Our standard radio reception in the 2008 xB is not the best. We do live in the mountains and I am sure that is part of it. However, our other car pulls in and keeps FM stations tuned without static much better than the Scion. Would one of the "fancy" antenna's advertised on eBay help or hurt? Hoping someone has tried one of them to see if there was a difference.

 

The factory xB radio antenna has an amplifier built-in. Because the antenna is on the roof, it will not pick up signals "below" the vehicle very well, like if the radio transmitter is at lower altitude.

You could try a longer whip (16") but I'm not sure you can unscrew them, like on the tC, iQ , xA, xD etc.
The eBay carbon-fibre and shark-fin antennas look cool but size matters if you are up in the mountains.

This leaves the dipole (windshield mount) antennas with a built-in amplifier. These need 12V power and the high gain 18dB ones look good to try. Remember the mesh pattern on the windshield around the rear-view mirror mount blocks GPS and radio, so don't put the antenna right on that. If the reception has always been poor, I would try one.

Some reasons for poor reception:
- Water getting into the antenna (amplifier) and damaging it.
- If you put in an aftermarket stereo system, you must keep power supplied to the antenna (=orange wire) or you will hardly get any signal.

Hope this helps.