does the 1 year stolen-buy you a new one policy get abused lots?

Not enough to stop doing it. They have done it since the late 90's. When a stereo is stolen, You provide a police report and sign an affidavit stating you know nothing about it's theft. The "stolen" radio can never get back to Eclipse's hands. When they receive a stolen radio that they have replaced for the customer, they send it to the PD that took the original theft claim with the persons name, address. That person will then be charged with possession of stolen property at the least.

One way to help slow down the theft is to use a different type of screw. Using hex or torque screws would slow down the theif from getting the unit out of the car (well, the Lancr for that matter, since the mounting elements are metal and can't be broken). Another thing some head units have is a screw mount in the back/bottom. This is used to mount a custom bracket behind the head unit, to another location behind the dash. This would be difficult to get to in a smash-and-grab job, which would likely foil the theft.

Bad news though, if a theft is foiled, they usually get pissed off and go to town on your interior before they leave. I have an EVO friend who had his entire interior slashed up, and they put a 2 foot drill bit through his head unit.

The metal backets mount to plastic, IIRC... You could still chop at the plastic, couldn't you?

Thieves do usually break stuff ... we had a truck with a Blow-Thru with 4-18" Inhumans in it and 4 Zapco 9.0's.. The amps all got stolen, but the subs were all mounted from behind...it takes 2 hours to get a sub out... They never got them out, so they kicked the **** out of them...

It looks like the radio mounts metal to plastic, but it is really metal to metal. The tabs in the dash are metal, with plastic over the top.