Thanks!

I'm impressed that its Seek function always lands on the signals, not 5 kHz
short of them.

Your engine interference may be coming in through the antenna, which is not
shielded from the engine. I'm planning to use my regular radio antenna and
replace it with a longer one if needed. In my part of the world there's a
lot of Spanish on the radio (everybody aims for Cuba, and I'm close enough),
and in general I think there's more on shortwave here than in the Pacific
Rim region.

This is very useful information. There's a Singapore dealer who advertises
these on eBay -- do you know anything about him? The alternative is
"Shortwave Store" in Canada, with a much higher price. We Americans
apparently aren't supposed to have shortwave radios in our cars, according
to Sony