The unit is electronically paired to your car, and cannot be fitted into anything else other than your car without programming. Before it can be programmed into anything else, it first needs to be deprogrammed or depaired from the car - when this is done, and it is in an unpaired state, this is often referred to as Delivery mode. The radio can generally be removed and refitted to the original car without the need for reprogramming, although it is strongly advised against this, as if anything corrupts within the programming whilst this is being done, it may prevent any further communication with the car and therefore render the system useless and unrecoverable. So if the radio is to be removed, depairing is always advised prior to removal as this can ONLY be done in the ORIGINAL car.
If you are sending it away for repair, it must be depaired first, as the repair center will need to program it for thier own test bench, and then reset back to delivery mode again so that you can then reprogram it back to your car.
Yes, patterened parts are available from a few german websites, but at 210 Euro`s for a guaranteed repair, its a no-brainer - that is a good price from one of the few centers left that can now repair this obsolete unit !!