"First: Don't waste your money on a car alarm;
they're utterly worthless, and annoy the
neighbors by going off every time a stray cat
wanders by."
a) Alarms are extremely valuable if used correctly. A prominently displayed LED alone can act as a deterrent, and an alarm that is loud enough will certainly attract attention, reducing what a thief gets to only 'snatch' items (your cd's would probably still go) instead of bolted/screwed in hardware.
b) annoying the neighbors is only a problem if your installer is an idiot. A properly installed, high quality alarm will only go off if the car is physically impacted, a door/window is opened, glass is broken, etc - things that won't happen when a "cat wanders by". The only false alarms I've had in the past year were when I sat on my keys and hit the panic button (oops). Meanwhile, my stereo is still in the car because when a thief popped the window it sounded like all hell broke loose, and someone came out of the neighboring building to investigate.
"Second: You don't have secure parking, so
put it out of your mind that you can have
Nice Things In Your Car. If you had a
garage, or some other means of being not-
immediately-visible, maybe; but your current
situation is Bent Over, Trousers Down, And
Buttocks Spread. (I suppose a car cover
might help, but I doubt it.)"
I have the first garage I've ever had in my life. Earlier I spent 3 years competing in USACi (actually USAC, pre-i), going to World Finals twice. My car was targeted by thieves many times, and only once was anything stolen - when I left the stupid trunk partially open and the alarm off. Yes, that was idiotic. Yes, I'm still shocked at how stupid that was...
"In short: Don't bother putting a high-grade
stereo in your car -- it's just going to get
stolen (again -- the thieves know you have
money now; you're Target Number One for the
foreseeable future). Give up -- you've lost"
