Aftermarket CD player for the DD
 

I'm sticking this in General Automotive since it doesn't concern my 8.

With winter on the doorstep, my 8 is about to find itself garaged for about the next 14 weeks. I'm spiffing-up the old reliable Explorer (my daily driver) since I'll be spending more time in it for the season. Put new rubber on it yesterday (first time I've ever bought 5 tires at once- realized the spare was about 8 years old and no longer reliable), and today I've turned my attention to the tunes department.

The Bose system in the Mazda has spoiled me.

The Ford has the stock cassette deck/AM-FM receiver which is now way past it's prime and doesn't even work properly.

I want to replace it with a single-disk CD player and AM-FM receiver, iPod interface would be a nice plus but not absolutely essential. I don't want a 300-watt system with sub-woofer, a little power and modest EQ will do me just fine.

Any suggestions as to brand-model that will fit the Explorer? It's a '91 with low miles for a nearly 17-year-old car (109k).
This dash is a pain to take off; I'd be willing to pay for an install as long as it wasn't a rip-off...what's a reasonable install fee? I can handle speaker replacements just fine, if needed.

TIA

Just about any brand should fit your vehicle. Go to a store, pick out your head unit and since you don't mind having them install it, they'll make it fit and look good. Most places charge some kind of discounted installation fee if you buy the product from them, or if you want to do it yourself the store should have all the installation parts you'll need.

JVC, Alpline, Clarion are some of your more common and not to expensive head units that are actually pretty good.