In the early 80s high-power (100W+) car stereos got popular in Hawaii -
Installing one of these often led to a dead battery/alternator a few weeks
to months later.

"Often" because not everybody drives around with the stereo cranked,
but enough do that it was a real problem for battery vendors, whose
products usually carry some kind of warranty.

After a conversation with my local Midas franchisee he started sending me
customers with aftermarket stereos for load testing - Unsurprisingly, many
systems simply did'nt have the capacity for the extra load. In fact very fe=
w of
the popular small cars of the period had much reserve capacity; extra load
required more alternator & battery capacity.

  Jack
--=20
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