1988 Car Stereo Guide | Retro Review

Which was better back in the late 80's, a high end aftermarket system or the best the manufacturer could offer? We needed to know!
Show 806 | Original Airdate 10-27-1988

Stay connected with MotorWeek on social media!

MotorWeek, PBS' award-winning weekly automotive magazine provides unbiased, consumer-oriented car news with feature stories on related topics.

To license this video or any content from MotorWeek, please visit:

[darinkzx]

I remember well shopping in Walmart or Kmart with my mom and I’d always head to the auto section to sample the car stereos and speakers set up like in this video. Oh those were the days.

[MarkMeadows]

Those old school Alpine stereos with the white buttons that light up green. I miss that.

[mwinner]

I had a BMW 2002 in high school with an Alpine 7903 pull-out CD player, Rockford Pro 12, Rockford amps. It was the good old days.

[terrywinningham]

I started working at a Stereo shop in 1981 and finished my career as a regional sales representative in 2020. When you love what you do you never work a day.

[FozzyS]

In '88 I had a nice Nakamichi pull-out head unit on my lowered Toyota mini truck. Man those were the good days!

[gfalcon]

I really wanted to see the Delco guy and the Crutchfield guy get into some sort of slappy-fight

[Fleetwoodjohn]

The nostalgia this brings is awesome. When your radio was the only distraction in the car 😎

[TheZProtocol]

These now-vintage aftermarket stereos are becoming highly valuable. Those classic Alpines are fetching hundreds now

[chip]

Circuit city had an entire car radio installation dept.

[MarcPagan]

Thanks for the ride down Memory Lane :)

[tpolerex]

Remember when the local, independent newspapers in most cities were cram packed with dozens of pages of adds for aftermarket stereos, speakers, amps and installers for cars?

[tkewrestler]

Now, because of touch screens and multimedia systems, an aftermarket system is nearly a thing of the past.

[MarkFries-on]

Can’t imagine changing my stereo today. They sound better than the aftermarket ones I put into my cars in the 70’s!

[BennyTygohome]

I loved car stereo equipment stores in the 80s and 90s. I haven't been to or seen such a store in a long time. I remember the portable DAT players and car stereos around mid 90s i think. I wanted one so bad, but i stuck with CD players with removable faceplate for security (i had open to jeep at the time). 😎

[milfordcivic]

Alpine and Pioneer were the best head units back in the day.

[warrpedd]

Who here remembers hiding your stereo faceplate in the glove box?

[Snake-mssj]

I remember having my aftermarket cassette tape players in my cars back in the 80's. Don't know how many of my cassette tapes got eaten, lol.

[ZdnR]

In 1985, I took my Oldsmobile to a custom stereo shop. They designed a system for it, but I told them that I would have to save up some $$ before having the equipment installed. I then went to a couple electronics retail stores, bought the same or comparable pieces and installed it all myself. Head unit, equalizer, speakers, all sounded fantastic.

[Welcometofacsistube]

First car; 78 vw rabbit with 2 mtx 12" subs, boston acoustics speakers with 2 Phoenix gold amps circa 1992.
Good times

[somerandomcommenter]

Love this one.... 1989 Lincoln Town Car (in the test bay) and Lincoln Continental (cd player) which we had back then in the same video! I still have the first one with an aftermarket radio I got from Crutchfield! Cool.