It would be nice if cars offered a nice clean 12v bus for solid state devices to operate from, but I haven't heard of this happening. Part of the problem is just the basic issue of adding and removing loads from the battery bus. For instance, when you turn your headlights off, the alternator suddenly loses a significant load. The regulator circuit in the alternator takes time to respond (there's a lot of energy stored in the alternator windings that has to go somewhere), and the battery can only absorb so much so fast. This can produce a voltage spike of many ten's of volts that can damage unprotected circuits.
Another source of nasty transients is simply turning off the blower fan. Assuming that it is a brushed DC motor, when it slowly spins to a stop, it is actually acting as a generator and may be producing some large voltage spikes.
The horn can be a source of voltage spikes too. The normal construction of a horn is a coil attached to the diaphram. The diaphram has switch contacts attached, so that when the diaphram has moved far enough, the current to the coil is interrupted, the coil de-energizes, and the diaphram moves back (which closes the switch contacts and starts the cycle over again). When the current to the coil is interrupted, the coil can produce large voltage spikes. A good design could snub out a lot of the voltage spikes, but that adds cost to what is considered a commodity product, so the horns tend to be a problem.
There's also the issue of needing to design electronics to survive some of the more usual failures on a car. For instance, if the alternator's regulator fails and allows the battery voltage to increase, it'll eventually kill the battery. Hopefully you'll see the "battery" warning light on the dash before this happens. Most electronics are designed to survive this high voltage condition, because you don't want to have to replace your ECU, your radio, your GPS, etc., just because the alternator failed.
Maybe this is a business opportunity for someone?? Design a good high current voltage regulator and see if there is a market for it? Be sure that you've reviewed the standard SAE (or EU style ISO) tests and can pass all of them.
regards,
Steve K.