What has your local car audio shop been up to?

[P-Dizzle 1]

These installs were conducted by actual car audio shops. Here are some (before) pictures of a few redoes I have done in the past couple years. Anyone else share a similar story?

[P-Dizzle 1]

[Acidburn 10]

wow, some of those are scary

I see you're from Phoenix, what shop do you work at?

[Dee 0]

i have some pics of some horrible installs..ill post tamorro morning

[P-Dizzle 1]

wow, some of those are scary

I see you're from Phoenix, what shop do you work at?

I do not work for a shop as I am involved in some other things but I keep car audio in my back pocket and continue to install.

[JoshM20 0]

wow that makes me glad I've never went to a shop, and makes me reconsiter the install now, I think i will DIY.

[P-Dizzle 1]

wow that makes me glad I've never went to a shop, and makes me reconsiter the install now, I think i will DIY.

Good choice. Most of the quality installs I have seen lately have come from DIYer's. It seems most shops have inexperienced installers or installers that have just gotten burnt out or lazy. It is all about the money and not about the customer these days. The car audio industry needs some form of regulation. You pretty much need a license or degree to do anything else in this country but apparently it is no big deal to stick an inexperienced teenager under the dash of a new car and let them go to town...

[Duran 387]

Wow, a shop really did that? And they are still in business? That's what you get when you have (uneducated) DIYers install stuff...

[Duran 387]

wow that makes me glad I've never went to a shop, and makes me reconsiter the install now, I think i will DIY.

Good choice. Most of the quality installs I have seen lately have come from DIYer's. It seems most shops have inexperienced installers or installers that have just gotten burnt out or lazy. It is all about the money and not about the customer these days. The car audio industry needs some form of regulation. You pretty much need a license or degree to do anything else in this country but apparently it is no big deal to stick an inexperienced teenager under the dash of a new car and let them go to town...

A little stereotypical don't you think

[SouthPole1989 0]

some of those wouldnt be that bad if it was someone who has never done that before but for a shop that you had to pay someone to do that is totally a different storie.

[JoshM20 0]

wow that makes me glad I've never went to a shop, and makes me reconsiter the install now, I think i will DIY.

Good choice. Most of the quality installs I have seen lately have come from DIYer's. It seems most shops have inexperienced installers or installers that have just gotten burnt out or lazy. It is all about the money and not about the customer these days. The car audio industry needs some form of regulation. You pretty much need a license or degree to do anything else in this country but apparently it is no big deal to stick an inexperienced teenager under the dash of a new car and let them go to town...

A little stereotypical don't you think

True though

[P-Dizzle 1]

some of those wouldnt be that bad if it was someone who has never done that before but for a shop that you had to pay someone to do that is totally a different storie.

One of these systems was over $20,000, one was about $3,000 and the other $6,000. They all sounded terrible and were a complete mess.

[Duran 387]

wow that makes me glad I've never went to a shop, and makes me reconsiter the install now, I think i will DIY.

Good choice. Most of the quality installs I have seen lately have come from DIYer's. It seems most shops have inexperienced installers or installers that have just gotten burnt out or lazy. It is all about the money and not about the customer these days. The car audio industry needs some form of regulation. You pretty much need a license or degree to do anything else in this country but apparently it is no big deal to stick an inexperienced teenager under the dash of a new car and let them go to town...

A little stereotypical don't you think

True though

Well big city shops must suck arse then. In my town of 55,000 people we have five shops, one if which I work at, and none of them would do chitty work like that.

[P-Dizzle 1]

wow that makes me glad I've never went to a shop, and makes me reconsiter the install now, I think i will DIY.

Good choice. Most of the quality installs I have seen lately have come from DIYer's. It seems most shops have inexperienced installers or installers that have just gotten burnt out or lazy. It is all about the money and not about the customer these days. The car audio industry needs some form of regulation. You pretty much need a license or degree to do anything else in this country but apparently it is no big deal to stick an inexperienced teenager under the dash of a new car and let them go to town...

A little stereotypical don't you think

True though

Well big city shops must suck arse then. In my town of 55,000 people we have five shops, one if which I work at, and none of them would do chitty work like that.

You are 100% correct. Location makes a huge difference. Now there are quality shops in every city but the larger companies especially in the larger cities have made chit like this their trademark. I grew up in North Dakota and this would never fly up there. The sad thing is there is nothing protecting the customer and I have seen a lot of this. You would think that the shops turning out work like this would be the ones closing up shop but it looks more like it is the small quality shops that are the ones suffering.

Edited October 18, 2008 by P-Dizzle

[Duran 387]

wow that makes me glad I've never went to a shop, and makes me reconsiter the install now, I think i will DIY.

Good choice. Most of the quality installs I have seen lately have come from DIYer's. It seems most shops have inexperienced installers or installers that have just gotten burnt out or lazy. It is all about the money and not about the customer these days. The car audio industry needs some form of regulation. You pretty much need a license or degree to do anything else in this country but apparently it is no big deal to stick an inexperienced teenager under the dash of a new car and let them go to town...

A little stereotypical don't you think

True though

Well big city shops must suck arse then. In my town of 55,000 people we have five shops, one if which I work at, and none of them would do chitty work like that.

You are 100% correct. Location makes a huge difference. Now there are quality shops in every city but the larger companies especially in the larger cities have made chit like this their trademark. I grew up in North Dakota and this would never fly up there. The sad thing is there is nothing protecting the customer and I have seen a lot of this. You would think that the shops turning out work like this would be the ones closing up shop but it looks more like it is the small quality shops that are the ones suffering.

Sadly, that's what is happening...

[helotaxi 46]

the reason the small quality shops are the ones closing is that they charge appropriately for the work that they do. There's a saying that you can have two of cheap, fast and good. Too many people only care about cheap and fast and good shops aren't in that business. Nothing that they do will not have "good" as one of the two choices. They might do good and cheap, but it'll take awhile. Or they do good and fast but you pay for it. Choose cheap and fast and get what you pay for.

[P-Dizzle 1]

the reason the small quality shops are the ones closing is that they charge appropriately for the work that they do. There's a saying that you can have two of cheap, fast and good. Too many people only care about cheap and fast and good shops aren't in that business. Nothing that they do will not have "good" as one of the two choices. They might do good and cheap, but it'll take awhile. Or they do good and fast but you pay for it. Choose cheap and fast and get what you pay for.

Partially true but two of the shops I have received a few redoes from are some of the most expensive shops around. They both do big time installs and have been featured in hundreds of magazines. They aren't fast and they are far from cheap. They both charge for things they never even did and you can see the outcome.

[ncacoates 104]

Ouch.. thats why i have never gone to a shop other than buying carpet, rca's and such.

[JoshM20 0]

the reason the small quality shops are the ones closing is that they charge appropriately for the work that they do. There's a saying that you can have two of cheap, fast and good. Too many people only care about cheap and fast and good shops aren't in that business. Nothing that they do will not have "good" as one of the two choices. They might do good and cheap, but it'll take awhile. Or they do good and fast but you pay for it. Choose cheap and fast and get what you pay for.

Partially true but two of the shops I have received a few redoes from are some of the most expensive shops around. They both do big time installs and have been featured in hundreds of magazines. They aren't fast and they are far from cheap. They both charge for things they never even did and you can see the outcome.

Like the old saying goes, Just because its the most expensive does not mean its the best.

Quality shops are disappearing because less ppl care about quality, so many ppl are try to get over on ppl and over charge them and make shortcuts so they can make more money. They would rather hire an unexpierienced installer for cheap than have a good-qualified installer for twice that.

This is not always the case but I see it happening more and more. In all aspects of life.

[seanbw 1]

hey do u know what kind of animal they used to chew out dash space for that satellite radio?

[P-Dizzle 1]

hey do u know what kind of animal they used to chew out dash space for that satellite radio?

That is nice huh... Did anyone notice the wood screws holding the wires into the BCM?

[bngblzr 0]

WOW this makes me appreciate my shop i do most of my installs my self but still.

[Thumpper 266]

there is only one Car Audio Install shop here in Salmon Arm.....they (Barry and Kevin) do respectable work

as far as wiring/install exc....all their custom stuff comes my way

[JoshM20 0]

Let's See, I got an estimate the other day, from the shop in my city. Some of it is quite ridiculous.

3 Circuit Breakers-144.99

3 CB Covers-29.99

5 1/0 gauge O rings/battery terminal rings-99.95 -19.99 ea. --- are you F'ING Serious??

2 Ground T Blocks-39.99

Fuse Holder with 300amp Fuse-49.99

50ft. 1/0 gauge Wire-249.99

2 800 batcaps- 399.98 199.99 ea

Hi-Low 199.99

Rca's 99.99 ---- WtF?

Speaker Wire 99.99 --- WoW

$1414.89 in parts

$600.00 in Labor

And This was After I bought my amps and components, And this was most of their crap brand items.

[cjosisek90 0]

I was going to be charged 900 dollars for a 4 cuft box to be made at a local audio shop near me.