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> 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.

> If by any chance anyone has had the body of a Sony XR-U770
> stolen and has an otherwise useless front panel I would 
> love to buy it from you.

> If you know anyone who had a removeable-front-panel car stereo
> stolen from them, could you please forward this message to them?

> Thanks!

> Kris

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.
-- 
--------8<-------If you cut here, you'd ruin your monitor------8<-------
Kenneth D. Ray		Expert: Someone who knows more and more
CRC OCIS			about less and less and finally
Rice University			knows everything about nothing.

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