My brother works at a car audio place, he has for years but when it came time to install my system he said skrew you do it your self, theres no better way to learn than a hands on experience. with that said I took on the project my self it took me a whole day to get everything wired: alpine head unit alpine 61/2 two way speakers in the front doors and on the rear deck powered by a 4 channel ads amp and a kicker solobaric L7 powered by an alpine amp and to my surprise it all worked and now I install all my freinds systems sometimes for some money or a case of beer. so anyway I say do it yourself it will save you money and potentially make you some in the future. if you run into a snag call cruthfeild or swing by the local car audio store im sure they'll help you

 

If you haven't done anything yet, check out your local circuit city. The standard radio is 48$ speakers are 35 a pair, and amps are 65. and changer is 70. that puts you at a total 330, but if you think about it one amp or two amps and a changer is still the same labor, and ot you came to my store, it would be no more than 240, considering you have all necessary rca'a ring terminals and little stuff like that.

 

Before you consider installing your own stereo, make sure you have the right tools. If all you have is a screwdriver and a hammer, then forget it. I did my own install on my previous car (93 Civic), but I ended up buying a lot of stuff (1" hole cutter, panel removal tool, soldering iron, etc....) I think the most valuable tool to have is a very good wire cutter/stripper.

 

i get a good portion of my stuff installed; i hardly do any of the work myself because i don't want to f anything up. basically when i went to get my head unit in it was like 40$ and then my cd changer was 40$ so 80$ altogether for those 2. between 40 and 45 is what you would expect to pay for a head unit to be put in... as for your subs, that's probably the easiest thing to do in my opinion... if you want to tackle the task of putting the amps in, i would suggest having whoever you take your car to to have the head unit put in, have them hook up the remote leads and the rcas and let them hang out so you can hook them up; that way you don't have to tear half your car apart to get the head unit back out (i have a legacy and that was a ***** to do, had to rip the whole center console out just to get at 2 screws under the dash). since you are going to be running your speakers off a separate amp (i don't have that luxury) i would assume that is going to be a ***** because i am not even sure if you would want to or can use the stock wire in the car to do that (if you can locate it within the mess of wiring)... you would most likely have to run new wire to the speakers. my advice: get the hard stuff done professionally, do the easy stuff yourself. or combine your efforts, i have friends help me with mine.

 

I second what legacy2003 says above.

If you really don't want to try it yourself, then Have them install the headunit and leave you the leads to the rest of the stuff. The headunit is usually the only real trouble only because of the huge mess of wires in the dash. But keep in mind, everything of importance has fuses in them. I popped 2 of them during my first install!!! It scared the crud out of me, but I sure learned from it and nothing was harmed other than the fact I used up 2 of my spare fuses. So don't worry too much about trying it out for yourself. Just call some where if you get stuck.