I have dealer-installed XM in my '07 Prius

[frpat]

Today my dealer installed XM radio in my 2007 Prius, package 2. It's the first one they have installed in a Prius and was supposed to take an hour. After and hour and 15 minutes I had to leave for a meeting. They gave me a brand new Toyota Tundra to drive to the meeting. What a beast! It's a monster of a vehicle, compared to a Prius ... and I doubt the other drivers on the road knew what peril they were in, having me driving that thing!

At any rate, I returned 3 hours later and they were just about finished with the installation. It works great! There is indeed a 16 character display. XM uses some economy with characters too, omitting apostrophe's, removing spaces, etc. There are three displays, each with six presets for a total of eighteen. There is a text button too, that dispays artist and name of the song.

As I said, I have package 2 ... not the JBL system, and it's working perfecty. I realize somebody will comment on rip-off dealer installs, but I'm very satisifed. I didn't disassemble or assemble anything ... all I did is pick up the car when it was finished. My Toyota Dealer (Midwest Toyota) in La Crosse, Wisconsin has been consistently great. If something is not perfect, they make it perfect.

The install caused me no stress whatever. And the dealer wired my Garmin Nuvi 360 (no more exposed cable) at no extra charge. And it's great to have a 16 character display! If you keep it on text mode, all you need to do is hit the audio button to see the artist/song display. Turning off the text mode reveals the station presets. I'm sure the dealer will make a profit on the intallation of these units. I don't think they made much on this one though, seeing that a 1 hour estimated install took them 4 1/2 hours. The antenna is very tiny, and is mounted on the roof, near the hatchback behind the terrestrial radio antenna.

[TonyM]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(frpat @ Apr 11 2007, 07:48 PM) [snapback]421844[/snapback]</div>

I don't think they made much on this one though, seeing that a 1 hour estimated install took them 4 1/2 hours. The antenna is very tiny, and is mounted on the roof, near the hatchback behind the terrestrial radio antenna.
[/b]

Either the techs get paid by the hour, or this was their first one.

I insalled the Toyota XM kit in my 07 a couple weeks ago. Took me less than 2 hours and I wasted alot of that time thinking "WOW, the dash really just pops off like this??? No Bolts??? What the......".

[jobob]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(frpat @ Apr 11 2007, 09:48 PM) [snapback]421844[/snapback]</div>

Today my dealer installed XM radio in my 2007 Prius, package 2. It's the first one they have installed in a Prius and was supposed to take an hour. After and hour and 15 minutes I had to leave for a meeting. They gave me a brand new Toyota Tundra to drive to the meeting. What a beast! It's a monster of a vehicle, compared to a Prius ... and I doubt the other drivers on the road knew what peril they were in, having me driving that thing!

At any rate, I returned 3 hours later and they were just about finished with the installation. It works great! There is indeed a 16 character display. XM uses some economy with characters too, omitting apostrophe's, removing spaces, etc. There are three displays, each with six presets for a total of eighteen. There is a text button too, that dispays artist and name of the song.

As I said, I have package 2 ... not the JBL system, and it's working perfecty. I realize somebody will comment on rip-off dealer installs, but I'm very satisifed. I didn't disassemble or assemble anything ... all I did is pick up the car when it was finished. My Toyota Dealer (Midwest Toyota) in La Crosse, Wisconsin has been consistently great. If something is not perfect, they make it perfect.

The install caused me no stress whatever. And the dealer wired my Garmin Nuvi 360 (no more exposed cable) at no extra charge. And it's great to have a 16 character display! If you keep it on text mode, all you need to do is hit the audio button to see the artist/song display. Turning off the text mode reveals the station presets. I'm sure the dealer will make a profit on the intallation of these units. I don't think they made much on this one though, seeing that a 1 hour estimated install took them 4 1/2 hours. The antenna is very tiny, and is mounted on the roof, near the hatchback behind the terrestrial radio antenna.
[/b]

That is interesting. I also have a dealer installed XM on my 2007 with only 10 characters. Anyone have an idea why? Thanks.

[Darken]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jobob @ Apr 13 2007, 10:42 AM) [snapback]422583[/snapback]</div>

That is interesting. I also have a dealer installed XM on my 2007 with only 10 characters. Anyone have an idea why? Thanks.
[/b]

I'm far from an expert, but its been listed on here that some radio 'head' units can only display 10 characters. I believe its head unit 51830 that can only do 10 characters, check the front of yours to see which version you have.

[Danny]

Or it could be that they went cheap and installed either a 3rd party XM unit or an older OEM unit. I'd ask where they installed it and check out the part number on the unit.

[Vagabond]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jobob @ Apr 13 2007, 07:42 AM) [snapback]422583[/snapback]</div>

That is interesting. I also have a dealer installed XM on my 2007 with only 10 characters. Anyone have an idea why? Thanks.
[/b]

Because when XM and Sirius came out the technology was limited to 10 characters. Currently they can do 20 characters, but the Prius has trouble sometimes going over 16.

They sold you an old model radio.

[jobob]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vagabond @ Apr 13 2007, 11:13 AM) [snapback]422692[/snapback]</div>

Because when XM and Sirius came out the technology was limited to 10 characters. Currently they can do 20 characters, but the Prius has trouble sometimes going over 16.

They sold you an old model radio.
[/b]

I just bought this like 6 weks ago. Unless they swapped radios, I can't see that they would put an older radio in it.

[frpat]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyM @ Apr 12 2007, 05:29 PM) [snapback]422211[/snapback]</div>

Either the techs get paid by the hour, or this was their first one.

I insalled the Toyota XM kit in my 07 a couple weeks ago. Took me less than 2 hours and I wasted alot of that time thinking "WOW, the dash really just pops off like this??? No Bolts??? What the......".
[/b]

This was their first one ... and I'm very happy with it.