My car died last week, stranding me at Target until Alison came to get me. Only fair, since the only reason I was at Target in the first place was to buy a present for her wedding shower. Now that the battery is replaced, the car is running fine, but the stereo no longer works. Apparently, many factory-installed stereos deter thieves by requiring a special "access code" to restart the system after it has been disconnected from the power source. . .

But riddle me this: Unless the thief knows that my stereo was installed at the factory, he won't know that the stereo is useless to him, so, is this really a theft deterrent?

I am now faced with the following decision: $50 (or more) to have the dealer fix it vs. buying a new stereo vs. no music in my car again, ever. Or I guess I could punch in random five-digit codes, of which there are 7,776 possible combinations.