XM Radio on Prius III

was hoping for the 90 day trial cause I'm not sure I'll really use it but would sure like to try it and find out.

 

While I am not very familiar with XM offerings, I am a huge fan of Sirius, and since they have merged, I am hoping that we can actually recieve both XM and Sirius streams on the Sat Radio. If not, I will need to buy a Sirius Tuner, as I need my Howard Stern. (With a lifetime Sirius Subscription, it would not make sense to buy Satellite without my Sirius.)

Once you get into Satellite Radio, you will see why they are getting more subscribers by the month.

 

According to everything I have internally on the 10 prius, the JBL is satellite capable. That means you can purchase either the XM or Sirius receiver from the factory as a PPO option, or at your local dealer.

As far as I know, it will not come standard on the III model. Just available.

 

Danny,

Thank you and I am aware that they do not make one, but they are still available after market.

My point is that XM does not exists anymore. Sirius also no longer exists. The company is now "SiriusXM", which is a merged entity. On the satellite radio tuners that we have now (my wife and I each have one suction-cupped to our windshields), are capable of picking up both sets of streams. I know that many carmakers are switching to new tuners that pick up the new merged stream, but some do not at all.

My question, and one which I have asked here (on the forum) about 4 or 5 times now, which no one seems to know a definitive answer to, is whether the Tuner (when I buy Nav, which comes comes with Sat Tuner) will be able to pick up 1/2 the SiriusXM stream, and only provide 1/2 the channels, and requiring me to buy aftermarket Sirius only tuner, OR will it be able to tune all of SiriusXMs offerings, as one would expect with a product that comes out almost 2 years after a company announced a merger?

I hope that clarifies my question, and that someone (Prius Team?) knows this answer, and will let us know. This is not a dealbreaker, as I will get the car anyways, but like many here, I am curious.

Thanks,

Eric

 

Hmmm.. that may well have had it installed, but all my stuff says, "JBL blah,blah,6 disc with Bluetooth, blah blah, Satellite Radio Capability". In years past, if they used "capability" on the monroney label, that meant it was not standard, but you could install it. If Toyota used the word "Enabled" instead of capability, it was included in the price. Case in point, the Corolla S model. You can get it with 2 different radios. One that is capable and one that is enabled.

Also, in 2010 the Corolla still has a part number for the xm and sirius receiver while the 2010 Camry only has the XM. I'll keep checking to verify. After further thought, my hunch is that they will drop the Sirius tuner though since they are going to be adding XM navtraffic on the Navi systems now. I'll have to amend my previous post.

 

Jabber,

Then if you check, could you please confirm that it is actually being called SiriusXM Nav Traffic, as XM, as a firm, no longer fully exists. It has been renamed SiriusXM, and all the radios sold nowadays are SiriusXM tuners. So that they drop Sirius tuners is 1/2 the equation. If they carry on "XM" tuners, maybe the better thing to check is whether this will be capable of recieving their 'full stream'?

 

Well, I'll call myself out whenever I am in the wrong, so I grabbed some salt and pepper for my foot. The brochure does say, "Capability". However, in the footnotes, it only says that a subscription is required where it used to say that the receiver and subscription was required. Looks like it has the XM receiver already installed.

Sorry for the confusion.

And concerning XM/Sirius: Only the Corolla, Matrix, RAV4, Sequoia, and Land Cruiser will offer both. Everything else is XM only.

 

According to the brochure, it is called XM Navtraffic, not SiriusXM. I don't have any 100% accurate info, but I will ask Jason (our local rep) next time I see him. I'm kind of curious myself.

As I read further in the footnotes, it says to go to www.xmradio.com or www.sirius.com for pricing. Read into that what you will, but I take it as being able to handle either company, but for simplicity sake, calling it XM.

Also, you have a PM EGL.

 

I think you can get "the best of sirius" on XM and vice versa. For a fee of course.

 

This is true only for the 'Dual Tuners", and not for those XM or Sirius ones, but only the SiriusXM ones.

As for the fee, if you have a lifetime subscription (offered when they launched for about $500), then you will never pay a cent for that subscription, even post merger. But, I would need to pay another $100 to extend lifetime to cover the other (XM in my case).

 

To my knowledge, there are no "factory" satellite tuners made by Toyota.....there are Toyota part numbers for the tuners they have been putting in for the last few years, but I believe those tuners are made by Directed Electronics. Interestingly, for the Sirius tuner "made" for the Gen II Prius...it's the same tuner they use for the Solara, some Lexus models, & some Scion models.....only difference specific to the Prius is the wiring harness (a.k.a. the "fit kit") that they bundle with the Tuner.
I too am going to be wanting Sirius in my new 2010 Prius. Guess we will see what tuner is available.

 

I can't figure out what they are doing. As I look through the brochure, now I noticed that XM Satellite radio is listed as an accessory. I'll let you guys decide:

Listed under standard option:
JBL AM/FM/MP3 6-disc CD changer with eight speakers, integrated satellite radio capability*4 and handsfree phone capability via Bluetooth wireless technology

Listed under Accessories:
XM Satelite Radio*4,27

Listed under footnotes:

4. Satellite radio requires monthly service fee. See our Toyota dealer for further details. BLAH BLAH BLAH.. See Sirius or XM for rates..
27. Available on vehicles equipped with JBL audio system.

I have no idea which it is. Now I am leaning towards it NOT be standard equipment.

 

While XM and Sirius are now one company, for the time being they are still being run separately and there is a difference b/t tuners as far as I can tell. My mom had Sirius in her old car, but now has XM in her Highlander. She was not able to get strictly a Sirius feed, but could add "The Best of Sirius" to an XM subscription which includes the sports, Howard Stern, Playboy, and a few others.

 

I also get the impression that the tuner provided with Prius III+ is an XM only tuner and you have the option to add the "best of Sirius" package. I too looked into this since I am also a Stern fan.

 

Hopefully I can clarify a bit:
JBL audio system will come as a standard part of Prius III, IV and V models (US). This includes integrated Sat Radio and roof-mounted antenna. The capability mention is because in order for someone in a III, IV or V to actually have Sat Radio, they need to pay a subscription fee. That's all they need since it's Integrated.

Prius II does not come with JBL, it has a base audio system. It has a roof-mounted antenna but no integrated system and therefore would require an accessory add on to make it ready for Sat Radio + of course the subscription.

Does that help?

As for the XM/Sirius questions, we've been looking into this and will try to respond next week rather than giving mis-info. I believe my XM Sat Radio in my 08 Prius suddenly adopted new Sirius channels a while back around the merger time, but let us confirm details for you please.

Best,
Erica

 

To offer an example from the other side. I have a Starmate 5 Sirius portable unit. After the merger, this is what happened with respect to the channels:

1. Some stations actually did "merge" and are now the same channel to both XM units and Sirius units.

2. Some XM channels I do not currently receive on my Sirius unit without paying for an addon "best of XM" package.

3. Some stations "merged" but have different channels depending on if you have a Sirius or an XM unit. In other words, there is no additional fee to receive these stations.

It only makes sense that eventually there will be only SiriusXM units with no separation or difference of channels/stations.