Car Radios

Blimey what a rigmarole. Why do some manufacturers over complicate things.

3 Likes

Yeah and my dab radio was unstable for both 9A and 9B.

Agree with sentiment, CarPlay and Android auto is great, but I miss a simple radio interface. When you “tune “on the Kia you are tuning by scrolling the RDS FM station and DAB mixed together. Messy. It’s good just an old dial and manual tune FM, no buried menus.

3 Likes

Because they don’t focus on the user experience when designing the car’s user interface - it wasn’t all that long ago that manufacturers didn’t bother and got away with it, it’s hard to see how you can get away with it now with things like Carplay and Android Auto becoming more prevalent.

I’m driving a Kia Sorento at the moment (waiting for my new VW Tiguan to arrive in a few weeks) - the difference in the user experience is night and day between the two.

2 Likes

Which is better?

3 Likes

I also meant to post the Mazda system didn’t recognise RDS on 2HD on 97.5. Same issue as my Focus and also Mitsubishis.

Radio reception is decent otherwise, in New Lambton Heights it received weak Hit102.3:Port Macquarie (but no RDS) next to Triple J, and it also detected RDS on Sydney FMs.

3 Likes

Surely it’s about time 2HD fixed that RDS issue.
PI code of 0000 (last reported) or any HEX number with leading zero will cause this issue.
PI should be 2098 like their 90.5 transmitter.

3 Likes

I bought a 2020 model Mazda6 in Canberra today.

Radio fun fact: When I switched the radio to DAB (which wasn’t until on the way back near Sydney) I could see the DAB section had NEVER been used (there were no stations scanned in) despite the car seemingly being based in the Goulburn - Canberra region for most of the first 2 years of its life.

FM presets were all Canberra and Goulburn stations, but not GNFM as yet.

6 Likes

No unusual. My sister has had her car for five years and never used the DAB. And didn’t know what it was when i mentioned it.

7 Likes

Yeah I’m not really surprised either.

5 Likes

Neither of those surprise me. The industry has 100% failed in educating the public about what DAB is and how to access it. There has been absolutely no overarching education campaign whatsoever. Even stations that promote DAB on air never actually say “look for the DAB button in your car”. They just assume people know what DAB is and that it might be in their car. It’s a complete shambles.

4 Likes

I already miss my Mitsubishi ASX with its DAB radio, :confused:I listened to DAB stations more often than the terrestrial stations while driving.Someone on Carsales website is advertising their 2019 Mazda 2 Maxx for sale at $16500 and it has a DAB radio ,but I’m not game enough yet to take out another loan to buy this car when I’ve just become debt free ,

3 Likes

Doesn’t help that most of what is on DAB down here is absolute garbage. At least the ‘TEST’ channel is finally gone, but instead of, say, MMM Classic Rock we get three channels of Kinderling crap. Sigh.

5 Likes

There’s a number of aftermarket head units - or even things that just plug in like the Pure Highway - so I wouldn’t worry about trying to get one that’s from the factory.

I was able to get DAB installed in my 20+ year old car - though ended up removing that unit as the angle on the screen glared so much based on how it was positioned that it ended up being too distracting while I was driving. But cost me under $100 all in, albeit self installing.

3 Likes

This Mazda 2 Maxx is the top of the range,the Neo or Genki models don’t have DAB radios.It doesn’t really matter if my next car doesn’t have one ,it’s just one of those ‘nice to have ‘ extras

3 Likes

My 2017 Mazda 3 dab was very flakey, how is your radio going? My audio would cut off and it was not reception issue, like it crashes. Haha you can tell I am scarred for life now :nerd_face:.

3 Likes

It’s going pretty good…
FM and DAB are not as good as the Focus, but still not bad.
Same with RDS, it needs a better signal than in the Focus to decode.

But I found out today, that AM on it is really good!
Didn’t do a bandscan as such, but I’ll try and post some soon.

The other main plus is that the BOSE stereo sound is better than the Sony unit in the Focus, which was already very good, this is better again.

5 Likes

Great. I did document my problems to Mazda but they were not interested. I guess a flaky dab radio isn’t a major fault? Haha Glad they fixed it.

3 Likes

This 2016 Mazda 2 I might be buying this week doesn’t have a DAB radio,never mind , I know what stations to have on the presets not too many to choose from😕
For when I’m driving on the GC, FM band :94.1 FM ,91.7 ABC Gold Coast,Hot Tomato 102.90,As for Brisbane FM stations,the only one I’ll have on preset is Breeze 92.1 , I used to listen to 99.7 FM sometimes,that’s another station I can have
AM will be 1116 4BH ,then 612 ABC Brisbane,nothing else
The only other music choice I’ll have will be from my own tunes,USB sticks or from my phone.
If I don’t buy this particular car it’s unlikely I’ll have another car with a DAB radio :confused:

5 Likes

You could’ve also have Breeze 100.6 on there.

3 Likes

I can too

4 Likes