Philco-Ford televisions,...how well engineered were they?

[Carmine]

This gives a nice history and explanation of why transistor car radios came, went, then came back again!

https://www.allpar.com/stereo/Philco/index.html

[Tim Tress]

All of the early transistor radios, including car radios, used germanium transistors. They did work, but were noisy and sensitive to heat.

In the 1960s, better transistors were being developed, and the prices of the silicon transistors had started to come down; by 1963, all of the OEM car radios were solid state.

[nasadowsk]

Originally Posted by Tim Tress

All of the early transistor radios, including car radios, used germanium transistors. They did work, but were noisy and sensitive to heat.

In the 1960s, better transistors were being developed, and the prices of the silicon transistors had started to come down; by 1963, all of the OEM car radios were solid state.

This is probably the real reason why early transistor car radios got discontinued so fast. Not some grand tube conspiracy (to be honest, allpar tends to bend a lot of car history...). Early transistors pretty much sucked, because nobody really knew how to make a good one, because nobody had really ever made them before. Space charge tubes were pretty short lived anyway...

[Robert Grant]

Originally Posted by Carmine

This gives a nice history and explanation of why transistor car radios came, went, then came back again!

https://www.allpar.com/stereo/Philco/index.html

Very interesting, but the description of the 913X radio really captured my attention.
I never knew Detroit had put a shortwave radio in the dashboard!
I had an HF Transceiver in my 2000 Chevrolet Impala, with a magnetic mount antenna. Shortwave worked surprisingly well in a car. It did not fade out under overpasses like AM, and did not picket fence like FM. (To be sure, the multipath that is present in most shortwave reception may have been masking the slight effects of overpasses and buildings).

Sadly, the Toyota Prius that replaced it generated a ton of RF noise, and listening while in motion became impossible.