So I have a 2012 sport and the battery is already testing bad. That isnt necessarily hard to fix, but I wanted to squeeze some more life out of it so I am trying to use a solar panel to keep the draws equal. What is weird is when I plug a little panel into the plug it turns on the radio and I cant turn it off.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

that's odd. my '12 battery is very strong, so is my '09 (original battery).

must be an isolated issue. take it into the dealership. no need to 'squeeze' life out of it. it's covered under warranty unless you did something to the car to cause drain.

 

The circuit the the Accessory Power Socket is on is not energized with the ignition in the off/locked position, and as such cannot be used to charge the battery. It might work when in the accessory position, but this would also power on the radio (at least the clock) and might draw more power than the solar panel provides. Any strange behavior (radio on, clock on) is resultant from energizing the circuit when it's not supposed to be (ignition off).

Cigarette lighter sockets stayed on all the time in the olden days.