1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Ugh. Sorry another XM question

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by lgamber1, Sep 18, 2007.

  1. lgamber1

    lgamber1 New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2007
    48
    0
    0
    I had a great car buying experience this evening. No bs-ing on the price, no trying to push me to buy all the extras. Everything went really smoothly.

    But there is just one thing that was really lame about it. I was really set on getting XM radio, and the dealer gave me a price quote of $795!! Ridiculous!

    I told him that since the 2008 prius has "satelite radio capability" (as per the toyota website), that all I thought I really needed was to have the correct antenna installed and get the subscription and that this shouldn't cost more than 200 bucks.

    He didn't seem like he knew much about it--he was the finance guy and not the actual salesman, but he asked someone else, and he returned to tell me that it was still $795. He totally didn't try to sell it to me and acted as if he thought the quote was as silly as I did.

    Anyway, now I don't have XM, and I am wondering how I can get the antenna installed cheaper. Has anyone had any experience having this done at Best Buy or Circuit City or something?

    I have read about the XM kits on this website that you can order online that come with a DVD explaining how to install it yourself. I would order this, but I am unsure if I need all that--I thought late 2007's and 2008's came with something that made XM easier and cheaper to install. Am I wrong? Maybe I just made that up somehow.

    Any advice or clarification would be greatly appreciated. TIA!
     
    #1 lgamber1, Sep 18, 2007
  2. alanh

    alanh Active Member

    Joined:
    May 22, 2007
    1,175
    99
    0
    Location:
    Phoenix, AZ
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    The "satellite ready" means the head end (in this case, the multifunction display) can control a satellite tuner. It does not mean there's a tuner there.

    The tuner and antenna have to be installed, and a cable is run from the tuner to the MFD.

    As you guessed, $795 is absurd. You can buy the tuner right here for $265. You can install it yourself, or pay a stereo shop to do it for you. Either way, it'll be way less than $795.

    One caveat: although it's nice having XM or Sirius integrated with the MFD, the integrated tuner lacks features found on the stand-alone units. There aren't any pause/replay functions, artist alerts, or special traffic features. The title and artist fields are cut off at 10 characters.

    Some people have found a stand-alone tuner works better for them.

    You might check over the Audio and Electronics forum for more threads on this subject.
     
    #2 alanh, Sep 18, 2007
  3. lgamber1

    lgamber1 New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2007
    48
    0
    0
    Aha...I see. Thanks for the info. Well, I will definitely look into ordering the tuner. My understanding of the XM capabilities is really hazy, and it didn't help that my dealer knew even less than me!
     
    #3 lgamber1, Sep 18, 2007
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)