Highest sound quality car subwoofers

I'm helping a friend buy a subwoofer for her new car a mitsubishi lancer 04. I'm not to familiar with car audio only home and I'm looking for opinions on what the absolute best in sound quality subwoofers are. I'm thinking of 1 10" she dosen't want a huge box and only listens to rock. She's keeping the factory speakers and just adding a sub for now. I look down at most car audio stuff compared to high end home audio most dosen't compare. Cost isn't much of an issue she can afford almost $1000 for everything needed to add a sub. I know theres a car section here but I value the opinions of home audio enthusiasts more cause were all about sound quality and not how much air we can pressurize in our trunks.
Thanks -Mark

I'd ask the guys at carreview.com , the forums are just like this. But I'm telling you right now there's no need to waste a grand on a subwoofer that will be complemented by just the factory setup.

the infinity kappa perfects are nice i used to have alpine type r's and they were very tight and they don't have a huge price. don't go kicker if your wanting it to be musical. that's about all i can comment right now cuz i gots to go.

Definitely ask this question on the carreview.com site.

FWIW, stay away from Rockford Fosgate, I blew mine up and they just aren't what they used to be. I replaced it with JL Audio and the difference was amazing. JL has a great rep in car audio and their new long-throw series is just crazy (crazy expensive too, so watch out).

If your friend is just trying to add some balance to her stock system, like I did, a single 10" or 12" with a decent 250-500 watt amp will be fine (Precision power is always good, Zapco too). The sub, amp, and custom box can be easily built and installed for less than $600. BTW, if she leases, she should consider Circuit City as they will remove any system they install for free.

If the car is a hatchback the Bazooka tubes are great for an upgrade to factory systems. Go with the higher end line for best results. I personally would yank the factory speakers before getting a sub. If it's a sedan or she really wants to rock I second the Infinity Perfect 10. I had a single 10 in a 1 cubic foot sealed enclosure driven by a 50x2 PPI amp bridged and it hit like Mike. This was in a Malibu. If set up properly the bass is extremely tight and hits hard. This one sub gave plenty of bass and I had a 4x50 Infinity amp on satelites. What i mean by set up properly is correctly set the gain. Don't do like these meathead kids who turn the gain all the way up on a trunk full of 15's and the sound don't even resemble music. I have never used JL Audio but they do have the reputation of being one of the best sounding car audio subs. I used a Bazooka tube with an 8 in my VW Golf factory system for a long time. It worked great built in amp an easy install. It sounds good inside the car but you won't be able to hear it a block away. I buy my car audio from Crutchfield, they have no problems with warranty exchanges and I didn't even have to buy an extended warranty. In fact, I had one month left on a 3 year warranty when my daughter blew my Perfect 10, I had a new one in my car in about a week. The amazing thing is I called Crutchfield and they told ME I had warranty left. The woofer just quit, it didn't act like a typical blown woofer so i just called for some advice, the guy said, "let me check" and came back on the line to tell me I had warranty left. That system in my Malibu was my all out attempt at an audiophile car system. I still wasn't satisfied so I don't think I will go that extravagant again. I used a Sony ES top of the line head unit and Infinity Kappa component speakers. I think i needed someone to tweak it who had an analyzer and knew how to use it. I set mine up by ear because in a city the size of St. Louis I couldn't find a single store that knew what they were doing. I guess they got used to making big boom for the kids and forgot how to make sound quality.

Bazookas Nos bottle design for maximum bling. Nothing short of Dynaudio to replace the stock speakers.