6/11/07

I won’t be upgrading the stereo in Matilda after all. Here’s the poop. Friday, I left here around 1500 h to go pee in a cup for the doctor again. The nurse had a look at it and declared me all clear. From there I went to Car Toys as it was on the way home. I stopped in and was accosted by a sales dude. He asked what I was interested in and I told him a head unit, four speakers, and a powered sub. He asked if I had an iPod. I told him I didn’t but would probably buy one if the head unit I bought had a front input. He showed me a reasonably priced Alpine, I think, head unit with iPod controls and stuff. I say “reasonably priced” because it was well within the price range of $100.00 to $250.00 I was willing to spend. $199.00 I think was the price. Anyhoo, we then moved on to speakers. He showed me a set of 6.5” two-way speakers for somewhere around $99.00 or so, which was also in my range of acceptability. He said they don’t carry powered subs because they don’t sound as good as component systems. I shrugged and let him go on with his spiel. I don’t have a problem with powered subs, especially once price is factored in. We look at a box and a speaker, as well as an amp, then went to the counter to work up a quote. He plugs in all of the part numbers and factors in labor for the installation and comes back with $1,095.00 plus some change. I ask for a printout and say I'll be in touch. I won’t. I decide to check out Best Buy, just for grins. The dude there didn’t know what a Versa was so he asked me to pull around back. He looked it over and asked why I wanted to replace the speakers. I mumbled something about factory speakers being crap, historically speaking. He, in an effort to not have to take the car apart I'm sure, assured me that the current crop of factory sound systems are really pretty decent. He suggested just adding a powered sub. I shrug and we go in to have a look at prices for that. He shows me an Infinity Bass Link system and works up an installed price. I don’t remember exactly but it was in the $300.00 range. I thanked him and said I'd think about it and get back with him. This I might do. We’ll see. From there I went home. I think mom and I went to dinner but I don’t remember. Saturday morning I decided I was going to take at least $300.00 to my sister, Linda, to pay her back for the loan on the Z-car parts. Gregg had called to say he was bringing me some money but I'm not holding my breath. I can still sell the Weber carburetors, and probably the rest of the engine, to cover the debt if need be. I headed towards the shop via the credit onion. Of course I decided to swing by Hawk Electronics first to price a stereo. The first guy to help me was really stoked that he had just bought a 2007 Chevy Cobalt SS because he mentioned it five times while we discussed the pitfalls of putting stereos in new cars. Finally the guy behind the car stereo counter got off the phone and I was passed on to him. We discussed head units and he steered me towards a similar unit to the one at Car Toys. We discussed speakers. He was on board with my reasoning that a base model stereo, like what is in Matilda, most likely has crap speakers. Of course he was also trying to pad the old commission by selling speakers, but we won’t go there. At this point, Cobalt sales dude had to mention his Cobalt another three times for some reason. Sales dude two priced out a set of speakers in some brand of which I'd never heard, which he swore were the best. I shrugged and let him roll on. We moved on to the sub and I said I'd been happy with the Bazooka Tube they had installed in previous cars I'd owned. He priced one of those as well. His installed price was more reasonable, but still out of my current comfort zone, at $850.00 or so. I thanked him and moved on. There is a whole lot more to my Saturday tale but I'm going to save it for tomorrow since it is lunchtime and I've hit my arbitrary length limit for one day’s rant. Toodles.