Recommendations for a car stereo set-up?

I would agree with pauly on this. It is hard to go wrong with Kenwood as a good quality "middle of the road" system. Depending on the insulation you have in the car and the overall volume of the exhaust inside the car, external amps are the way to go. Glove box mounted head works well if you don't want to cut the dash, but most modern heads will fit well in the dash with minimum cutting. For speakers, (keeping quality and relative "inexpesiveness") I would stick with a Kenwood, Pioneer, or Infinity (although Polk, Bostons and MB Quarts among a few others are good as well, but tend to be a little more expensive) 6X9s for the back with a full spacer to allow for fitment to the package tray. Up front I would use the biggest speaker you can fit (with 6.5 separates being optimal). I myself and currently running a pair of 4 inch under the dash running off the head power with plans to put in something bigger in kick panels with an external amp in the future. I am also running a couple of good 10" subs with a mono amp for thump. Sorry for the long reply, but this has been my passion for the better part of 20 years and I am a bit opinionated on the subject.