Finding a good installer - by Eddie Runner

You should be able to find an installation shop or car stereo store by using the phone book, or the internet and doing a search for your area.
You can lookup ratings or reviews of the shop or the installer online as well..
 

Alot of small independent shops have some great talent, but they also have trainees or beginners that could end up working on your car.  That's not always a bad thing, but you might not want a new guy LEARNING on your precious car. That's up to you to tell the shop. For the most part a shop with a good reputation can manage their trainees in a way that anything they might do to your car is well supervised.. In this case its usually ok to trust the shop even with a new guy that might be helping on your car. But you can still insist on the big dog installer if you want to... If you did that in my shop we would welcome your input and we would love to try to satisfy your needs.. If a shop is insulted or has excuses if you want something in particular, you should find another shop. We thrive on special instructions..We love it. We know we can do it and we know you will appreciate it and then we know you will always come back and send your friends as well..

There are also big places like Best Buy and they have lots of installers.. Most of the small specialty places talk bad about best buy installers, but I can tell you, some of the best installers I ever met have worked for best buy at one time of the other...
 

No matter where you go I recommend talking directly to the installer that will be working on your car. Ask him if he has ever done something like you want on a car like yours.  If he whines that your car is hard, or seems reluctant in any way, go some where else. I would never leave my car with someone that really doesn't want to work on it. 

What you want to hear from the prospective installer  is something like " Oh you have a Mercedes? I do alot of Mercedes here, in fact we have one here now, and here are photos of one we did last week"..  If he says "Mercedes ... uh... uh.... well... im not sure... he Bob, was that a Mercedes we had in here in 1995?"...or "Mercedes, well those suck to work on"...    you want to find a different guy..

Early in my career I wanted to work on the cars that other installers didn't want to work on so that I would have a good attitude about that kind of car next time one came in, eventually customers wanted only me to work on their cars.. You want someone like this not someone that doesn't want to work on your car.

You might also take a look at the shop, does it look well equipped and well organized?   Does the installer have tools?  I have found that for the most part, the best installers have lots of tools and are very proud of them.