Hi,
Love my new 2017 Mazda CX-5 but there is one thing that is bugging me. The radio reception is bad, the stations seem to fade in and out and it switches from stereo to mono and back to stereo in FM mode. The reception gets worse the further you drive out of the city. Never had problem with the radio on my older BMW on the same stretch of road before. Is it an antenna problem (shark fin) or is the radio of poor quality. How have others solved it?

 

Interesting that you are having issues with the OEM system...
My reception is great, and is the only reason I haven't gone aftermarket due to the ****ty Nav.

 

OK found out what was wrong with it. The radio reception is not as good as in the European cars but the real reason for stereo to mono drop out was the navigation system that mutes the sound in the driver side speakers when the navigation voice comes along even at very low volumes. It is silly really. Why could they not overlay the navigation direction voice over the music rather than cutting the music off from one side speakers, or mute the music totally during navigation voice instruction and resume the music when the navigation voice stops.?

 

So the passengers can still hear the music?

 

The music comes from the passenger side speaker but all can hear it in the car in a mono format and it is noticeable and very disturbing to the ear and feels like a signal drop out. If I recall correctly it has actually been mentioned in some other site.

 

OK found the thread that describes it.
https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...-off-Nav-voice