Ugh. Rubber belts. I cant think of the number of cassette decks I repaired where all they needed was a new belt- mind you, it was an easy repair so I cant complain too much.

Heh heh- now that shows my age: I used to repair car stereos when that meant cassette. Sweet job, that one, I repaired the ones I could on my own, and the head tech showed me how to fix the rest.

I'm not sure why they say the sensors go bad on these stereos- like you say, they shouldnt fail. Maybe they just had a batch of dodgy ones.