viper alarms are great in my opinion. people tend to got overly anxious about alarms, when in reality they are very simple components (relays) and are all very similar even among different brands. once you get into the upper echelon of alarms, however, the differences become apperant. let us know what specific model youre looking at and well give you a better idea. i think XtremeRS will be able to answer this one best, hes the resident alarm expert. ;)

as far as the picture, it looks to me like a factory trim panel that has been laminated with a 1/8" piece of ABS (availible at www.selectproducts.com among other places) over the cubby hole. its been so long since ive had a stock headunit area its hard for me to say, though.