Last vehicle with an AM-only radio?

[kevtronics]

Japanese cars also had dealer-installed air conditioning at the time, probably to get around import quotas and to boost the U.S. parts content of their vehicles.

Chevrolet made AM/FM standard on passenger cars in 1988, while the 1988 Buick brochure listed the Regal as still only coming with an AM radio as standard (strange, because it was their "personal luxury" model). In the 1989 Buick brochure, all models had AM/FM standard.

The last Ford car with an AM-only radio was the 1990 Escort. The redesigned 1991 Escort gave you a choice of an AM/FM radio, or no radio at all in the base model.

As of the early 2010s, you could still get some cars with no radio and no A/C:

Did You Know That You Can Still Buy A New VW Without A Radio? - 1A Auto

VDub2625 over on VWVortex spotted this new Jetta in a local dealer. It is the meaning of a base model, like no radio sort of "base". Why you ask? Well, because they are selling it brand new for $13K, and viola, it is posted all over the interwebs for being a strange bird. Win? Lose? I don't...

blog.1aauto.com

 

[vchimpanzee]

Chevrolet made AM/FM standard on passenger cars in 1988

Our first car with FM was a '78 Malibu which belonged to my grandparents.

 

[vchimpanzee]

the 1988 Buick brochure listed the Regal as still only coming with an AM radio as standard (strange, because it was their "personal luxury" model)

My father had an '84 Regal and it had FM.

 

[Calhoun]

I bought one of the first Honda CRXs into the US in 1984. A few months after I bought it, I dropped it off at the dealership one evening to fix a few minors issues. At 7:30 the next morning the service manager called to tell me my car had been broken in to overnight and my original equipment AM/FM/cassette stereo had been stolen. They finally replaced it, but only after I filed suit in small claims court and threatened to subpoena everyone in their service department.

 

[kevtronics]

Radio theft was rampant in the '80s and '90s, especially on VWs, because they had the radio high up on the dash where it was easy to see, and door handles that were easy to pry open. (But the moron who stole the Blaupunkt radio out of my mom's Jetta didn't know that, because he smashed the window instead.)

 

[PTBoardOp93]

Chevrolet made AM/FM standard on passenger cars in 1988, while the 1988 Buick brochure listed the Regal as still only coming with an AM radio as standard (strange, because it was their "personal luxury" model). In the 1989 Buick brochure, all models had AM/FM standard.

Which speaks to the strange relationship between GM's brands.

For 1988, all Chevy cars, all Pontiacs and all Oldsmoibiles had AM/FM standard, although most could be special ordered with Radio Delete.

Why would a Buick, which is usually considered to sit just below Cadillac in GM's pecking order, be the last passenger car with an AM only tuner? The world may never know.

 

[michael hagerty]

Which speaks to the strange relationship between GM's brands.

For 1988, all Chevy cars, all Pontiacs and all Oldsmoibiles had AM/FM standard, although most could be special ordered with Radio Delete.

Why would a Buick, which is usually considered to sit just below Cadillac in GM's pecking order, be the last passenger car with an AM only tuner? The world may never know.

Demographics. Buick had the oldest customer base apart from Cadillac. But the Cadillac buyer expected everything.

Some Buick buyers in that era wanted FM and were willing to pay extra for it. Some were fine with AM.

 

[alok]

First car I had with built in AM/FM was a new 83 Buick Regal, the new 78 Chevette I had, came with just AM but I had an AM/FM radio installed right after I got it.
I had many cars with AM only, but I installed (under the dash) FM converters or tuners . . . 61 Chevy Impala (got car used in 66, installed in 66), 67 Chevy Impala (got car used in 69, installed in 69), 75 Chevy Monte Carlo (got car new in 75, installed in 75).

I got converters/tuners when living in NYC area in the late 60's because of - 98.7 WOR-FM, when they went RnR around 1966.

I still listened to AM much even with FM in the cars, until AM's in my area stopped playing Top 40 or RnR oldies.

 

[darcyh]

I know some GM models came standard with an AM radio until at least 1990, while I think all Chrysler radios were AM/FM beginning in 1988, perhaps even earlier.

Ford was the last holdout I can find of AM-only radios, in the 1996 (1996!) F-series pickup trucks. The Special and XL trim levels list "electronic AM radio with digital clock" as a standard feature:

https://xr793.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1996-Ford-F-Series.pdf

The redesigned 1997 model finally made an AM/FM radio standard.

As of 1989, Ford still touted the fact that the F-150 came with an AM radio as standard as an advantage over the Chevrolet pickups:

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I believe this is Ford's last AM-only radio:

That radio was very sensitive. It also desensed when you were close to an AM transmitter site. I recall driving a Ford van with this model of radio. I was on highway 401 approaching Chatham Ontario and tuned to WJR 760. As I approached the CFCO 630 AM towers (which are visible from the 401) WJR's signal got much weaker like you turned the RF gain control down. A couple of miles past the towers the radio regained its sensitivity. This did not happen often but when it did I knew I was close to an AM transmitter site. Pretty cool.

 

[seattlesarchiebunker]

That radio was very sensitive. It also desensed when you were close to an AM transmitter site. I recall driving a Ford van with this model of radio. I was on highway 401 approaching Chatham Ontario and tuned to WJR 760. As I approached the CFCO 630 AM towers (which are visible from the 401) WJR's signal got much weaker like you turned the RF gain control down. A couple of miles past the towers the radio regained its sensitivity. This did not happen often but when it did I knew I was close to an AM transmitter site. Pretty cool.

For some reason, I feel like you’d never, ever find a new vehicle on a dealer lot (truck or otherwise) after 1990 or so that came with just an AM radio.

My guess is to have that AM only digital Ford radio (kinda dumb to put electronic tuning and not bother to put FM on it, but I digress) you’d have to either order as a fleet (work trucks/vans/police/govt.) or know a guy at the dealership who would actually do a custom order for you as a favor.

Ford was far more restrictive with custom orders than GM back in the day, who’d pretty much add/delete any option you wanted so long as you had the cash…especially on bigger cars and trucks.

But on the dealer lot? Those cars/light trucks with an AM only radio were probably rare as hens teeth. And if one popped up it’s likely because it was a fleet order that wasn’t taken for whatever reason. A dealer wouldn’t want one…they’d either want AM/FM or no radio at all to hit a price point.

 

[MarkW]

And weren't the Ford AM radios *really good* in those days? High-gain antennas and range?

All of the GM vehicles I've owned or leased + my current Honda offer better AM reception than my late 80s Ford.

My best overall best AM radio in a car was in a 2001 Saturn. Above average fidelity for a car receiver of that era, very good interference suppression, and above average range. Analog monaural AM on that car's OEM receiver sounded better than hybrid digital AM on modern receivers.

Disregarding audio fidelity and examining range only, my current Honda blows everything else out of the water. Last winter, I was listening to 700 WLW rather easily at 11:30 in the morning in central lower Michigan! 740 from Toronto can also be heard in the northern Detroit suburbs with relative ease all hours of the day. The trade off is the audio fidelity stinks. I'd be surprised if bandwidth is more than 2.5 kHz.

 

[TangoFoxCharlie]

I once had a 1979 Ford Fairmont with a great AM radio in it. Back in the day when the drive in movies started to broadcast the movie sound to your AM car radio (before they went to an FM frequency) the DX would drift in and sometimes add extra music you didn't want. 🤣

 

[RMarino]

And weren't the Ford AM radios *really good* in those days? High-gain antennas and range?

For FM yes! My dad had a ‘91-ish Ford. FM reception was very impressive. I frequently listened to a station 90 miles away every day. Best FM reception I’ve ever experienced in a car stereo. But I don’t remember anything exceptional about the AM reception though.

 

[vchimpanzee]

That radio was very sensitive. It also desensed when you were close to an AM transmitter site. I recall driving a Ford van with this model of radio. I was on highway 401 approaching Chatham Ontario and tuned to WJR 760. As I approached the CFCO 630 AM towers (which are visible from the 401) WJR's signal got much weaker like you turned the RF gain control down. A couple of miles past the towers the radio regained its sensitivity. This did not happen often but when it did I knew I was close to an AM transmitter site. Pretty cool.

I tend to lose the signal of distant AM stations when I get close to a transmitter. It usually just gets really quiet.

I've found the same thing happens with FM. Not as much in my newer car as in the old one.