My sister has had her car stereo stolen (face plate was in the glove box) which I bought for her for her 18th Birthday, and her drivers door badly damaged. What is it with some of these idiots that make them feel they have to destroy other peoples stuff, and steal off them?!

Its increasingly frustrating as she is only a student and relies on her car to get her to & from her part time jobs. I have looked at a couple of new stereos, and prehaps fitting an alarm - cheap ones from Motorworld are £25. Has anyone else any experience with these and are they any good? Are they fairly quick to fit - as I am a 2 hour drive away from her.

The local garage will fit a £30 blue door (car is white!) for £60 labour. Is this fairly reasonable? I thought it might be worth getting a white one, as we spent a weekend the other week doing rust work and paint jobs on it.

Sorry to hear your news, but thieves do it because they know there's a 99% chance the plate is in the glovebox, along with the satnav. May as well leave it in place.

If you could get a door from a scrappy, you could easily fit yourself. I'd avoid the cheap alarms. Worthless and easily gotten around.

Cheers for that. Just wondered about an alarm as a deterrant. I know there not great as a friends didn't even go off when someone broke into his car!

Alarm won't work. Hiding the faceplate won't work. I had my car broken into when there was nothing to steal.

Best thing I can suggest is to get a stereo that you can remove the whole thing to leave an ugly hole in the dash. Some wires hanging out would be a bonus. If it looks like it's already been done they might move on. :thumbdwn:

Alarm won't work. Hiding the faceplate won't work. I had my car broken into when there was nothing to steal.

Best thing I can suggest is to get a stereo that you can remove the whole thing to leave an ugly hole in the dash. Some wires hanging out would be a bonus. If it looks like it's already been done they might move on. :thumbdwn:

In the old days when I was 'in my yoof', I hid the stereo behind a faceplate from a really crappy stereo with push buttons and an analogue tuner. In another car, I fitted a blanking plate over the stereo and then made a dummy hole above complete with wires hanging out.

Mind you, I had more time on my hands and the stereo was worth more than the car. Funny how children alter all that isn't it?

It may be an idea to keep the glovebox open when you or your sister park your cars up to show there is nothing in there. I used to do it with my old Furby to show the faceplate and sat nav were not in there and even though it was in a dodgy part of Bootle, I never had any problems.

afew years ago the local council was giving out advice to people parking at local attractions to not leave anything in the car and then giving the owner a printed card that hung from the interior mirror saying we leave nothing in our car.....

They stopped after some theif with a sense of humour broke into one of these cars and left his own notice saying.......

Just checking

Cheers for the posts guys. I dont think we will bother with an alarm then if its going to be a load of hassle! Best bet by the sounds of it is to get another stereo and she will have to be a bit more careful with it. It wasn't a particularly great stereo, in fact she was having a few niggles with it. So hopefully the chav who nicked it will find it doesn't work!

Slightly good news is that she has had the door mostly bent back into shape, so might be able to get away with not having a new door. Will keep you all posted.

Bad news is she does need a new door. Further to my last post the annoying thing is that we have been unable to find one so far. If anyone knows of one or can help I would be very grateful if they could contact me via a PM.

Her car is a Ford Fiesta 1.3 Equipe, 5 door, in white, 1994, M reg. Makes it a Mark 3.