I can confirm this. I got a Sony MP3 deck about 4 years ago. It's been in for repairs (cough Circut City cough) several times. Damn thing locks up when ever it's slightly cold outside. They "clean" most of the time. The first time they rechiped it because of design flaws but had no clue why the deck needs to be reset only during cold mornings. (once it locked up while scanning the disc TOC on my way home and I ignored it. Turned the car off when I got home and next morning I had a low battery, Deck was still searching!)
I know your going to asked "hey man it's been 4 years why haven't you got another head unit." I just haven't and besides when I purchased the Sony, mp3 decks had just started to show up, so I paid too much for the "new techology". and funny thing is... even though the deck locks up most every cold day, the damn thing doesn't skip. Even with hard 4xing. I'll never buy another Sony deck. And I hope it does die soon. It will make me do out and buy a real deck.
I'll only put it in the Sportage (I had it originally installed in a Pulsar) was that it came with a horrible sounding Jensen CD player. (that skipped when I crossed every brige span seam on the freeway)