"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message
...
as compared to my home radios/stereos?

Have wondered for years why this is so--almost w/o exception,
on both AM/FM.

Since cars drive through all the poor reception areas as well as good
places, there is a strong incentive to build their radios to have good
performance. These days the weak-signal performance of the AM side of car
radios is degraded, since RF noise levels are so high. It's cheaper to
degrade the radio than to further suppress the noise the car makes - and
anyway power lines, etc., are pretty noisy. But the FM sections are
generally very good.

The ordinary plastic-box home radio or all-in-one system has a VERY cheap
radio. Your expensive hi-fi probably has a good FM section, but most are
very poor on AM.

It's all a matter of design and perception of what the listener will
tolerate. No sense building a wondrous radio if most buyers don't care and
wouldn't want to pay what it would cost..