Well, the first step is to decide how much money you are willing to invest in your quest for bass. As a rule, you will only get decent bass coming from the rear of the vehicle. You have a few choices, but all have their trade-offs.

Speakers on the rear-deck:
The cheapest method to get bass is to have some decent speakers on the rear deck. Even 6&1/2 inch speakers can give some decent bass if mounted properly. Basically, the rule of bigger gives more applies where bass is concerned. Thus, two 8 inch speakers on the rear deck will give more bass than two 6 inch. The only problem is that most modern cars have fairly small rear decks.

There is a trick to getting bass when the speakers are mounted on the rear deck. Basically, air from the back of the speaker must not interact with the air at the front of the speaker. Thus, there should be no holes between the trunk and the car interior. Any holes present should be filled (Flashband works well). Also, if your rear deck is not sturdy, it is sometimes a good idea to replace it with a sheet of wood.

Free-Air Subwoofers:
Free-Air subwoofers are subwoofers that are mounted in the trunk without a box. They are usually mounted either behind the back seat firing forward, or on the rear shelf, firing up. Not any subwoofer should be used in a free-air configuration. Subwoofers that can be used effectively in free-air mode are usually designed specifically for such use. Free-air subwoofers let you keep your trunk space but they require a great amount of amplifier power and do not sound quite as good as subs mounted in a box.

Sealed Enclosures:
These are speaker boxes that are sealed. Thus, no air can enter or leave the box. These generally give very good bass response and can go very low indeed. Generally require less power than a free-air configuration.

Ported Enclosurers:
These are speaker boxes that have a port in them where air can enter and leave the box. These are generally louder than sealed boxes but some care and effort is needed to tune the box so that it will sound just right. If care is not taken, a ported enclosure will give a boomy sound.

There are other types of enclosure but they are all variations of one of these two. These are described in detail in the rec.audio.news FAQ.

NOTE: Some sub-woofers can only be used in a particular type of enclosure to give good bass response. Be careful when buying.

Some reputable manufacturers of subwoofers are: JL Audio, Cerwin Vega, Kicker and JBL.

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