someoneyouknowThe Lifestyles Store: Review
A couple friends of mine have started getting into car audio. They know i have dealt with the Lifestyles Car Audio store before and wanted my opinion on things.
First up, their website can be found here
Anyway, their website first claims "Quality Brands at the best Prices". I think this is a fair statement, to an extent. I mean, this was one of the main reasons that I shopped there in the first place. The products they sold had better quality than the generic Strathfield Car Radio's, or JB Hi Fi type brands. Lifestyles boasted brands such as, Boston Acoustics, MB Quart, and what seems to be their flagship brand in which all of their showcars are decked out in, Rockford Fosgate.
The Store
I walked into their Parramatta store at the time and the store had a great feel to it. Bright lights, good balance between their car audio and home audio sections, and most importantly, specialist rooms to test their equipment. The soundproof rooms had wall-to-wall of head units, amps, speakers, coaxials and tweeters. What more, it had most of their commonly sold subwoofers on the floor, ready to be connected up to test to your pleasure.
The Sale
A wonderful salesman greeted me and we chatted about things and what i wanted out of what particular price. He tailor made me a setup and checked things off with me and gave me a quote on it. All in all, a very helpful salesman that wasn't pushing the sale and let me go home to think about it.
I came in the next weekend greeted by the same salesman. Except the manager of the store was there as well. In contrast to the almost perfect service i had received so far, the manager of the store had a completely different attitude. He was rude, and seemed to try to pressure sell me their products. The manager and the salesman even had a small argument on the sales floor! Whether scripted or not, it looked very unprofessional. Anyway, I was pretty set on getting the sound system so i went ahead with it, refusing to speak to the manager again.
The Install
For a store that seems to go on and on about their quality install, this was far from the case with me. I managed to spot a nick on my rear bumper that went all the way to the plastic, not just a light scratch, a scar! Also, where my centre console had to be pulled out and removed, it was done so, only to leave scratch marks all around the neighbouring plates. The only part that i was happy about was the neat installation of the cables and wires, running nicely along the roof of my bonnet and cable-tied together.
The Verdict
Good commercial store with relatively better products than other stores, very negotiable with prices so make sure you can bargain or go with someone that does. I recommend just buying the parts from them and either installing it yourself or pay for a professional to install it - and make sure you have seen that 'professional's' work before.
