside the the suitcase of potential issues all dashcams carry.
First of all with a cloud enabled camera you need internet access in the car, also when it is off / parked, and most often you will also have to pay for the cloud storage space outside of a small free amount.
On top of that come that a update to phone OS might throw everything in shambles until a fix is devised.
IMO the best option in regard to having the thief run away with the memory card ( too ) is to use a system where the main body ( main unit ) of the system are remote from the cameras, the drawback is there are not that many of those systems to choose from.
But thieves are not going to play trace the wire to find the main unit with the memory card inside.
One such system could be the SG9663DR, it even have a screen too, but are also accessible using wifi if you have "buried" the main unit deep in the car.
On the other hand dashcam awareness are still a pretty low thing in the western world, so a fairly discrete install go a long way, but even poo for brain carjacking punks can overlook a camera right in front of the driver, which are not stealthy at all.
The camera getting stolen are not a super high thing on my lists of things to worry about, but yes it could happen, you can always go "the cameras are cloud enabled so you are already caught on tape" if a person are not masked in any way, and try to make a grab.
All dashcams do record on a memory card as the primary means of storage, the smart cameras can upload events to the cloud, but you dont see / get constant upload of all footage, that would necessitate a flat rate mobile data subscription as a dashcam system ( 2 cameras ) generate t least 500 MB of data every 3 minutes.
Of course if you get involved in a alteration in traffic, i would not mention that you have a camera, cuz as you fear that could trigger a aggravated person to do something about that, when he realize lying his ass off are out of the question.
I wouldn't even tell a police officer that might come to the scene, i dont have to do that as a Dane at least, so i would just submit my footage to my insurance company, it is their job to deal with that, and pursue eventual false statements given to who ever, so add a case of document fraud if they lied on their insurance papers.
I would also let the camera roll if possible, to maybe capture threats ASO that might fly thru the air, so maybe leave door open or roll down windows.
There is a picture thread in the general dashcam sub forum, with a lot of pictures of how people have installed dashcams in their car, you probably not find many Subaru's in there, but you might find some ideas to what people have done in their car with similar challenges on the windscreen ( challenge with modern cars are often a sensor array housing on the windscreen, right where it would be best to install a dashcam )
If your car have a dotted area at the top / either side of the sensor array housing, you can mount the camera on that so the lens part just clear it, this is optimal install as the dotted area will then cover most of the cameras footprint.
If you go for a 2 channel system,,,,, which you should do if you are not financially restrained, then installing the rear camera there is a few things to consider.
1: cable routing, it of course cant be in front of curtain airbags that could deploy, but behind or above the airbags are fine.
2: DAB or SAT radio, all dashcams ( rear camera ) can interfere with reception, so doing a dry run just propping the wire up along the intended route is a good idea, some tape or whatever to hold it in place while you test the radio, meanwhile the front camera can just be lying on the top of the dashboard.
Generally i dont think a installer would do these tests, so if you can advise which side of the car to route the cable you are off to a optimal start, for this testing you can just use the supplied means of power for the dashboard lighter socket.
Of course if you like me dont listen to radio, then no problem.
Anyway if routing the camera along one side and you have bad radio reception, try to route along the other side, if possible and rear wire are long enough, try down below along the floor / door panels.
Down low are a option in my 5 door hatchback, but my car are also so small it is almost a micro car, not sure if it is feasible in a sedan sized car.
When you have gotten your new kit installed, remember to play around with it, all cameras have a reset to default option, so you can not mess it up for good.
Use highest possible bitrate / image quality setting.
Choose your file size if you can, i think using 3 minute segments are the most popular, if you have options are usually 1-2-3-5-10 minutes.
Set your time zone ( factoring in your current DST compensation ) Dashcams unlike computers and mobile phones cant figure this out on their own, but when you have done that they will set time/date after master GPS clock, so after that you just have to go + or - 1 hour depending on your local DST setup, Denmark where i am are +1 hour on the map, but in the summer i have to select +2 hours time zone to compensate for summer time.
If you go hard wire for ability to do parking guard, do not use a cut off voltage under 12.2 volts which is considered a 50% discharged lead acid battery.
Parking guard challenges.
All electronics have a maximum operating temperature, so a little camera on a windscreen, in the summer, facing the sun, as you know can get blast furnace hot, so a dashcam in parking mode may shut down due to high temperature to protect itself.
For just sitting there roasting but not doing anything you should be good, and the camera should start to record when you set off, even if it have been in parking guard and shut off due to heat hours ago.
Parking modes.
Motion detect are generally advised against, it always seem to be too sensitive and so even on low it probably record all the time.
G- sensor are fine and will generate a event if your car are hit hard, but most often they are not sensitive enough to pick up a little door ding, or maybe a case of keying the side of the car.
Remember the G- force of the event have to travel from where ever, thru the car body and to the G- sensor inside the camera ( this is important especially with remote cameras like the SG9663DR cuz if it is not fixed to something rigid it have less chance to pick up the force of the event.
Personally i use low bitrate, which mean the camera record all the time while parked but at a much lower bitrate, this use less power and generate less internal heat, which is important on hot days.
The downside here is small events even bigger ones do not create a event recording to at least act lie a beacon, but you cah most often have G-sensor on too while in low bitrate, so that will create a event if the force to do it is there, done worry anyone making a proper dent in your car will trigger just fine, it is the little annoying stuff that is the problem.
Anyways my SG9663DR camera generate 350 MB large 3 minute files in regular mode, in low bitrate parking mode the same 3 minute files are just 128 MB in size, so room for much more on the memory card.
And finally get a proper sized memory card,,,,, of course making sure the camera support that size, i personally use 256GB cards in my cameras, and with the little i drive ( about 15- 20 min daily ) i have weeks of footage on the memory card.
This is also due to my setup do not create many events, the low bitrate are not treated as event so will get deleted when it is the oldest stuff on the card, and while i do use the event button to save little things in traffic, and my car never get hit when i park, then the events i do have in the RO / event folder go back months.
You can also have G-sensor on while driving, but you should not have that, potholes and what ever create false events that will fill up the event storage range on the memory card, even if you get in bad, there are many hours of footage on a 256Gb card, so you will have to drive off the road at night, down a mountainside, ruining your car lights so no one find you, and then sit there trapped and unconscious with the car still running for many - many hours before the camera get around to actually deleting the crash itself as it is now the oldest files on the memory card.
And that will not happen, so just press the manual event button to be safe locking things away, and remember to retrieve them ASAP, but ! you probably dont get into a big dent event scenario and then drive off for hours after that.
If you look at dashcams with 1440p sensors in the front camera, or even one of the 4K systems, then those larger resolution cameras of course make larger files than the 1080p cameras i have outlined above.
