Hey AR, I have that same car (73 Cougar XR7 - white) sitting in my dad's backyard, covered, waiting for me to get time to work on it. Man, that thing is definitely a tank, good thing it has that 351 Windsor in it!
I used to be into car audio, but that was in my teenage years, when all I wanted was big time bass. I would have to agree that CC and BB, and other big electronic chains are not the way to go when looking for decent car audio. Another thing to consider is that we all know how 'knowledgable' most of the sales people are for their home audio section, I would assume that the car audio salesmen are of the same caliber. But I am sure there are a few good ones, somewhere...