# Have XM subscription but now have Sirius radio in car



## Chris Blount

OK, time for a dumb question. 

I am currently a XM subscriber. I also have Sirius/XM online and use the iPhone app.

I just purchased a car with a Sirius radio. In order to use it, I will need to start a separate Sirius subscription right? 

If so, too bad. I kinda wish I can simply extend my XM subscription to that radio. Kinda sucks.


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## dmurphy

Chris Blount said:


> OK, time for a dumb question.
> 
> I am currently a XM subscriber. I also have Sirius/XM online and use the iPhone app.
> 
> I just purchased a car with a Sirius radio. In order to use it, I will need to start a separate Sirius subscription right?
> 
> If so, too bad. I kinda wish I can simply extend my XM subscription to that radio. Kinda sucks.


Yeah, I've got the same problem. It definitely sucks!


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## ThomasM

Obviously due to totally different techologies Sirius and XM radios are incompatible with each other but it's irked more than a few subscribers that their BILLING systems never got combined after the merger. Sirius and XM are still operating as different companies with different logos, radios, web sites, and accounts despite the fact that the channels for the most part are identical. They didn't even standardize the channel NUMBERS between the two services so when they plug their other channels they always have to say "Sirius channel X and XM channel Y".

I opposed the merger from the start and this is one of the reasons why. And that "no price increase for 3 years" BS? HAH! Or that "ala carte channel option"? HAH HAH!!

Mel has the last laugh once again.

When my current sub expires, it will be bye-bye to XM and hello to Sonic Tap via DirecTV!! (I'll play CD's in the car or suffer along with FM)


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## woodyrr

I am in the same position. About three months ago, I bought a new car that has a Sirius receiver, It came with a six month complimentary subscription to Sirius.

I have had a primary XM account with a second radio on the family plan for several years. The total plan costs a little over 250.00 per year. Of that, about 80.00 is for the second radio. All of the handful of channels that I regularly listen to are simulcast on both systems.

According to posts on this forum, both XM and Sirius give away free months of service as well as a year of service for about 80.00 as a customer retention incentive. I think that the 80.00 per year is reasonable especially for someone who already has an account with the other satellite service.

When the complimentary subscription expires, I am going to explain the circumstances and tell them that I will subscribe to Sirius for a year at about 80.00 or they can keep the receiver deactivated. For me, it is not worth about 180.00 per year to subscribe to Sirius for a car that that is driven only on weekends.

If Sirius wants to retain this long term XM customer on the Sirius side, they are going to have to act like a merged company, or I'll use one of the other options available to play music in the car and they can eschew the added revenue and have another dead receiver floating around.

A subscription to Sirius at 80.00 per year is roughly equivalent to adding a radio to the XM account and I'd at least give them the opportunity to accept the added revenue.


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## Chris Blount

woodyrr said:


> A subscription to Sirius at 80.00 per year is roughly equivalent to adding a radio to the XM account and I'd at least give them the opportunity to accept the added revenue.


Interesting. I didn't know about that. I looked on their web site and didn't see anything about a $80 deal. Do you know where I can find it?


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## woodyrr

It's definitely not a publicized deal and all I have to go on, is posts elsewhere.

It's apparently a phone thing and it's not something that they offer willingly. I'll bet you have to bluster and blow a little bit - maybe ask to speak to someone with some authority. I don't know if it will even work.

What I do know is what people have reported either on this site or elsewhere. Try a Google search for "XM 77.00 Deal" for particulars.

What I do know for a fact is that when my orphan sub expires, I am going to offer Sirius/XM a year for about 80.00 to keep the radio active. That's what an additional subscription is worth to me and the worst that they can do is say "no". I'm prepared for that and if that is the case, it will be their loss.

Good Luck.


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## Nick

Why would anyone with an XM sub buy a new car with an _incompatible_ Sirius sat radio in the first place, not to mention paying big buck$ for optional equipment you can't use without paying even more bucks?

Secondly, isn't it way past time that 'configurable' or 'unisex' sat radios are universally available in new cars?

What am I missing here?


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## tcusta00

My guess is the radio came standard with the car and that the car was the most important part of the buying decision, not the radio service.


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## woodyrr

In my case, tcusta00 is correct. Mitsubishi apparently has an arrangement with Sirius. I wanted an Eclipse and the particular vehicle that I liked has what is called the "Sun and Sound Package" which includes a large grouping of options from a sunroof to the radio with speakers everywhere and integrated Sirius receiver.

The Sirius receiver was not part of the purchase decision. To locate and have an Eclipse without all that stuff transferred to the dealership would have ended up costing me as much as the dealership would let me drive this one with the option packages off their lot for. That's just the way it worked.

As I have stated, I am a long time XM subscriber and I already pay for a full Sirius/XM account and I would like to keep the Sirius receiver active. If they will keep the Sirius radio activated for what it costs me to have my second XM radio, great - we both win - If not, we both sort of lose, but the radio that came with the Eclipse plays a lot of other things too.


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## bsprague

I was in favor of the merger. I even went so far as to write my political representitives. I thought I was going to get a merged account so I could use the Sirius in the Ford. The deal went through and I got a price increase and Howard Stern. At the end of my contract I let it drop.

With music choices such as Pandora on iPods/iPhones/Blackberries I don't miss XM anymore.

Intersting add on is that Ford just announced an option for built in WiFi connections. There will be a USB port to plug in an Aircard. My guess is that the idea will be to provide traffic, navigation, repair service, etc. Of course music delivery choices will expand as well.

http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=31640

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10419548-94.html


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## Chris Blount

tcusta00 said:


> My guess is the radio came standard with the car and that the car was the most important part of the buying decision, not the radio service.


Exactly.


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## dmurphy

Nick said:


> Why would anyone with an XM sub buy a new car with an _incompatible_ Sirius sat radio in the first place, not to mention paying big buck$ for optional equipment you can't use without paying even more bucks?
> 
> Secondly, isn't it way past time that 'configurable' or 'unisex' sat radios are universally available in new cars?
> 
> What am I missing here?


Because I OWN a General Motors vehicle (with XM) (my wife's Acadia), but my company-supplied vehicle is a Ford (with Sirius) (my Escape)?


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## Phil T

I got the $77.00 deal with XM last March when I called to cancel service. I now have an expired credit card on my account. It will be interesting to see what happens this March. 

I have been very disappointed with the merger. I get better service with my I-phone, I-trip and Pandora.


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## woodyrr

Posted today, this sounds encouraging!



Lodi25 said:


> I just renewed today. On my old package I had Sirius Everything along with the Best Of XM. Last year I paid $175.60 dollars. This year because of new fees and other stuff it was going to be 208.68 dollars after all the new fees for only 1 radio! No way! So I called today and said I wanted to cancel my account. So guess what? They gave me a hole year for only $77.00 dollars for SIRIUS Everything! And that price includes the royalty fees! Not bad! I didn't get the best of XM package tho, I can live without that.


http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=2317057#post2317057


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## rudeney

Chris, Sirius/XM claims that they will have the ability to "combine" subscriptions between Sirius and XM "soon". For now, you will need to get a separate Sirius subscription, unless there is the possibility of swapping out the receiver. What type of car did you buy? I know that with Nissan/Infiniti, you can usually swap between Sirius and XM just be replacing the receivers (I did this in my wife's Murano - swapped out the XM for Sirius). Another alternative might be an external receiver. Check places like Crutchfield to see if there is a compatible interface to your car.


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## jmdaniel

Chris, maybe you should look into the XM SkyDock? My wife bought me one for Christmas, and I'm going to use it in my FJ Cruiser primarily, but, (because its portable), also in my Corvette. This portability will allow me to cancel the current sub for the 'vette, and that savings pays for the SkyDock ($99, Crutchfiled), over the course of the first year. Just a thought, might fit your situation.


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## txtommy

I too am stuck with this situation, BMW has Sirius and Honda has XM. Even worse, I had a three year subscription to XM but due to circumstances beyond my control, will trade with over a year left on my sub. I was told that I could not transfer my 1+ remaining years to the new vehicle. I'll end up with three subscriptions, one Sirius on the BMW, one XM on the new Honda and one XM on a vehicle that I no longer own.


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## woodyrr

woodyrr said:


> I am in the same position. About three months ago, I bought a new car that has a Sirius receiver, It came with a six month complimentary subscription to Sirius.
> 
> I have had a primary XM account with a second radio on the family plan for several years. The total plan costs a little over 250.00 per year. Of that, about 80.00 is for the second radio. All of the handful of channels that I regularly listen to are simulcast on both systems.
> 
> According to posts on this forum, both XM and Sirius give away free months of service as well as a year of service for about 80.00 as a customer retention incentive. I think that the 80.00 per year is reasonable especially for someone who already has an account with the other satellite service.
> 
> When the complimentary subscription expires, I am going to explain the circumstances and tell them that I will subscribe to Sirius for a year at about 80.00 or they can keep the receiver deactivated. For me, it is not worth about 180.00 per year to subscribe to Sirius for a car that that is driven only on weekends.
> 
> If Sirius wants to retain this long term XM customer on the Sirius side, they are going to have to act like a merged company, or I'll use one of the other options available to play music in the car and they can eschew the added revenue and have another dead receiver floating around.
> 
> A subscription to Sirius at 80.00 per year is roughly equivalent to adding a radio to the XM account and I'd at least give them the opportunity to accept the added revenue.


I thought I'd offer an update. When the Sirius subscription referenced above for my Mitsubishi Eclipse was close to running out, I called to see if I could renew at a family plan equivalent rate and got absolutely nowhere. I told them "Then we'll just let it die".

My subscription expired and the receiver went dead. I had been working with the Pandora application for the iPhone to use as an alternative and have a "station" that is set up and ready to go. A few days after the radio went quiet, I received a post card offering a year for what amounted to about 88.00 if I would reactivate the radio. I immediately called and reactivated my account.

If they would only have been reasonable from the beginning, the account need not have lapsed in the first place. I'll deal with what happens next year if they don't have their billing systems merged so that I can get a fair rate for this "third" receiver when it happens. For now, I have Sirius/XM - Sirius in the car and Sirius/XM - XM at the house for another year.

Best of luck to the rest of you in a similar multi - receiver situation.


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## Chris Blount

I ended up going another way. I replaced the factory radio with a JVC stereo containing a USB socket for the iPhone. Now I have not only a better sounding stereo in the car, I also can plug in my iPhone and use the XM/Sirius App for satellite radio. Works great!


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## woodyrr

I'm glad that the iPhone route works for you.

Pandora was selecting some really good music for my iPhone connected to the car stereo, and that arrangement was fine some of the time. The problem that I was having was that for the most part, my weekend driving in the car consists of many very short hops and I was spending more time plugging and unplugging the iPhone than I spent listening, whereas the Satellite radio is there every time that I turn on the ignition.

BTW i should have mentioned as information, that the 88.00 was inclusive of fees so it really was the 77.00 for a year deal.


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## wilbur_the_goose

How much does a cell phone based data plan cost per month? 

I was looking at a new (used) BMW, but decided against it because of the inability to put in XM. (My current '05 BMW has XM that I installed, but '05 was the last year that you could add the Blitzsafe XM receiver to a BMW)


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## bixler

wilbur_the_goose said:


> How much does a cell phone based data plan cost per month?
> 
> I was looking at a new (used) BMW, but decided against it because of the inability to put in XM. (My current '05 BMW has XM that I installed, but '05 was the last year that you could add the Blitzsafe XM receiver to a BMW)


Can you do a plug and play xm receiver? I was going to cancel one of my radio IDs because I recently purchased a new car that didn't come with an XM radio. When I called in to cancel, the rep offered me a refurb, but free, plug and play radio with car installation kit. It was the XM XpressEZ radio. I said sure send me the radio and just transfer the service from the car I traded in to this new plug and play radio. I had Best Buy install it for $80 and it works great. They hardwired it to my radio so I use the AUX function and it plays without having to transmit over a non-used FM station. They also hardwired the power behind the dash so I still have access to my power port for GPS or phone charge, etc.

http://shop.xmradio.com/xm/ctl10600/cp49759/si4346818/cl1/?utm_medium=HP_PRODUCT_TILE

Just a thought.....


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