From: mrh@iastate.edu (Michael R Hartman)
Subject: Re: Car Stereo Stolen?
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Lines: 36

In article <C5t7qG.9IJ@rice.edu> xray@is.rice.edu (Kenneth Dwayne Ray) writes:
>> I had the front panel of my car stereo stolen this weekend.
>
>> I need to buy the front panel of a Sony XR-U770 car stereo.
>>
>I was my understanding that the purpose of those removeable-front-panels
>were to make the radio useless, and thus discourage theft (that is if the 
>cover were removed by the owner and taken along whenever the car was left.)
>
>If those covers were sold for anything remarkably less than the radio 
>originally costs, or even sold at all,
>then the above discouragement wouldn't be so great.
>
>I personally would be unhappy, if I bought a radio like that, thinking that 
>removing the cover greatly depreciated the radio's value, and the covers were
>sold by the company (or other legitimate source) cheaply.
>-- 

The front covers should be available from Sony.  Check with a local car
stereo shop.  You will probably (definitely) have to provide the units 
serial number and hopefully you had registered the warranty card.  I 
don't know the cost, but replacements have to be available to people
who damage the face cover, so it stands to reason that it can be replaced.

As to deterring theft:

When I worked for a stereo shop, we referred the customer to a Sony 800
number.  We would not sell the face, nor did we have them available.  Most
people who came in asking for the face cover (or a pullout sleave for that
matter) would look very disheartened to find that they acquired a deck
they couldn't use.  If theft occurs with these decks, notify Sony.  Serial
numbers do catch theives.

Just a thought,
Michael

