I am sitting waiting to enter the passcode in my car stereo to reactivate it. I had to pull the radio out to access the serial number, so that Ford could authorize release of the password to me, thus validating my ownership of the radio. Its a basic antitheft measure, but a normal car company associates the code with the vehicle chassis number.
Putting the code itself on the body of the radio would be ridiculous. It would make it hard for honest customers to reactivate after a battery failure, and easy for thieves.
Idiots.
