I purchased a 2007 Prius new from the dealer with the package with the "XM Ready" head unit . . . but without XM installed. Because the dealer had misrepresented the model--I was told that the car I was buying had the factory pre-installed XM and that all I needed to do was activate the XM subscription--the dealer ended up installing the XM tuner and antenna. The antenna, I believe, is a little black box that was mounted on the front dashboard, passenger side. Sorry for the long backstory. Reason for the post is that the performance of the antenna has always been subpar. I have aftermarket XM in another car (a Volvo wagon) where the antenna is mounted on the outside of the car. While satellite radio transmission seems to have its limitations, particularly when the southern sky is obscured by overpasses, hills, etc., the Prius reception is far worse than the Volvo. Recently, the performance has gotten even worse. I did run into a similar deterioration problem with an antenna on the Volvo, which had to be replaced. Does anyone know if the setup I have is supposed to have an antenna mounted OUTSIDE the car? Whether there are better antennas, aftermarket or otherwise, that would fit with the Toyoto XM Tuner?
Try searching the posts, for XM Antenna Reception. This has been well discussed! But in short, mine is inside, I have NO receive issues. You can, however relocate the antenna to just behind the AM/FM antenna outside the car simply by rerouting the XM antenna cable, I mentioned this procedure in a previous post.
tkoegel.....I had the same problems as you with the interior mounted XM antenna. It was located on the passenger side of the dash. I had XM in my previous car with an exterior antenna and really no reception problems. I took the car back to the dealer and told them I wanted an exterior mounted antenna. They put one just behind the AM/FM antenna. The installation was covered under warranty......Toyota fixed this problem with an exterior mount for the '10 Prius......
