Sore Subject

[airbag]

Kids, I love car audio more than life itself. But I live in an apartment in central Austin. My heart says buy an aftermarket double din nav system, but my brain says its a dumb idea, even with an alarm. Eventually I will upgrade to an apartment with a garage, but for now that is too expensive for where I want to live.

What do you all think? I know this isnt really an important topic. i just need someone to convince me to do it or not to do it. What are the odds of someone stealing my hard work and money out of my 4Runner? Ive been broken in to once in my 93 infiniti, but no alarm and it was in a quiete neighborhood with a lot of break ins that night.

I just hate that crappy line output converter!!!

 

[centxrunner]

I also live in Austin but when you say Central Austin which part? I lived in Tarry Town for 3 years in an apartment with no garage and never had a problem. Two of those three years I just had a face off high end Pioneer cd player which I always made sure I took the face off. My last year I upgraded to a Pioneer AVIC D1 and again never had an issue. My complex was gated and said they had security patrol but never saw anyone patroling. If you are in West Campus or east of campus I probably would wait to do something as expensive as Navi. You might also check on the APD website for auto break-ins in your area. I recently looked up my new neighborhood in southwest Austin and I am sure glad I have a garage now as there are many break ins in my area.

www.ci.austin.tx.us/police/

 

[airbag]

i live on duval in hyde park where its really dark, so thats what scares me most. its very close to IH35 and there are no gates or security guards. my infiniti got broken in to in southwest austin, so those statistics dont suprise me at all. im pretty much thinking that i'll wait for navi, maybe just get a nice pioneer that wont break the bank but will be better than the stock toyota HU. i also have a hard wired radar mount visible to the outside that looks inviting.

 

[centxrunner]

That sounds like a safe route to go for now. What scares me about the auto break in reports on the APD website is that those are just the break ins that are reported. No telling how many people get broken into and never report it to the police.

 

[airbag]

my zip code also came out somewhat high

 

[leonoe]

I don't live in Austin so can't comment on the area but depending on the aftermarket HU you get and the kit, I think it would be difficult to steal. I have an Eclipse AVN6600 - the kit uses the OE brackets and its bolted in behind front dash. Short of the burglar knowing the ins and outs of a T4R front dash, I imagine it would be a difficult steal... Doesn't mean that they won't try!

Depending on the aftermarket HU, I've also seen setups where folks have cut out the face of an OE HU with the buttons glued on and used it as a 'stealth' cover to hide the aftermarket HU. I wanted to do this but my HU sticks out too far...

 

[atomic punk]

Asssume it does get stolen: do you have a $500 deductable on your auto insurance? That would be all you would need to pay to get a new one, assuming no cosmetic damage to your interior when it gets stolen. If you can afford that payment AFTER buying the new unit, then do it. If not, then don't.

...Nothing would be worse than having that nice head unit for a while, then driving around with a big gaping hole there after it gets ripped out because you can't pay your insurance company to get it replaced.

 

[centxrunner]

Doesn't mean that they won't try![/B]

That pretty much says it all. I work in the 12 volt industry on the wholesale side and the horror storys I hear and the horror I see can be unbelievable. If your lucky you will get a thief that knows what they are doing and all that it left is the wiring harness. But 9 times out of 10 it's some crackhead that either tears up your headunit or your dash or both. A few days ago a customer called me and his customer had a crackhead that just tried to rip out the screen not the whole unit just the screen of a Pioneer AVIC-N3.

 

[airbag]

oh, i know all about crackhead theifs. the infiniti i was refering to was jacked by one. they broke the window, jaked up my kenwood cd player that i adored without success, busted it up so well that i had to rip the cd that was in there out myself. all that trouble for two crappy rockford 10s and a low model eclipse amp. they couldnt get the speakers or the deck but destroyed them. i was horrified, i was 17 and spend my first 3 paychecks working fast food on all that..

 

[centxrunner]

Airbag
If I may suggest since your thinking about a nice Pioneer CD headunit. If you have to have the OEL display, motorized face and all that fun stuff the Dehp-6800mp which I think one of the other posters on here has displayed in his gen4 runnner is a great unit. If you are looking for a bargain and don't need all the bells a whistles check out the dehp4800mp no fancy OEL display but has aux imput for I-Pod and has been a slow seller for Pioneer this season so you SHOULD be able to find a great deal on one. Let me know if you need a suggestion on a dealer to shop most every Pioneer dealer in town is my customer and should be discounting this unit if they stock it.

 

[pipspeak]

Short of the burglar knowing the ins and outs of a T4R front dash, I imagine it would be a difficult steal... Doesn't mean that they won't try!

Oh try they will (at least the dumb-ass ones, which is most of them). I've seen car dashboards literally torn apart to get at stock stereos. Saw a civic the other day with a huge, jagged hole in the dash where there had once been a stereo.