I've got an 04 Base model and the radio has static. I can still make out the music and words but there is static over them. All of the radio stations are fairly local and they sound fine in all of my other cars. It occurs on pretty much every station and almost consistently, there will be certain periods, however, when the radio sounds fine. Most of the time, I hear static. This doesn't occur when I play a CD. I tried playing around with all of the settings but they don't help. When I brought my car in for unrelated services(the dealer forgot the window etching) I mentioned the radio. All they said was that it sounds bad because it's not the Bose. Any ideas? Is the stock radio this bad? A brand new $27k car should have a radio that clearly picks up all of the stations that my Civic picks up, correct? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Definitely not "because it's not the Bose." I have almost no problems with my reception. Every once in a while I get some static, but usually fiddling with the antenna fixes it. Walk back into the dealer and tell them to stop feeding you sh*t about your radio.

 

I don't hear really any radio static on FM unless I'm in area where the stations come in very weakly. However, the FM radio quality is pretty poor IMHO. CDs sound better, but still not great.

I've had rental American econoboxes w/better sounding stereos. (Actually, that's one strong suit of many American cars to me...)

 

I remember taking a course about 10 years ago where we had a lesson that mentioned radios in Japanese cars. The professor said that with the way Japanese cars are built, the radio usually goes before anything else. Now no Z's radio should be dying yet, but the quality would be less than other parts of the car. Now again, that was 10 years ago, so I don't know if that's still the case today or not.

 

Yea definitely take the Z back into the dealership... when I drive mine under the tunnel I still get perfect reception

 

My 04 has a decemt radop - ot's not the Bose I had in the Maxima before or the 300ZX bose either! But I wouldnt complain about it.

 

Darn, yea I guess I'll bring it back this week. Thanks for the replies.