Using a portable Sat Nav in a B7 estate

[Tradewind25]

Hi

Just joined the forum having placed my order for an SE estate. [Hope I don't have to wait as long as some others on this forum :( ]

Previously had a Nissan X-Trail with integrated sat nav. Thought about ordering my new Passat with same but baulked at the cost. I'm now wondering just how easy it will be to use a portable sat nav (Garmin or TomTom) in the Passat.

Seems to me there are two possibilities:
1. Plug sat nav into a 12v socket.
a) From what I can see, there is no cigarette lighter socket in the dash. Could anyone confirm this?
b) Looks naff to have trailing power cable.
2. Use a sat nav with power cable attached to its mount rather than the device itself, and wire the mount permanently to a spare fuse way. Does anyone have any experience of this? Is there in fact a conveniently situated fuse box, with spare fuse way to make this practicable?

I'd be very grateful of any advice you guys could offer.

[bertj]

You were very wise not to order an integrated satnav - the VW satnav is absolute expensive rubbish as I've found to my cost; you can't install poi's and some have only 5 digit post code access.
The cigarette lighter is down by the gear lever but on a Golf (similar) I was able to access the fuse box that is behind a panel on the right of the dashboard. I wired an extension cigarette lighter socket into a spare ignition controlled fuse and plugged the satnav power plug into the extension socket. The socket, plug and cables could then be hidden be hidden behind the fuse box cover with the wire to the satnav tucked into the back of the dashboard.
Hope this makes sense!

[Tradewind25]

...on a Golf (similar) I was able to access the fuse box that is behind a panel on the right of the dashboard. I wired an extension cigarette lighter socket into a spare ignition controlled fuse and plugged the satnav power plug into the extension socket. The socket, plug and cables could then be hidden be hidden behind the fuse box cover with the wire to the satnav tucked into the back of the dashboard.
Hope this makes sense!

Thanks a lot for that - I guess I'll need to wait until I take delivery of the car before I can confirm whether the same is possible with the Passat.

Does anyone have any other experiences of wiring a sat nav into a Passat (estate)?

[paddy2]

Hi Tradewind25,

I have a B6 Estate, and wired in a cigarette lighter socket as per what bertj posted above. From the other thread on "fure location" i guess the B6 and B7 won't be the same, but I'd just use a spare ignition live terminal, put a fuse in the line, and earth it off one of the panal screws. See attached pics of finished location. If you wanted to be a bit tidier than me you could cut/file a little out of the side panal, but it works just fine for me! :-) 15418

[paddy2]

15419

[Tradewind25]

Thanks Paddy.