I’ve never had a car stereo before that anyone would want to steal, but now I apparently do. It has a removable faceplate.
So, for those of you who have something similar, how often do you remove the faceplate? Is it something that has become an automatic part of your routine when getting ready to leave your car parked? Do you only remove it when you’re leaving your car in public places (like a mall parking lot) but not in your own garage? Do you not bother at all?
And where do you put the faceplate when you remove it? My inclination was to put it in my glove compartment and then lock the compartment, but I thought that’s maybe the equivalent of leaving a house key under the doormat – the first place someone would look.
I’m pretty consistent about locking my car – and especially when it’s in my garage, since I had an iPod and accoutrements stolen out of my unlocked car while it was parked in the garage. (The garage door was open, too. This was less the equivalent of blinking, neon “STEAL ME” sign than you’d think. The garage is behind the house and not visible from the street.)
If I am parking in a public place (busy with lots of people) for less than 15 minutes, I won’t pull the faceplate. If I park longer than that, I pull it every time. If I park in a sketchy area, I pull it regardless of how long I am going to park.
I have a hard case for my faceplate that fits in my pants pocket if I need to carry it with me.
I have one: I haven’t removed it yet – except by accident, when I discovered I had one. My car is a rather nondescript Mazda Protege, I figure my protection is that there are almost always nicer, pricier cars around it. Plus I live in a moderate sized midwest college town without a lot of crime.
It’s not the value of the car, it is the value and usability of the stereo that matters.
A new car worth $50K might not be much of a target for radio theft as it is more likely to have a factory equipped stereo that has built in anti-theft features.
On the other hand a $500 dollar car with a $500 stereo might actually be a larger target for a stereo theft.
I had a stereo worth maybe $50 NEW stolen out of a old car worth maybe $700 once. :mad:
The asshole did more damage to the car than the stereo was worth.
That’s pretty much my situation. I’ve got a beat-up '91 4cyl Camry that was actually given to me. It’s probably worth somewhere in the hundreds rather than thousands. It’s got what looks to me like an expensive stereo in it. Not a huge kickarse sound system, but something a step or three above the factory unit.
Car got broken into last week, on the street in front of my house. The little bastards only got half a bottle of cologne, and I would have given that to them in exchange for not totalling the lock in the passenger door. I’d removed the stereo faceplace, so my stereo is still intact. I have learned that the flashing LED that is visible when the faceplate is removed doesn’t fool them that my car has an alarm.
I pull the faceplate when I arrive home and park on the street. At work, I don’t (though it’s not secure, but it feels safer). I also use the fifteen minute rule if out shopping. Same for the steering lock bar.
Possibly the best deterrent is to combine the motoring organisations’ advice of removing valuables and leaving the glove compartment and centre console open, combined with a makeshift sign I’ve seen that was stuck to the window and says, “NO SMOKES, NO COINS, AND THE RADIO’S A PIECE OF SHIT”.
I also sometimes question my use of a bar-type steering wheel lock. Maybe that is the reason why they knew my car was sans alarm, despite the flashing LED.
I know that if they really want my car, they will take it, and that being a beater isn’t a deterrent.
I had a Pioneer stereo in my little Kia, self-installed… removable faceplate, but it wasn’t a terribly expensive stereo, and I got tired of removing the plate and putting it in its little case and toting it around.
Finally, this Spring, someone tried to steal the stereo. They used a pry bar to try to remove it and broke quite a bit of the surrounding plastic, damaged the stereo body, and gouged up the dashboard. Apparently they didn’t realize that the screws on either side of the stereo body were what was holding it in so firmly-- a few seconds with a Phillips screwdriver, and they’d have had a free stereo.
So, of course, they took off with the faceplate-- useless to them, and rendering the stereo body useless to me.
It took four years of living in a pretty crummy neighborhood for someone to try taking my stereo; I don’t think I’d bother being anal about removing the plate unless I happened to put a much more expensive stereo in. Maybe I should look at less obvious hiding places within the car, so that I don’t have to tote it around, but it will be more inconvenient for potential thieves.
I don’t remove mine often. Normally, only in hotel parking lots and such, where my car will be unattended for the whole night.
Before I had my current stereo, I had one with a nice feature: when you turned off the ignition, the faceplate flipped itself around and displayed a flat, blank panel. So, a casual observer wouldn’t even see that a radio was installed. It was a Kenwood, if anyone’s interested.
The thing about today’s after-market radios, though, is that almost all of them seem to come with the “code” anti-theft system. You set a personal code, usually four digits, and if the radio is disconnected from power, it won’t turn on again until the correct code is put in. I’m surprised that radios still get stolen, that being the case; my radio’s pretty far from the top of the line, but it still has an anti-theft code.
Unless all radios have that feature, or unless the thief knows that model does, it seems like it would be locking the barn door after the horse is out – only after it is stolen would the thief find out his loot is useless.
The idea of the removeable faceplate came out of the removeable unit, which I once had. Since it was a real hassle to take the entire unit out even overnight, most people left it in. The faceplate is designed to fit in a small carrying case to take it with you. But even that is too much hassle after a while.
Since I moved to a small town, I don’t think I ever removed my faceplate. I’d forgotten it worked that way until this thread. In the big city, I’d had several units ripped off, but a small town is a different culture. And we catch our thieves; they don’t get far.
The factory radio in an out-of-warranty '96 Corolla I had “bricked” itself that way. I got a flat battery, jump started the car, and next thing I know, it was asking for a code. I didn’t have it. I took it back to the dealer, and they tried for over an hour to get it going, then the best they could do was, “Sorry. You’ll need to send the radio to Japan. It’ll cost $300.”
I go out of my way to choose good parking spots. I also NEVER play the stereo upon entering a lot. This is especially important for theaters because thieves watch the traffic coming in knowing it is a captive audience of over an hour. Loud stereo’s just make it easy for them. I also don’t park next to any vehicle I can’t see into.
Given the above, I pull the plate while I’m pulling into the lot and set it next to the driver’s seat so it can’t be seen. If a thief wants my stereo bad enough he is going to do more damage to the car than the value of the unit. I don’t like to carry the control unit around so I leave it in the car. Putting it in a locked glove box is just going to cost more money in repairs. A thief will break a crappy glove box lock just as quickly as they would breaking into the car.
If we’re talking about a really expensive unit then back it up with an alarm that comes with a pager unit. A good one will carry the signal a mile away.
While we’re on the subject of theft, I bought a stereo with a USB jack in front. I put my music on a stick and take the stick with me. CD’s are worth more than a stereo if you have a pile of them in the car.
Yeah, we ran into that with my wife’s old Honda. Disconnected the battery to do some work, reconnected it, and the radio wanted a code. Of course, the code was on a slip that the dealership had given her, years before, but who knows where it had vanished to. And naturally, this happened right before a ten-hour interstate drive.
We ended up paying $20 to a car audio installer just to have him pull the radio (I didn’t want to damage her dash myself) and read the serial number off the back. We took that number to a Honda dealer, and they were able to look up the code.
[Hijack]Are your door handles total crap? I’ve had to replace all 8 of mine, which makes no sense if you think about it. The inside and outside handles are completely different designs but on this car they’re pretty much the only problem I’ve had.[/Hijack]
I take my faceplate off when I’m parked at home at night, but I leave it on during the day if I know I’ll be going out again. Mine came with a little case to carry it around in but it’s rigid plastic and not too comfortable in the pants, so I only take it out if I have a coat pocket to stash it in.