Audio Systems: Bose for 1998 Mazda 626, bose stereos, mazda miata

Question
Hi .. Excuse this 73 year old if I'm in the wrong forum .. my wife's 98 Mazda 626 has a Bose system .. neither of us use the CD much, but the radio is great .. the Bose has been installed for 4 years [out of warrentry, I'm sure] ..

anyhow, yesterday, I turned the radio on, and NO SOUND on am/fm and no CD playing...the antenna works up/down and the volume indicator works .. I immediately took the car to my local garage to have the guy check for fuse[s]; all ok! .. then I called two Mazda dealers .. they want $65-$120 to UNINSTALL/SEND TO BOSE/REINSTALL after BOSE will charge ? for the repair .. I understand the TOTAL could be several hundred dollars ..

Being on a budget, unless there is some quick/easy "fix" I'll have to just buy a cheapie am/fm for the car .. any comments will be appreciated..

Thanks in advance .. Manny

Answer
Well sir you have come to the right place.  I have experience with Bose Car audio systems and even specifically in Mazdas.  In fact I'm helping a young man "fix" a bose system in a mazda miata right now.
Unfortunatly thats about all the good news I have for you.  Bose systems are proprietary.  the units in the dash only work well with an amplifier hidden in the car somewhere.  and believe it or not the speakers in the car only work well with that amplifier.  So all of it's tied together which makes changing out 1 piece not work too well.  My guess is that the amplifier has failed, a very common problem with bose stereos.  Usually when this happens the best way to deal with it is rip it all out and start over,  new cd player in dash, new speakers, run all new wires. This is how we are "fixing" the miata!   
There is an outfit who supposedly specialize in repairing and selling these bose parts.  They give you all nessesary instructions to change them out to new units.  They also make nice notes like "We have found in most cases the amp stops working when passenger window is left open after a rain shower."
Take a look here:

http://carstereohelp.com/mazda.htm

Unfortunatly I've heard many stories that when 1 part fails and is fixed its not too long before more parts start failing so its a bit of a gamble.
Sorry it's not what you wanted to hear but please let me know what happens ok?
Good luck!