I'm going to mount a portable GPS over the ash tray. I have chosen the Garmin 750 for a couple of reasons. It's the right size, it's silver and matches the aluminum trim, and I can connect a remote antenna to it. For some reason, the new Garmin GPS units don't allow use of a remote antenna. So, I ordered a refurbished 750 from Ebay. I know that I'll have to hard wire the power supply. The cigarette plug is too big. Attatching the GPS will be interesting. If anyone has some experience with this, please post your ideas. My G35 has a stick shift, but it looks like I have plenty of room between the shift **** and the ash tray.

 

i think some of the newer garmins allow remote antennas but oddly enough the connector is inside the casing, like a factory connection.

so are you looking for experience with mounting or hardwiring?

as far as wiring goes that's easy, just tap onto the inside of the cigarette lighter and run the wires up through the ashtray lid. when it comes to the mounting i'm not sure....what kind of mount does the unit you're getting come with? i'm almost thinking you could remove the suction cup on the end and physically screw it into the inside of the ashtray (the articulating arm) and have the end where the garmin mounts just sticking out of the ashtray opening....

maybe?

 

I ended up triming the cradle that came with the garmin. Once I trimmed it, the gps popped right into place in the ash tray. Hard to explain, but the base of the cradle fit perfectly in the ash tray. The ash tray lid holds the cradle in place with a little tension. I placed the remote antenna on the dash next to the windshield on the passenger side. I also hard wired the unit to the cigeratte lighter power. It looks nice and clean. If you're a smoker, this won't work for you. I think the dash for an auto transmission is a little different than a stick shift, so I'm not sure how the 750 would look with that. Total cost for a refurbished garmin 750, remote antenna, and hard wire power cord was less than $200.

 

bravo man, bravo! great job! it looks like it really belongs there.

 

Good job! Looks great.

 

Looks good!
A pic without the Garmin in the way would be nice...to show us how the base of the cradle fit perfectly in the ash tray.

 

Nice and clean install!

 

Great job with the install! It blends into the rest of the console really well. My only concerns would be, if it is indeed hardwired, how easy is it to remove since I would not want to leave the Nuvi in a parked car for prying eyes.

 

Thanks for the positive comments. The nuvi is easy to remove. My hope is that thieves won't easily see it. They probably look for the portable GPS units that are mounted on top of the dash or on the windshield. Just a risk I'll take.
I hope to get the nuvi updated with the red light camera alerts. That's were the real stealing occurs!

 

The Garmin has worked well, but I think the battery is now going out. The unit is hardwired to the car, but it sometimes won't recognize the charge. It will beep and ask if I want it to remain on internal battery power. Anyone have this trouble with a their Garmin?

 

I have the Nuvi 850 which I occasionally use (and which I don't recommend btw as it cannot be completely shut off without removing the battery). IMHO you should replace the battery. Since your Nuvi is hardwired, it is likely constantly charging the battery to 100% capacity which generally causes Li batteries to fail prematurely. It happened with my laptop battery (I constantly left it plugged in) and my Harmony remote battery (also constantly charged). Li batteries don't like to be completely discharged or constantly charged.