I've been out west. Ground conductivity is really good in those areas. Farmers rely on the AM signals. There's parts of this country where AM is really all they have still.

We drive a Ford. 2019 model. The AM tuner is actually pretty good. Newer models (Past 2020) are worse. FM reception is terrible on them. They seem to be putting their efforts more onto SiriusXM and streaming. I'm guessing they would prefer to remove FM too based on how reception is in the newer models.