I installed new speakers, a touchscreen gps headunit, steering wheel controls, two subwoofers, two amps, replacement speakers. Didn't have any issues, took one afternoon to complete.

If you have more specific questions about the car or installation I would ask them, there are a lot of people that know the in's and out's on every part of the wiring system around the forums.

 

true but if its half way done then the price goes up

 

Around here it goes to hourly, if it is all half in there as long as a quick diagnostic shows the basic wiring is decent it shouldn't take them long to finish it.

 

you also have to remember that any issues that arise after this point become the shops "problem" so they have to go through and make sure everything is good secure and up to par. its easier and faster to just do it right once then having to go back rechecking everything

still probably not worth 800 to fix however at this point the OP is at a fork in the road and his buddy hasn't been able to get it right so far leaving his options very limited

 

Yeah that is true, would hate to finish someone's install and find out their car caught fire because of a shorted wire they installed yet I said it was good.

 

Not to jump in without a solution, but......it's hard to believe this was so difficult.

Advice for the future: Don't just jump into the project. Plan each segment of your project ahead of time. Take measurements when necessary. Map out the entire project on paper, for instance with the amp bypass portion you could have saved a lot of time and headache.

I've got a full CarPC setup, custom built, and about to put in another......so I can't underscore the value of the advice I've given you even on a "simple" install like you had ahead of you....and this newest version will even use the stock buttons - which I'm adding in after the fact.

A Cobalt w/ the upgraded stock stereo is roughly a 4 on a difficulty scale 1-10. A Cobalt with the baseline stereo is roughly a 2 on the same scale.