If you do apply heat to loosen the goo holding on your stripes, be careful not to overcook the paint.

Back when I was driving a Saturn, and it was still under warranty, some of my stripes started (barely) cracking. I, too, hated the stripes, so I asked the service guy if they would replace the stripes if I asked them to. He said they would. I then asked if they would just remove them and not replace them, he said sure. So they did, and they used the heat/scraper method to do it.

But they overcooked the lower door panel (plastic, it's a Saturn) and blistered the paint. They ended up having to repaint the whole panel.