Please... let’s stop pretending that any $300,000 car “justifies its price.” Let’s stop running YouTube videos about “why this Rolls Royce is worth $500,000.” Let’s not insult anyone’s intelligence by suggesting that there is some sort of “value” in a million dollar Bugatti or Lamborghini.

There are loads of places without great (or any) cell service. And plenty of weather and wildfire emergencies & evacuations that can go from ‘possible’ to ‘imminent’ very quickly. I don’t listen to AM, but having it around as a low-tech option is prudent. Also, we don’t have a radio in the house anymore, so a car…

I guarantee these radios have AM built in they are just not activated. this is a nothing burger   

Hurricane Katrina pretty much wiped out a lot of local cellular coverage. FM radio has much shorter range than AM. Evacuating after a major disaster is where having an AM radio available is a good idea. (volunteer ham radio operators stepped up, as well as satellite communication systems). These days a starlink…

AM bands typically are longer wavelengths, which don’t fit into tiny cell phone antennas. To make it more compact a large chunk of ferrite can help, but it doesn’t do it all. The radio reception for tiny receivers use the headphone as the antenna, but that’s not necessarily the right length to be properly tuned.

It wouldn't be possible to fit it into a cell phone because of the necessary antenna.

Obviously none of you have watched any apocalyptic/zombie/WW3 movie. In the worst way, that’s why we need AM radio. If there is a large regional disaster, mobile phones and tvs aren’t going to work. So, assuming it made it through the disaster, your car is where you could get information. I’ve sat through a few…

One thing is that AM’s long range could be important in some mega emergency with internet outages. In theory anyway. I’ve got no clue if the Federal government has emergency broadcasting on AM anymore. I am not advocating. Just saying.

I disagree.

Came here to say essentially the same thing. An AM radio is a lifeline during a natural disaster, which are happening with far more regularity these days I’m sure we’ve all noticed.

Technologically, AM radio is probably the cheapest, most robust way to reach the most people quickly.

Yes, it’s awesome to find an AM radio broadcast of Coast to Coast AM during a night drive down a dimly lit country road. It’s the best way to consume tales of sasquatches and alien visitations.

Counterpoint to most of what you pose here: Unless AM radios are either an optional extra, or a delete with a credit attached, I don’t expect any of this savings to make it back to the person buying the car. See what the industry has done to the spare tire as an example.

Agreed. The fact that nearly nobody has an AM radio anywhere but in their car and that it might be the last lifeline in the event of something tragic - it seems like a reasonable expectation that all cars would continue to have it.

First of all, I always take cost estimates like those with a large grain of salt. “3.8 billion dollars between now and 2030" parceled out over an estimated 85 million cars sold between 2025 and 2030 (17 million per year) is about $45 per car. Not the end of the world. Also not the use of the word “could,” not “would.”…

AM radio turns any night behind the wheel into a trip.

I’m of the belief that it should stay for public safety stations and weather notifications.

He looks like the love child of Rasputin and the Bullet Farmer.

This guy is really going all out for Halloween this year.

turning it into a stainless steel brick