XM vs Sirius reception???

There have been some 2010 owners on here that have complained loudly about XM reception. I for one have never had an issue with mine. The only time I ever momentarily lose a signal is driving under a bridge or other structure. I have driven from the coast to the mountains of NC and never lost a signal other than under bridges or downtown of a large city with really tall buildings.

Sorry I cannot give you a fix for your issues.

 

I've had Sirius and XM and signal loss is way less with XM, travelling the same routes.

 

I had never had Sirius or XM previously.

We played with XM when we got our new Prius, I kind of liked it for when the vehicle is parked. My Dw tried it a few times and really hates it.

We live in a densely forested state. Every road has some amount of trees alongside the pavement or overhanging the roadway. So every drive we take the XM was cutting out.

After hearing my Dw's complaints about it, I got to playing closer attention. It does not just go dead when passing a tree to the South, but we could be passing a tree in any direction. A North-South roadway and pass a tree to the East, for example.

My Dw commutes daily with our Prius, her commute is 25 miles. She does not have any stretches along her route that allows her to listen to an entire song without cutting out.

On some roads we can go as far as 3/4 mile [maybe even 9/10 mile] without XM cutting out, but on other sections of roadway it is much more often.

We let our subscription lapse.

Then we began getting telemarketing calls asking us to subscribe.

The first time, I asked to speak with a supervisor, and I described the problem we have with XM. They acted like XM has no known problems. I refused to pay any money for a system that does not function.

The second time they called me, I again explained the problem, this time they assured me that if I would only pay them money, then they would address the problem XM has and fix it. I find their ethics lacking. You do not give money for a failed product. When you know you have a product that does not work properly, then you fix the product before trying to market it. I refuse to pay.

 

I don't know if it still applys, but early on, the difference was the way the satellites transmitted the signal. It doesn't matter to me though, because I'm still getting the service for free.

 

My 2010 Prius IV, not 4 because it is a 2010 which used uppercase Roman numerals, has the XM signal problem for over a year. It played flawlessly but then started to drop the signal. The radio says "loading" and XM doesn't play. I stopped XM service. I think it's the antenna booster and I was told it is a $600 job. I called Toyota and they said they haven't heard of this problem. I told them nonsense. I am reading of many people with this problem and they just don't want to address it.

 

XM Radio for 6 years with no problem.

Could it be your location?

 

I've had XM for 15 years (I was an original beta tester of the service in 2001) and I will say that people with XM receivers tend to get better reception in most areas, especially large cities, because of the larger network of repeaters that XM had before the merger. The other component is the quality of the antenna being used. From the 10 or so units I've used over the years stand-alone tend to provide the best reception. We just got our Prius a week ago and there is a world of difference between the antenna used in this car vs our old car ( Cadillac SRX). I haven't figured out yet if it's due to the mounting location, profile of the antenna, or some other unknown factor. I will say that the Prius looses its signal more than the Cadillac did. I've already read about some people incorporating after market antennas in to their stock system to help with this issue with some success.

 

We've only had satellite radio for a little over a year and have run into roads like that on our travels. Since we don't drive those roads daily, it's only a minor irritation. If it's long enough, we either find a local station we like or play music from the USB drive. For us, the benefits of satellite radio are worth paying for, even if we eventually have to pay full price (just don't tell them that ). It would be nice though if they'd use a better antenna in the Prius.