Quote:
Originally Posted by obeythelaw
I know when I purchased my 07 Camry SE V6, there was an option to get satellite radio. I didn't take the option. I know that there are presets for sat radio. i want to get xm sat radio in my car. is there an easy way to self install it so that it is connected to my car's speakers and the i can use the dash functions? i've heard horror stories of places installing sat radio in cars and ruining the radio, etc.
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Yes, Toyota has a system that they can install -- it's spendy. Terk has a system that works just as well, and costs far less. Either one essentially just "plugs in" to the back of your OEM system, but bear in mind that you're doing major dissasembly of your center stack to get back there, and then running a lot of wires along the passenger side of your car, to get the antenna installeld somewhere in the rear of your car. It's a lot of work.
I had my favorite car stereo shop install the Terk system in my old XLE -- use the Advanced Search function to search for my posts and "XM," and you should find plenty of information about that.
All that said, I wouldn't touch satellite radio with a ten-foot pole right now. It was about
ONE WEEK after I had the Terk system installed that XM and Sirius announced their intent to merge -- which is actually more of a semi-hostile takover of XM by Sirius. The merger has been slowly getting all of the required approvals, and is nearly done -- the bottom line is that it certainly appears that the merger will go through.
Personally, I'd like to get satellite radio again, but I'm going to wait and see what the merger finally winds up looking like in terms of programming, prices, and equipment. To begin with, I see anything to do with Sirius as "putting your money directly into Howard Stern's pockets," as this company that has never made a profit attempts to pay Stern
HALF A BILLION DOLLARS. Just count me as an ex-XM subscriber that doesn't want anything to do with paying Stern half a billion bucks. (For the record, I'm no prude -- far from it. I just consider Stern's stuff "juvenile," and I never listened to it even when it was "free.")
So, will the new merged service let me buy "just the music I want," and skip all of the high-priced sports and talk and crap that I'll never, ever listen to? They've talked about plans like that, but I'll believe them when I see them. And, I'd sure like to see what music programming they'll eventually wind up with. I'd call XM's playlists "way too deep," kind of hitting one song out of five that I'd actually want to listen to, but I hear Sirius's are just the opposite -- ultra-repetitive. Can the merged service find some "sweet spot" in the middle? And finally, each service's satellites, radios, and systems are utterly incompatible -- will that resolve down to one radio that'll receive everything they're sending? I'll wait to see what happens there.
So, that's where I'm standing. If you want to read their current propaganda, you could look here:
http://www.xmmerger.com/
Personally, I wouldn't believe one word of what you'll find there, until you can actually see it come true after the merger is complete and the combined service fleshes out over time. I'm sure going to wait and see what happens before I rip up the new SE's dash to install anything!
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