Greetings from a person soon to have his licence..
 

Hello,

My name is Andrew..I live in Uxbridge, Ontatio.

I will have my G2 in the next few weeks and my parents are saying they WILL give me money to put towards a car in the next month or so.

I have a job..racking in about 20 hours a week..so I have some money to spend. I will probably end up getting something between 8-10,000$ to start off with. A lot more than most kids get, I know..but my parents mentality is that they don't want be starting off with an unreliable piece of .

I'm thinking Neon, Focus..something along those lines because there cheep on insurance and easy to find parts for.


Now..music is a big part in my life..and I wont be able to cope with a shitty sound system for too long. I dont know much about car audio..and I was wondering if someone could help me out. I wont be buying a totally new system all up front..I just cant afford it, it will be piece by piece..but the pieces I buy will be fairly high quality.

I want a deck that can hook directly into a Ipod video 30GB, something that can handle some serious sound so I'm good for the future. I was in a car with a 10' sub in the trunk..and the sound it made was amaizing. So loud..scary almost. I want that. I was thinking dual subs..I want to make some freakin noise. As for size, brand, price..I have NO idea. This car will probably come with some pretty crappy stock speakers..its not going to be great. I will want to eventually want to replace them with something to suite my wants. \

So basically what I need is someone to fill me in on the brands..what I need to know when buying audio equipment and price ranges. Like I said this wont be all done at once..its going to be a gradual setup over a few years..I just want to get educated on the subject.


Thanks.

Sounds like you have a good plan. It is much better to buy quality components, than to upgrade your entire system when you want something new. Do it right the first time!

First thing you should probably look at is the head unit. There are a ton of i-pod compatible units on the market today. A little more info is needed, mainly, what is your budget? If possible go to a store and try out the deck. See how easy the features are to use. I like to close my eyes and try to adjust the volume or change the song, this gives you an idea of how easy it will be to make adjustments on the road.

With regards to subwoofers, what are you looking for: high sound quality or just really loud bass? What kind of music do you like to listen to? Again budget will be a determining factor. There are just way too many brands to just say this is the best. Application and install will be the difference in any situation. Also check out the forum sponsors, they are all excellent in both price and service.

Oh, and welcome to the forum! :D

i would go with a Civic...standard issue first car...reliable, good gas milage...
you can get a pretty damn good one for 8-9 grand...

check out your local craiglist etc...
i saw a car on the vancouver craiglist...13 grand and it was a Focal showcar...the audio equipment in it was worth atleast 20g's and the guy was selling it all for so much less...look around a bit before buying right away!~

Tell me you bought it lol.

smith wellcome to the forum man:smilie_da Theres tons of options as a member says here called Smartass PM him he will give you good advice and fair prices on car audio needs:D :cheeky4:

dude get a crx you can pimp it out make them go fast and if ya want to compete you have the best sreet car in canada.

ahrem... the best street car in Canada? ... I beg to differ ;)

(not that I can DO anything with it though...) :eyes:

I wish i did, but i had already sold my civic and purchased my new car...:ohwell:

here is the link to the ad:

http://vancouver.craigslist.org/car/230530625.html

Definitely get a deck with a remote control, they make driving and messing with tunes a lot safer, and it preserves the face plate. I've had excellent results with Alpine, Rockford Fosgate, and MTX over the last 20 years, so I always recommend them. There are obviously lots of other excellent brands out there, so go shopping. If your budget is relatively low, and your stock system is decent, you can add tweeters in front, and a subwoofer and amp in the rear, and if your stock deck is not ipod compatible, then add a mid priced deck (250.00 range will give you virtually identical performance to 500.00+ decks minus some bells and whistles)for starters. Later, you can add front components, a second amp for your mids/highs, and use your extra tweeters for rear fill if you decide to go that route. You don't have to do everything all at once, in fact sometimes it's better and more fun to slowly add the things you think your system needs.

second the motion for you to get a honda or another foreign make, nothing against domestics it just seems that the japanese makes last longer.

My old corolla is still running strong at 400 000 kms. Would still be driving it but someone broke a window when they robbed me. Oh well, bought my new matrix kind of as a result.

Ok I dident word that properly the best street car that is sold in canada not imported like someones panda....

Better!! :lol_hitti

True that Jap cars are also fast depends which model:D :smilie_da

If you do get a civic hatchback, swap out the engine for an integra one...you wont be dissapointed! you will kill most cars in the 1/4...

^^this guy's gone from a budget system to swapping engines real fast!!

whos says you cant do both? im sure he can do it all in that 10 grand budget!

I think the 10 G's is for the car also, which would make it a tight squeeze for a car, a system, and an engine swap...not to mention mom and dad probably won't be too excited about Jr. ripping a perfectly good engine out of the new (used) car to make his go faster...especially with a new license...but, I could be wrong.

ah civic's ca go for 3-5 g'z, engine swap for 2 g'z, and 3 g'z for a system...it could work...plus you can always sell the civic engine...

i used to have a civic, and the sytem in it was pretty heavy. the car was slow as hell...its always nice to have a bumpin system backed with some nice hp....

Sorry for the late reply, its my birthday weekend..partying!

I would say I wouldnt want to spend more than 2-300$ on a deck..but if its needed it wont be a problem.

As for subs, I listen to alot of rap..and some hard rock(like alexisonfire). I wouldnt want to spend over 4-500$ on the subs..

I would like a clean sound..not just some crazy vaccum-sounding base. I dont need to hook directly into the ipod base, mabye just a good RCA jack would be fine, so my sister can use her mp3 player too.

Also, would I be better to go to a place like bestbuy for these parts..or a private place like halmilton audio?

I know big corperations mark up their computers.so smart people go to a private place and get MUCH more for the money.

Is this the same deal for car audio?

Oh, and I'm thinking a 2003+ neon, I can get one with under 80K on it for about 6500 and less.

check out the for sale section...you will find some awesome deals there...check out all the alpine Type-R subs...those things are pretty decent and you can get a couple of 12's in your price range...

Not sure what prices are on them lately, but kick comps pound decent and aren't priced all that high.

Thanks for the replys, but I would like a few other opinions..on what a good deck to purchase would be..if I wanted to add speakers and subs later on.

I recommend checking out some Alpine decks. Clean, crisp sound IMO. Pretty much any deck you buy these days has an input or an adapter available to hook up an ipod. I've also heard good things about Eclipse decks although I haven't had the pleasure of hearing one yet. I'm running a Kenwood Excelon X-890 right now and it has amazing sound (much better than my old alpine) as well as a usb input for flash drives. The deck may also be able to read directly from an mp3 player (will read it as a flash drive). I have the KCA-IP500 ipod adapter cable and it works great with an ipod. This deck also has rear inputs incase you want to add another source to your system. A little over your projected price range if I recall correctly though.