I wanted to see if anyone else has been recieving poor FM radio reception. I am not too worried about AM because I never listen to it. I have the Navi system so I do not know if that makes a difference. I mostly listen to the card reader lately but I like to listen to the regular old radio as well. I know there were so reception issues in the non-hybrid version but there antenna is built into the rear window glass so that is understandable. However, with the dumb antenna poking out if the back on the hybrid I figure it should recieve a little better reception. Normal stations that come in strong are very weak, even local channels in the area. I have a small boom box in my basement that cost $20 with a broken antenna that gets better reception. I figure that a $1500 unit should do better than a $20 piece of crap. I took it to the dealer to have them look at it with something else minor. They had the car all day and found no problem with the reception or my other problem. I was disapointed. I informed them that it was unacceptable on a $1500 unit and they told me that I could bring it back on another day and take it on a test drive with another tech to see/hear the problem.

As someone that works on computers, I can understand this. Sometimes it's hard to figure it out if you can't make it happen. Did you play it for them and they found the crappy reception acceptable? Or were they not able to make it get crappy reception. This once happened to me where I knew the speakers were blown. I found a CD that made the sound and told them to listen to it.

Maybe you can find an area with lousy reception and take them to it.

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I wasn't actually able to show them the poor reception. However, its poor everywhere. It was poor right outside the service center before I dropped it off. Its not a blown speaker, the problem only occurs when the radio is on and not when a cd or the card reader is playing.

Just to give a quick response. The FM reception on my HCHII is comparable to my old 1997 Civic and my current 2001 Subaru.

DKeane

The radio reception on my car is very bad; it was immediately noticeable when I bought it, as stations that once came clearly no longer did. I have heard the regular 2006 Civics also have poor reception, even though they have no battery and their antenna is different. I think it's just way too short and I'd like to replace it eventually.

Adam, just a suggestion. You want to be able to show these guys the difference so I would suggest the following (do this before getting the technician). Find a station that is bad at the dealership - check it in a regular 2006 Civic or an 2006 Accord or anything else they would have on their lot. If you can show them the difference then they would be much more likely to feel like they have to do something.

I have a 2006 Civic EX, compared to a 1997 Minivan with an external antenna, its reception is not as good, but its not much of a difference (I'm up close to the Wisconsin border (15 mins) and still can recieve Chicago radio stations FM on the new Civic). So you might want to compare the reception at the dealership with one of those regular Civics first, since its the same car otherwise.

I've personally wondered if that antenna on the 2006 HCH is tailored to some special radio environment they have over in Japan (different band, or its digital over there or something..) since that's where the hybrids are made.

Good luck,

Scott

Thanks Scott. I think that I might try that. I know the reception is much worse than my other vehicles. I was think the same thing that the radio reception of the car/antenna might be set to a different band. If the dealership doesn't do anything I may try a different antenna in the slot. Or I may try a FM signal amplifer with a static in-line filter. I heard that the amplifer works well with a static filter.

Maybe that is a not small hint that we need to get the XM radio. Same thing cable did years ago. The over the air reception got progressively worst until everyone was forced to purchase cable if they wanted to watch TV.

I hope I am wrong though.

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I hope your wrong too! I hate the idea of paying for radio. I know alot of people like satellite radio but the only way I would even consider paying for it is if that happened. I support the local radio stations!

Hi everyone;

I don't have the answer to the poor reception on your car. I can tell all of you this, thats why I like the X/M because you get away from all of the poor signal quality and the rest of the problems with poor reception. I'm not telling anyone to purchase X/M but simply saying I have been there with this problem with different cars and when i finally bit-the-bullit and went to X/m I have never looked back.

Terry