Car radios

[Damon Cassell]

On Fri, 2 Jan 2004, Scott Fybush wrote:

> This was an important criterion when I was car shopping a year ago - I 
> wanted something with both cassette (for all my aircheck listening) and CD 
> (for entertainment on longer drives, like this coming weekend), and it HAD 
> to have real knobs for tuning and volume. The factory (Monsoon-brand) radio 
> in my new VW Jetta fit the bill perfectly, though it's not quite as 
> sensitive or selective as the Delco radio in my old Saturn, as I was 
> reminded when I took Lisa's Saturn to Ohio last weekend. 

Monsoon is actually owned by Delphi so by definition both your old Saturn 
and your new Jetta radios are Delcos. A surprising number of parts in 
current VWs are made by GM or GM affiliated companies. I was told this has 
to do with the huge corporate espionage settlement a few years back, where 
a European GM exec defected to VW and gave VW confidential GM engineering 
data. The settlement involved VW purchasing billions in parts from GM as 
compensation. I don't know how true that is. 

My major gripe are cars with the antenna built into the rear window. 
This is common now, and I believe it seriously impacts performance. My old 
GTI (also with Monsoon) had the antenna on the roof, like yours. My new 
Accord has the antenna in the rear glass, and I think you can tell the 
difference.

Damon