Patent ID: 7370500

Claim:
A vehicle instrument panel assembly comprising: a structural carrier including a center stack for housing at least one component wherein said center stack includes at least one mounting opening having opposing walls for slidably engaging said at least one component into fixed relationship with said at least one mounting opening, wherein said at least one component includes one or more depressions, wherein at least one molded feature in the walls of said at least one mounting opening engages said at least one component to align and fixedly retain said at least one component in the mounting opening, said at least one molded feature comprising two elongated cantilevered snap-tabs, one of which engages with a pin extended from a back surface of a finish trim plate of said at least one component to force said snap-tab into said depressions, and including a lock cylinder assembly for retention of said at least one component in said mounting opening, wherein the lock cylinder assembly comprises a lock cylinder connected to a locking bar wherein upon insertion of a key into the lock cylinder and rotation of the key in the cylinder causes the locking bar to move from a first unengaged position to a second position wherein the locking bar engages one of said one or more depressions.