Sattelite radio-is Sirius available

Not really. For some dumb reason the merger has not actually resulted in one provider of services. The only parts that merged seems to be management. You can get XM or you can get Sirius depending on who your car manufacturer has a contract with. Toyota is with XM. The module you will get is an XM module. You can buy the Sirius package which is some of the favorite Sirius stuff and a lot of the music channels have been merged and are the same, but if you have a Sirius radio, you pay Sirius, if XM you pay XM.

What is worse is that if you already have a Sirius account they could care less, you still have to open a separate XM account and you don't get credit for already being a customer. Really stupid in my opinion.

There are adapters to make your head unit receive Sirius but I installed three of them on my wife's Lexus before I gave it up as a lost cause. They work for some people but not as well as the factory unit. While this isn't the unit I tried to make work, here is an example of one type of adapter: Toyota Lexus and Scion SIRIUS Connect Interface TOY-SC1

 

All the music channels are merged. We have both XM and Sirius and everything is the same. The channel numbers and non-music (like sports and talk) are different. I got satellite radio to get away from annoying talk so it is no bother to me. There is one channel on XM that plays music that isnt on Sirius. I think it is "Mix 22" or something. For some reason they play commercials on that channel!

If you dont have a subscription yet, might as well take it easy and subscribe to XM. Only benefit I see to going with Sirius is if you already have an account and get the multiple radio discount. Although that discount is dwindling. Everything is extra, and discounts are shriveling up. It is a dieing industry with many failed satellite launches, I dont expect it to be around for any more than 5 years or however long it takes to roll out widespread 4G/5G mobile data networks.

 

If you listen to Howard Stern you have to pay $6 more a month with XM compared to Sirius. It is a bad deal.

I predict satellite radio will be around for a long time. Most of the US still does not have 3G HSPDA or EVDO Rev A at this point. It will be a long time before you see the rollout of 4G LTE.

I predict Sprint will fail before XM/Sirius

 

I have a lifetime sub to both Sirius and XM ($500 for each one, and I bought the SIRI one 4 years ago). I think you are mistaken if you think it's going anywhere anytime soon. Howard stern has never been better on his show than he is now. SirusXMs subscriber base has grown from 600k when stern signed on 5 years ago, and is now over 20 millions subscribers strong (and with 65-80 percent listening to Stern, he has a larger audience now than ever. I agree with Judgeless that Sprint is more likely to fail than SiriusXm.

If I got another new car tomorrow, I would not drive off the lot without activating my subscription. It's great to be able to listen to your favorite channels (including 50 or so commercial free music stations) whereever in the US I may go. Beats the hell out of a CD changer, or switching channels on FM every two hours as you drive cross country.