Sirius XM Satellite radio

[Spamtar]

I purchased a car stereo yesterday with a Sirius's tuner included (CDE-124SXM). I did it because the CD in my old car stereo stopped working and I was getting tired of listening to the local radio. I figured since I was going to have to pay for installation and I plan to sell this particular car within a year that I would get the car stereo with the SiriusXM's tuner included and get both installed for the same price (and it may work as a gimmick to sell the car later).

I believe its XM satellite radio subscription you have to purchase (about 18-10 bucks a month depending on what plan you get) to use the satellite radio feature. I am not sure if you have to commit to a long term contract.

So I am wondering. Is it worth it. For those who have used car satellite radio what are your thoughts? What stations do you like/dislike? Experiances etc...

 

[Giggly]

Try it for a month and see what you think. You can always cancel. It's nice when you're driving in areas where radio reception is bad and the stations never change no matter where you are. Like everything else, it's not perfect and gets old after a while though. I'd prefer an MP3 player over that.

 

[Spamtar]

Yeah. I will give it a trial. Maybe set a specific date to stop.

Can see with the addition of MP3 it does feel a little overkill. Maybe I will focus on newer music, the news and standup comedy.

 

[ceecee]

I purchased a car stereo yesterday with a Sirius's tuner included (CDE-124SXM). I did it because the CD in my old car stereo stopped working and I was getting tired of listening to the local radio. I figured since I was going to have to pay for installation and I plan to sell this particular car within a year that I would get the car stereo with the SiriusXM's tuner included and get both installed for the same price (and it may work as a gimmick to sell the car later).

I believe its XM satellite radio subscription you have to purchase (about 18-10 bucks a month depending on what plan you get) to use the satellite radio feature. I am not sure if you have to commit to a long term contract.

So I am wondering. Is it worth it. For those who have used car satellite radio what are your thoughts? What stations do you like/dislike? Experiances etc...

It is TOTALLY worth it. When I moved from the east side of Michigan (where there is no lack of good radio) to the west side of Michigan (with very few channels in comparison) I considered satellite. I went with Sirius. It is a little cheaper to pay the subscription for 1 year but there is no contract. I renew it every March. Some channels I listen to are...

70's
80's
Howard 100
The Pulse
The Boneyard
Soultown
ESPN Radio
The Score
Playboy Radio
Spice
POTUS Politics
NHL Home Ice

You can also like rewind if you want to hear something again. They're adding the Studio 54 channel tomorrow and I'm excited. I love that music, much to the hatred of my children. I think it's a great value, especially when you have varied interests in what you listen to or live somewhere that there isn't much choice.

 

[jimrckhnd]

Totally worth the money. Conventional commercial radio is cultural wasteland even in major urban markets and XM/Sirius just have a far better selection of stations with better content. Add in the fact you can drive across country and never have to search for a station and to me its a "no brainer".

 

[Spamtar]

Add in the fact you can drive across country and never have to search for a station and to me its a "no brainer".

A road trip sounds in order to test this and sound quality.

 

[Spamtar]

So I get the new stereo put in and I have to go home and sign up for the XM radio (apparently even though advertised as SiriusXM because some apparent merger nevertheless some radios are made for Sirus (sp) and some for XM and mine is made for XM). So I try and sign up via the internet looking for promo codes on Google. Promo codes all appear outdated but it doesn't matter apparently because since I dont take the premium package deal (including all the channels for both car stereo and via internet computer or device for $199) I cant seem to sign up via the internet and get some message that says "'Bummer' [whats with the hippyspeak] for some reason we can't sign you up via the internet please call 1-800...".

Thus I call up XM and talk to some guy (cant tell if its in America because the guy has a foreign accent) responds to my request for a free trial initially as with a "No" answer telling me that the free trial only belongs to those who buy a car with XM already installed. Then he tries to seed me the $199.99 package (I could have sworn he said 100.99 at first but when I restated that offer he said no $199. I told him "No thanks" I want to have one of the smaller packages and pay it on a month basis.

Then he does a complete turn around and says "I tell you what I have a special offer for you I will give you a demo package of one month free". This is what I wanted in the beginning and I didn't have to give him any credit card information so I will see how it goes.

 

[ceecee]

So I get the new stereo put in and I have to go home and sign up for the XM radio (apparently even though advertised as SiriusXM because some apparent merger nevertheless some radios are made for Sirus (sp) and some for XM and mine is made for XM). So I try and sign up via the internet looking for promo codes on Google. Promo codes all appear outdated but it doesn't matter apparently because since I dont take the premium package deal (including all the channels for both car stereo and via internet computer or device for $199) I cant seem to sign up via the internet and get some message that says "'Bummer' [whats with the hippyspeak] for some reason we can't sign you up via the internet please call 1-800...".

Thus I call up XM and talk to some guy (cant tell if its in America because the guy has a foreign accent) responds to my request for a free trial initially as with a "No" answer telling me that the free trial only belongs to those who buy a car with XM already installed. Then he tries to seed me the $199.99 package (I could have sworn he said 100.99 at first but when I restated that offer he said no $199. I told him "No thanks" I want to have one of the smaller packages and pay it on a month basis.

Then he does a complete turn around and says "I tell you what I have a special offer for you I will give you a demo package of one month free". This is what I wanted in the beginning and I didn't have to give him any credit card information so I will see how it goes.

Keep track of when that free month starts. My husband got his new work car last July and it came with a 60 or 90 day free trial. I never saw anyone whip out a credit card faster when that free trial was up.

 

[JocktheMotie]

Not worth it if you have a smartphone. Car kit for smartphone + spotify/pandora/last.fm/Rdio apps and you're good to go.

 

[Spamtar]

Keep track of when that free month starts. My husband got his new work car last July and it came with a 60 or 90 day free trial. I never saw anyone whip out a credit card faster when that free trial was up.

Yeah I am worried I will get addicted.

Not worth it if you have a smart-phone. Car kit for smart phone + spotify/pandora/last.fm/Rdio apps and you're good to go.

The new car stereo has a lot of bells and whistles that the old one didn't have. A slot for the iphone, a general mp3 type output plug, and a usb port CDRW MP3 readable CD drive.

The usb port automatically finds the MP3/WMA music off a thumb flash drive and ignores the files.

I also have an iphone so I just downloaded the free app from Pandora and the stereo has a separate setting for it where I can push a button to songs I like and be prompted by iTunes to puchase it through the iTune store. I am unfamiliar with Pandora (does it eat up a lot of data time [I assume this doesn't count as cell phone minutes] from the iphone? Side note/topic what is your thoughts about Pandora.

That being said since its for a limited time and its new I have been ignoring the other stuff and listening to XM of recent. I am enjoying XM free trial a lot and I would purchase it automatically after the trial run, but I also like to save money and don't know if I will need it with all these other mostly free features. Maybe I will see if XM will extend the demo/give me a super limited offers for cheap under the threat of canceling to see if I can get the best of all world on the cheap.

 

[Adasta]

Does this mean you can get international stations on your car radio?

 

[Spamtar]

Well the free trial of a month was pretty cool but I don't know if its so cool that I am going to sign up for it. If there were no other options available besides am/fm and CD than i would sign up for it in a heartbeat. However with the Pandora radio/iphone/flashdrive plug options now available via the new car sterio system its just to many option available (essentially for free).

Thus another case where the music supply outweighs my demand for more choices. Nevertheless was cool.