Car Stereos: GPS as a speedometer?, auxiliary devices, vehicle battery

Question
Thinking of using a lower end price Garmin GPS as a speedometer in My 86 Toyota truck.Can I leave the device plugged in to the cigarette lighter at all times,or will starting up the truck with the device plugged in cause a power surge and blow out the GPS/and or drain the vehicle battery?...thanks.

Answer
Hi Dave,

The truck is designed to turn off power to auxiliary devices during starting to prevent surges, so that shouldn't be your issue.

As for draining the battery, as long as your truck's electrical system is in good working order, and the cigarette lighter turns off when the truck is off, you should have no concerns there.  Make sure you have a GPS smart enough to notice when it loses power through the cigarette lighter, so it turns off when that happens, and you should be good to go.

Justin