My 2013 Durango will not power my Garmin. Cell phone chargers work.
The Garmin works fine plugged into my 1993 W250.
What is with this?

 

Has this Garmin ever worked in this particular accessory power port? Have you tried it in other accessory ports within the Durango? Are you using the exact same Garmin power cord in the VW that works so that you know it's not an issue with the fuse internal to the power cord? Also, have you tried rotating the Garmin power cord within the accessory port to make sure the ground is not just perfectly lined up with a discontinuity in the sleeve of the accessory port?

-Rod

 

No it would never work from when the Durango was new.
Yes to each of your other questions.

Now I bought a 2010 GMC Denali and I have the same issue with it.

I wonder if some Tide Pod eating engineer changed the shape of these ports somewhat so the older stuff won't work.

 

As an engineer I should probably be offended by your comment. But since Tide Pods didn't hit the market until 2012, it would have been an older engineer mucking with the design to cause your 2010 Denali to not work either. Since you now have 2 vehicles from different manufacturers that don't work with the Garmin, but your cell phone chargers do, I'd be inclined to think the issue is on Garmin's end rather than the vehicles. Is the connection at your Garmin rather standard (mini-USB, micro-USB, or barrel connector, etc.) to where you can use a different power cord?

-Rod

 

Of course these are two manufactures but it is possible they purchase the outlets and they come from the same manufacturer.

This is the old "cigarette lighter" type outlet. Garmin strongly recommends no other cord be used with their equipment. Likely on this model no other cord would plug into the same connection that is built into the base.

Since it works fine on my old 1993 and worked fine on both my 2007 and 2008 Nitros it really does appear to be a difference in the newer car outlets. It is not uncommon for engineers to make foolish changes that do not improve a product and cause problems.

 

I can just about guarantee you that neither FCA nor GM are producing their own accessory port sockets, so you're definitely correct that they may be procuring them from the same supplier. Those sockets will be designed and manufactured to an industry standard, so it may be Garmin that is not compliant to the standard. Since the Garmin does work on your older vehicles, if you're only looking for a quick and dirty solution, versus swapping out the designed in socket, you might want to try one of those "one to many" splitters that you can plug in to the accessory port, then plug your Garmin in to one of the two or three extra ports. Maybe that will get the Garmin working easily and rather inexpensively.

FWIW, it's rarely the engineer that chooses to make seemingly unnecessary changes to an existing product design. Such modifications are typically driven by either the customer wanting it for less cost (driving a design, material, or assembly change) or a safety defect being discovered that warrants a change to prevent an ignorant or litigious buying public from profiting from carelessness, stupidity, or just not knowing any better.

-Rod

 

If the Garmin worked in the older units and not in the newer units it is a change in the "standard". That means it is not a standard. If the motor companies change to a new design and do not conform to the standard it is not that Garmin is not compliant. It would be the new design that is not compliant.

 

Every design has tolerances associated with it. The Garmin could be on the low end and worked fine with some older sockets that may also have been on the low end. The newer sockets could be closer tolerances or even on the high side, and wear over the years on the Garmin plug means it no longer works with sockets ever so slightly larger, but possibly still within specifications. Or it could be exactly as you surmise, the old Garmin plug is perfect and every GM and Dodge truck built since 2010 is out of spec / non-standard, yet no one else seems to have noticed yet in those 10 years. Either way, that doesn't get your Garmin working in your newer vehicles. Until you figure out why it doesn't work I guess we'll never know.

What model Garmin do you have? It may use a standard power connection that would make it rather easy to find a replacement/alternate power cord to try. Mobile phone manufacturers also strongly recommend against using any power cord/adapter other than their typically over-priced units as well, but few people heed that and rarely is there an issue.

-Rod