Since I do not have any skill in installing speakers, nor have a friend who can do it for me, does anyone have any suggestions on where to buy speakers and get them installed? Mind you, I'm in Michigan, so national chains would be nice, but I don't want to go to Best Buy or Circuit City.

Thanks.

An excellent regional chain is Duke's Car Stereo. If any of their stores are not easily accessible then let me know where you are located and I'll be happy to refer you to a qualified independant shop close to you. 8)

Denru - you live in my favorite place in America. You're very lucky. :D

Duke's is a little far for me. The closest location is a 90 minute drive. Any good locations in the Metro Detroit area?

I highly recommend that you visit Radios, Knobs, Speakers and Things (RKST) located at 314 W. Walton Blvd., Pontiac, MI 48340, 248-334-2519, www.rkst.net

These folks do a terrific job and are very professional. Let me know if this is convenient for you. If not, advise your exact city location and I'll get you closer to home. 8)

Robear - I don't know if you have had speakers installed yet. Are you only planning to upgrade the speakers and nothing else?

I have never installed speakers before in my 20 years of owning cars. The Element has to be one of the easiest to do yourself. Once you know what fits and what else to look out for, it is literally pulling off 4 grill covers, unscreing 3 bolts per speaker, and replacing the speakers (Oh, and connecting 4 very foolproof honda speaker wire adapters that you can buy at the same place you get the speakers.

All 4 will take 30 minutes tops assuming the speakers fit with no mods.

I installed 6.5" Pioneers in the front and 6.5" sony's in the back. Both had multiple mounting screw areas that lined up with the Honda holes. Improved the sound of the stock system immensly, and gave me the confidence to upgrade the tweeters which will be my week-end project.

Sorry for the slow response. School's been kickin' my ass and I just got more responsiblity thrown at me at work. Can you tell me what the model numbers are on the Pioneers and Sonys that you installed? I may look into those.

Quick shout to denru:

Pontiac isn't too far away from work, but from home, that's almost an hour away. I live in Allen Park, practically on the Allen Park/Lincoln Park borders near Toldeo/Dix Rd. and Southfield Rd. Thanks.

Sony 3-Way 6 1/2" Speakers
Brand/Model: SON XSV1630A
50 RMS
92 sensitivity
$64 at CC

(I put the Sonys in the rear doors. I am not sure they would fit in the front due to the tweeter and mid-range height)

6.5" Pioneer TS-G1640R speakers in the front ($45 pluys free shipping from CC). They fit perfectly fine, already had three holes lined up for the screws. Didn't even have to cut off the plastic guides from the stock speakers...the pioneers had a little lip on them that went directly over the plastic guides.

If the above info seems to not flow, it because I just copied and pasted from another thread. See page 4 and 5 from the sticky topic about speakers that fit in the E for full info. Best of luck.