Question for those of you with Sirius satellite radio

Quick noob question re Sirius and Howard 100 Howard 101 - I'm flying from Seattle to Phoenix Friday to pick up my 2012 Four Solar and I want to make sure the Sirius is in fact part of the deal and that it is activated when I get my car? Do I have to call Sirius XM to activate or is it already activated when you get the car? I have 4 lifetime subs and I'll bring my other radios if need be but I don't want to drive the desert home w/o Howard for entertainment Thanks for any advice from current owners! (if you hate Howard pretend I said "Oprah" ~

 

It should be activated, but you won't get Howard until you call them. I lost my free 90 day trial to add him., but I negotiated a pretty good rate at 90 dollars for the year. Toyota is XM, so you have to add the best of sirius to get him.

 

Great thanks HaveNoCents! I'll bring my S50 for the drive home. Do you need the VIN number to call Sirius XM or is some sort of radio id number I need from the car? Thanks again!

 

got a quote of $197 a year to add Sirius so it looks like I won't be using the cars satellite radio any time soon !

 

It's the radio serial number. You can pull it up on screen. I forget how though.

 

Let your trial expire. They will start emailing you different offers. Don't pay their asking price, they will do it much cheaper. If anything sign up for monthly billing, and then cancel it after 28 days on the phone. Tell them you love it but you just can't afford it. They won't let you off the phone, and you can get a year for under 100 dollars if you tell them that is all you can afford.

Believe me, times are tough for them. They have to compete with iPods, Pandora, etc. They will make you a deal.

 

lol! Great tip I'll try that thanks!

 

i hust got it with my pip. very disappointing. to each his own i guess. i'm going to load up a memory stick.

 

I told them I only want Channel 23, but they said I have to subscribe to a lot of other junk as well.

 

I've been a Sirius subscriber for years but I am weary of the poor audio quality. I am using an older Kenwood unit.

Is the audio better with newer hardware? Are y'all bothered by the excessive compression - or is it just me?

 

It's not just you but the level of compression varies greatly between stations. Not just between stations. Compression is on stations when football and MLB is aired. Compression on the HS is good but compression seems to increase later in the day.

Originally SAT radio was promoting itself as digital CD quality. Many stations are offering 8 track tape quality.

 

No, I don't think it is just you. I thought something was wrong with my
radio for a while, until I figured out it was just mainly the XM stuff. If
I play songs using my Ipod, it sounds like a whole completely upgraded stereo system. I am not too impressed with the XM quality as a whole.

 

I started with XM on my 2004 Honda Accord. Loved their service and used it with an Delphi SkyFi XM add-on unit in my wife's Subaru Legacy and at home with a dock, antenna and speakers. Enjoyed XM on my wife's replacement 2008 Accord too. Quality was great at all levels and stations.

When XM allowed themselves to be bought out by Sirius the bottom dropped out. I started to hate the programming and the audio quality. The Philippine, Barbadian (and Jamaican?) telephone tech and billing support was attrocious. I finally cancelled their combined service.

I had missed certain programming and am enjoying a few of the 90-day sample channels. If they would offer an À la carte choice (at a drastically reduced subscription rate), so I could subscribe to only the less-than-a-dozen channels I like, I might consider signing up.

When I listen to the Sirius traffic and weather channel in my 2011 Prius, it sounds like it is being broadcast through a bale of hay. Their sound quality on other stations is also not up to XM's old standards.

 

Yes, the traffic stations are awful. I thought it was the radio in my RAV4 until I test drove the Prius demos.

 

+1^
Flash drives are cheap and listen to the songs you want.

I am still under the free trial, i don't listen to it much. I'm very particular in the music I like and even certain genres there is only a tiny percentage of songs I like within each genres so SAT radio is not for me.
I like my own music on my USB flash drive.
I'm not a mainstream pop culture guy so I don't like any of the stations except for one or two.

 

I'm not mainstream either, and I use a mixture of SAT and streaming iPhone. I don't mind the $90/year over buying music

 

Right now the best offer I've seen is $25 for 6 months. When I bought the car I transferred my account, which was $82 for a year. But I think I'm going to cancel, let the trial expire and go for that deal unless they're willing to book it now.

 

When my 3 month trial expired last November they offered 6 months for $35, so I took that because I like the service but don't think it's worth the full price. That deal is just about to end so I called to cancel and they said the 6 month deal isn't available any more but they can do 5 months for $25 to keep my subscription going. That's good enough for me - I'll try and cancel again in October!

 

Any idea if they are willing to deal with the lifetime subscription? I'm considering that myself since I plan on keeping the car for a long time...

 

I call them up every year and tell them I'm going to quit and listen online slacker, pandora,They always offer me an unbelievable deal Like 88 bucks a year + some music royalty fee!I think the normal monthly fee is 12.95 Ialso get listen online for a few bucks more, worth it! Call customer care line and see what they have to offer? check out FACTION Channel 41!