Like the OP says, the power grid is the real threatened part; a solar flare/CME wouldn’t necessarily take out your TV, cell phone, or car directly. It’s not an EMP, but something different.
What ends up happening is that the large transmission lines act like antennas and the transformers fail, causing widespread power outages. It looks like the transformers most likely to fail in this situation are the truly huge ones that aren’t easily or cheaply replaced.
So in essence, the power grid would go down, but once power was restored, most things would work. The big question is how long would that take? I doubt that manufacturers or power companies have spares of the really big transformers just sitting around.
Take a look at this monster transformer, and imagine if EVERY transformer in this class crapped out at once- how much of a pain would it be to replace them… if there’s no electrical power to get fuel, workers, etc… around and working?
I’m a little fuzzy on which electronics would be destroyed by an EMP. If your device is turned off or unplugged, would it be destroyed? Or does it have to be plugged in and turned on? Would unused computers in boxes be okay?
From the comments in the thread, it sounds like a solar event would not create the type of EMP from a nuclear bomb which destroys electronics. It could knock out the power grid because the electric wires would transmit the energy and destroy things connected to it. But the electronics computer in your car would be unaffected from a coronal mass ejection, correct?
EMP typically fries electronics regardless of whether they’re on, while the CME would probably mostly fry transformers and power transmission equipment.