I have a Sony in my '83 Dodge pickup and have had a few before (never really liked them, though). On some of them, the beep when you push buttons can be turned off in the menu. The stupid little beepy tune when you turn the car off is supposedly there, according to the manual IIRC, so you remember to remove the face plate and take it with you.
Like anyone has actually done that in the last 20 years.
Right on both accounts. In the Sony head unit I had, the menu to control the beeper, demo mode, set the clock, and various other functions was accessed by pressing the volume knob down for a few seconds. A bit annoying, but it worked. As for the faceplate alarm, I
did remove mine a few times, mainly when it was parked in run-down areas, but stayed in place otherwise.
A kit to put a standard single or double din radio in your Honda is available. It does look like it might be a PITA to put in, though. One that comes with everything including the wiring adapters runs around $40 on Ebay. That's likely the cheapest place there is to get it. It always has been for the ones I've bought over the years. The one for the Escape was $12.89 on Ebay and would have been ~$30 even at Wally World.
Good to know, thanks. Figured it'd be both expensive and complicated. Think I'll stick with the stock stereo for the time being, especially since it pretty much does everything I need it to except control my iPod (I have a Griffin TuneFlex to help with that). The head unit in my '02 Civic was strictly AM/FM/CD, with no auxiliary input whatsoever, which is why I installed the Sony.
Speaking of added "security" features, I had an '88 Cavalier Z24 that I bought at an auction for cheap. I pulled in to get gas one day, and when I got back in to leave, it wouldn't turn over. The lights would turn on when the key was turned, but nothing when I hit start. Not even a click. It was a stick, so I paid some kid a few dollars to help me push start it. When I got it home and dug into it, I found a toggle switch spliced into the starter circuit in the wiring harness dangling above the pedals.
I obviously bumped it with my foot getting in or out.
Ah yes, that reminds me of another "interesting" feature of my '02 Civic. Someone had installed an aftermarket alarm system at some point, for some reason. The seller didn't mention it when I bought the car (he forgot to mention a
lot of things about that car, really), and I didn't get any sort of remote to control it. The only visible sign of the alarm system was an LED installed near the steering wheel which never lit up.
The only time it really did anything was when the car developed issues with the battery terminals; when the battery was reconnected, the horn would occasionally start honking. Sometimes I could shut it up by having the key in the ignition when the terminal was reattached, but that wasn't always enough. The issue cropped up again when I had it at a body shop, and when the guy looked around inside the car, he found a hidden reset pushbutton near the 'dead pedal'! Eventually, another shop disabled said alarm system, which was the only time I ever saw the aforementioned LED lit up..........
-Adam