My Honda Fit is sold (took less than five hours on Craigslist!) and my replacement car, a 2011 Honda CR-V (assembled and registered in Mexico!) is parked in my garage. For the first time in five years, I have the option of installing my empeg in my car. Well, sort of installing. I will have built a custom cradle to hold the empeg in the center console, and will connect to the car's stereo system, such as it is, through the Aux-In audio jack. At least I'll have the empeg UI, which even after, what, 15 years? is still way ahead of any OEM system today.

Actually, the CR-V's stereo doesn't sound too bad. Nothing to get excited over, but listenable. Maybe 1/3 as good as the system in my beloved ShoWagon, which I totaled seven years ago in a six-car pileup in the ice fog in Alaska.

Anyway, in order to do this minimal installation, I need to remove a trim panel on the center console to get access to 12-V ignition-switched power so I can run a wire under the carpet to the empeg. To remove the trim panel, I need to remove the two trim retaining clips shown in the attached photo.

How do those come out? Do I need a special tool or something? Even though there appear to be screw heads in the middle of them, they are not threaded, and fairly insistent prying with a screwdriver accomplished nothing other than putting some small scratches in the trim panel.

Anybody know what to do with these?

tanstaafl.