Best/Worst OEM Car Radio of All Time for DXing

[Radio-X]

I wanted to get the peanut gallery's opinion on what radio was the best DXing radio that came OEM with the car (Supertuner IIID doesn't count...unless you drove a TVR that had one installed from the factory...sorry).

As cars changed, so did the radios used in them, so I'm giving my top 3 based on stages:

Analog tuning: Ford AM/FM radio in a 78 Fairmont.

Digital tuning: Delco AM & FM Stereo (no cassette/CD) in a 1994 GMC Sonoma work truck

Modern "entertainment" system: Radio in a 2013 Honda Crosstour (with nav package). Amazing reception despite having a duck-tail...that is, until you turn on the rear defroster...all bets are off.

Worst: Anything Volvo made from the 70's- mid 1990's. In my 1973 1800ES, my 1992 940, and my 1987 240 wagon, they were atrocious in sensitivity/selectivity and awful sound.

Radio-X

 

[Ai4i]

I would really like to try the one that Nissan had a few years ago with spacial diversity reception on FM. I do not know whether they or anyone else has ever followed up on that novel approach.
Does anyone have any clue as to why some 1960s cars had one antenna on each side in the back?
Was that just for looks?

 

[mofocat]

Does anyone have any clue as to why some 1960s cars had one antenna on each side in the back?
Was that just for looks?

That was long before FM was standard in car radios. I'm betting one of those two antennas was just a dummy, not connected to the radio at all.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I'd like to give a nod to Delcos of the late 1960's. 262 kHz IF frequency, combined with a 60 inch whip antenna, made them really hot performers. They also had a quite complex network to eliminate alternator noise.

The Delco AM / FM version was nothing special on FM, but if you do the narrow ceramic filter modification they perk up quite a bit. Once and for all - the 60 inch whip also improves FM. There is nothing sacred about 31 inches except it looks good theoretically. I put the extra length on the whip, it helps a lot on weak FM signals as well - much better than the 31 inch length.

 

[cyberdad]

From my recent experiences with rental cars.....

Best: Toyots Camrys and Corollas. Good sensitivity and selectivity, as well as decent audio. Chevrolet also has some stock models good for DX although the audio quality on AM at best seems to be an afterthought.

Worst: Hyundai. I haven't driven all that many of them, but the audio on them has been "tinny" on FM and borderline unpleasant on AM. Reception has been OK, but nothing special.

 

[gr8oldies]

Original equipment AM/FM in my 1986 Ford Tempo was great with Analog tuning, No real complaints and got me through a lot of miles. I hated losing my recently departed 1994 Mercury Sable. Quite a DX machine for the car...only negative was it was defaulted to "scan" and to tune one step at a time I had to push 2 buttons. Not a good idea while in motion. The Scion (Toyota) I replaced it isn't bad but isn't great. It is a Pioneer unit which comes factory equipped. A touch noisy but I've still managed some AM and FM mobile DX.

Worst factory equipped I've ever encountered? My wife's Kia minivan that she had until last year. That radio was completely deaf.

 

[radioman148]

I agree with Bruce that the delcos from the 60s were the best car radios I ever used for DX. One thing I know, when they took away the whip antennas the AM reception got much worse for DX purposes on any car radio I used.

 

[Ai4i]

...the 60 inch whip also improves FM.

An end fed halfwave has a rediculously high impedence, much of that is from having nearly infinite inductive reactance.
My very first car had a whip, which I could peak for a particular part of the FM band by extending or retracting it just a few inches up (out) or down (in), but around the thirty inch length.
How do you suppose a hundred meter longwire would work for you on FM, he asked while chuckling?
BTW...someone is (or was) selling, I wish I could link to it, fifty-something inch FM car antennæ, but they have or had huge loading coils in the bases to tune all that reactance out and match the cables.

 

[K9RZZ]

I put a 110khz Murata ceramic filter in my stock Subaru stereo '04 for FM. When the car is done that radio is staying with me.

 

[charlestondxman]

The best: Pontiac Vibe (2011 or 2012). Great AM/FM radio with satellite. Amazing with weak AM signals. Could hear my local graveyarder on 1450 almost 70 miles N with a listenable signal.

Kia Soul radios are also pretty good. Both Kia Souls we have had have had good selectivity and reception on both AM/FM.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

The best AM section I can remember was a Delco in a 1961 General Motors car. It was the last tube car radio we had. By 1965 they were solid state. It had a telescoping whip. We put it all the way up, might have been 72", and could get WJR in the Daytime near Frankfort, MI. I remember hearing a K station from Texas one Night. It was close in dial position to WOAI, but I think it was KFJZ (now KFLC), on 5000 watt Nondirectional Day pattern, between Michigan and Texas Sunset. I remember hearing an AC hit from Bert Kaempfert the same Night, maybe Afrikaan Beat, on the Jim Rockwell Jazz show, which aired on the Michigan Knorr stations.

 

[anotherguyTN]

In recent cars the best I've had was a Chrysler model that was in both a 2002 PT Cruiser and a 2005 Dodge Caravan. They both worked really well. The worst is in my wife's 2016 Hyundai Elantra. It does OK on strong local stations but not so well on distant stations.

 

[Ai4i]

The best AM section I can remember was...the last tube car radio we had.

I recall being a child and getting shocked by touching a tube-type car radio antenna.
Was it normal for some plate voltage to find its way up into the antenna?

 

[boombox4]

I have no idea about newer car stereos / radios/ tuners. All I know is any modern one has sucked on AM compared to my old Philco 1970 car radio that I found at a junkyard. Unfortunately, it's stopped working. But I recall -- when a little kid -- hearing AM on one of those on an older car my parents had, and not only did it sound good, it was a great DXer also.

Tuned RF section always helps.