Car Stereos: replacing monsoon car stereo in grand am, quality rca, speaker wiring

Question
i was looking into replacing my stock deck and was also thinking of installing all new speakers and speaker amp and sub and sub amp. i had been told at an audio visual store that you have to bypass the stock amp and not only that but that i will also have to put all new speaker wiring through the car.  got a quote and it was outrageous of course so me and a couple friends were going to do it ourselves. i'm wanting to know if you do infact have to run all new wire, if so how difficult would that be and i was also wondering where the stock amp is located and its accessability.  i'm also wondering how much and what type of wiring i would need to run for the speakers and subs and amps and what harnesses and other equiptment i would need. i have an idea on it i'm not totally clueless i just want to do it right the first time. also want brand of wiring recommended like JL or monster or what.  i dont know the best quality for a decent price. i understand that the amount of cable will depend on where the amp is located, i'm guessing i would put the speaker amp under the front seat, save on cable distance wire distance and put the sub amp in the trunk with the sub amp. i'm just unsure about all this stuff because i dont feel that i can trust the place where i got the information from, their quote for speaker wire was a dollar a foot and he figured they would need 65 feet which i couldnt see happening but i could be wrong. but anyways if you can help me out or if you can point me in the right direction for help if you dont know that would be great thanks.

Answer
Hi Mat,

Yes, you're likely looking at new wiring since the hookups you're going to do are likely to be incompatible with the wiring that's there.

As for wiring brand name, don't waste your money on Monster or JL.  Some reasonable quality RCA or equivalent will do just fine.

1 spool of speaker wire will be *way too much* for your car and should run $40 or so.

Justin