XM Radio Update

If you ask your Toyota parts department about getting the XM module, they'll tell you they know about it, but it's not in their catalog yet. They expect to be able to sell it directly in about 30 days (that's what they said 30 days ago and that's what they're still saying...).

I'd bet money that the list price through the parts department is going to be higher than Jon's price, and I certainly wouldn't pay union labor rates to do an install I can do (and have done) myself.

 

I'm usually a lurker on this forum, but the XM posts have inspired me to finally post. I am completely envious of those of you who have the integrated XM radio installed in your Priuseseses. The only thing holding me back from buying the kit right now is the prospect of doing the install. I'm the first to call for roadside assistance for flat tires. And for heaven's sake, it takes me all day to assemble small pieces of Ikea furniture! :roll:

I'm thinking about the priusxm kit. So some questions for Jon, or those of you who've done the install yourselves... I've seen reports of people taking about 2 hours to do the install. Is the DVD easy to follow? How complicated is the install? How easy would it be to accidentally break something? Are there any gotcha's to be aware of? I understand that you have to take the passenger-side dashboard apart -- does the XM unit go there, or elsewhere? Does anything else get taken apart?

And if it's really complicated... Does anyone have recommendations for a car audio installer in the San Francisco Bay Area (preferably along the Peninsula)?

Thanks so much! I've learned so much from these forums!

 

Mark is right. At my local dealer, even if you were able to get the parts with an employee discount, you'd still be paying $499 (maybe $497) and then you still wouldn't get the DVD or the mounting hardware.

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PriusXM
www.priusxm.com

 

Hi Pixgal,

I am confident that you can do the install. We have sold dozens of these kits and about half of the people had told me they just didn't think they could do it themselves. One of those customers was an 80 year-old man from California. I've been able to convince most of those people to watch the DVD and consider the install themselves. All but 2 of those people felt completely comfortable with doing the install after watching our highly-rated DVD AND every single install done with the PriusXM kit has been completed without damage. I believe the 2 people who decided to have someone else do it had good friends in the automotive business and had the install done for them for almost nothing.

In fact, the initially-reluctant people call me after they do the install and you can just tell from the tone of their voice that they're smiling ear-to-ear with pride for having done the install themselves. They're giddy with pride.

The DVD is very easy to follow. You need to disassemble the dash, some floor strips, and you need to do some work in the trunk. There are no real gotchas. We send you bits of customer feedback with the kit so you can see what other customers suggest they would have highlighted differently. The tuner goes in the trunk area, out of view.

I hope this helps a little. If you'd like a couple of names of customers who have offered to receive communication from potential customers about the difficulty, etc. - just email me at [email protected] and I'd be happy to provide those.

And of course, the PriusXM kit is available at www.priusxm.com.

Regards,
-Jon

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PriusXM
www.priusxm.com

 

Pixgal,

I'm one of Jon's giddy customers. I'm also totally brain-dead when it comes to anything mechanical as a rule, so I'm still riding the wave on how happy I am that I installed this myself.

The hardest part is yanking off those stupid vent covers. There's really no place to get a firm grip so it takes a little oomph and a lot of patience.

The DVD is absolutely essential, and I watched it twice before starting. I also freeze-framed my way through it while doing the whole install just to be sure I didn't miss anything and could see exactly how Jon does it at each step.

I'm in the East Bay, so if you do go for it and need somebody local in case you get stuck, you could give me a holler.

 

Thanks, Jon and mboileau, for answering my questions! I haven't quite worked up the nerve yet, but I'll probably be joining the XM bandwagon in a couple of weeks.

 

I bought my XM radio from Jon at www.priusxm.com. His DVD is incredible. After watching this DVD a couple of times just about anyone can install the Prius XM system in their 2004 Prius. Everything is totally integrated including MFD and voice commands if you have the NAV system. I am not mechanically inclined and installed the system myself in just under three hours.

 

I just want to echo some of what was said on this thread.

It was pretty easy to install and it didn't take all that long. And if it makes you feel better, you really don't hurt anything on the car so you could take it out pretty easily if you don't like it.

LIKES:

• Lots of choices.
  
  Their Dance mixes (BPM, The Move) are pretty good.
  
  They have a special traffic/weather channel for us! Whoo Hoo! Better than 511. Except for the "We'll tell you about that later" comment on almost every slowdown.
  
  It is a pretty clear signal. If I didn't live in a metro area where we have MANY good radio stations I would be thinking this is the best thing since sliced bread.
  
  PriusXM's DVD was very instrumental in my installation of the unit and it made it easy for me to see how this whole thing works together.
  • 
    
    DISLIKES:
    • Took about 45 minutes for XM Radio to initialize and three phone calls because their hours were messed up for a Sunday Afternoon install. I just left the car in accessory mode and lock the doors with the key (first time) and came back every 20 minutes to see if it had initialized.
      
      Eastern Direction on Bay Bridge will cut out from Treasure Island to Oakland.
      
      Expensive for what you are getting, I purchased the five year plan so I don't have to worry about it. I think it should be "lifetime" like Tivo.
      
      There is commercials believe it or not even though they say it doesn't. "Watch Fox for this...yada yada yada. Or it will have a commercial on how they don't have commercials."
      
      The Traffic/Weather channel (221) sounds really WEIRD like it was majorily compressed and then expanded.
      
      Only a small number of characters on the screen telling you who is playing and what song.

 

The music channels do not have commercials - however, when you stream a channel that is streaming on commercial television (aka, CNN Headline News, CNN, etc), or a channel that is broadcast for radio nationally (America Left and America Right, c/net, Discovery Radio, etc.) you can't avoid commercials. However, what XM does is pretty cool - usually they'll block the stupid nationwide commercials and give 'this day in sports history', or 'the top songs on this day in 1954 were...' or something else that deals specifically with XM.

You'll find Sirius has exactly the same thing - it's the music channels that are commercial free, and there's no other way to do it, unless you want dead air when CNN goes to commercial break.

-m.

 

Oh, and also, the PriusChat discount is currently $10 off the price - so, if you're a PriusChat member, don't forget to mention this to Jon!

-m.

 

By the way, I've learned that if you tell XM that the XM Tuner was sold to you with the car, you can get 2 or 3 free months. I only learned this a couple of days ago, so I'm sorry if I haven't mentioned it to one of my customers. I'm going to print this on our activation card.

2 kits in stock today if anyone is interested.

Thanks for the kind words on our DVD.

-Jon

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PriusXM
www.priusxm.com

 

I would take one of those 2 in stock if I only had a Prius to put it into !

Sigh !

 

Jon, I installed your kit last weekend btw, works great - just one suggestion to add in the 'customer suggestions' that might be helpful:

We didn't realize that the cable connections for *everything* have tabs like your standard computer cabling for the motherboard, etc. We were prying and pulling at the parking cable, worried to damage it - because who wants to lose that parking button?! - and after about 5 minutes we realized it had a release tab that you just push on and pull out! Otherwise, the DVD was necessary for home install, and was perfect in every other way (the laptop playing it in the car during the install was flaky, but the laptop lacks loads of updates and drivers, so that was my fault).

I plan on posting about it and pictures later tonight. A very wonderful kit, love the biz cards too!

-m.

 

Hey m.

Ah, I'll correct the Customer Suggestions sheet to say EVERYTHING uses the tabs. I'm thinking of printing it on fluorescent green paper so it gets read first.

Thanks for the praise and tip on the suggestion sheet!

-Jon

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PriusXM
www.priusxm.com

 

I tried to do that 2 to 3 months free (given that previous thread) and they flatly told me "no."

Like I said, three phone calls to XM, 45 minutes to activate, so I'm not really impressed with their customer service. I felt like I was intruding on them or something.

If anyone else manages to get it, let me know what to say! I'm really not that mean on the phone...in fact, I think I have a great phone voice with little or no confrontation attitude.

 

Tell them XM radio came with the car when you purchased it, and that you don't have the dealer code.

Also, I'm suprised at a 45 minute wait - I've got 3 XM radios, the longest wait was on xmas day, and that took 15 minutes. Then again, I do live within 50 miles of their headquarters, though that shouldn't matter.

-m.

 

I just called XM and asked what promotions were available and he looked up the "Toyota" promotion and he said right now you can get 1 month free and free activation if the car is new and it came with XM.

It may help to just say you're buying a "Toyota" without specifying the model. It may even help to say you got a Scion. Who knows?

If the representative isn't finding the promotion, you can abort the activation and try another representative.

Ultimately, I wouldn't get too bummed out about not getting the promotion since technically we're not satisfying the requirements.

I have to agree with Xo though, their customer service isn't great. I was disconnected once before getting through to a human and the guy I ended up talking to seemed confused and was changing his story...

Good luck!

-Jon

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PriusXM
www.priusxm.com

 

Another data point: I activated this weekend and received the three month free promo. Surprisingly, they didn't even ask for a credit card number.