XM Upgrade, XM Nav Traffic, XM Rant

Asking a question here. Do you think Sirius would be better?

 

It's now XM/SirIus, all one BIG company!!!!

 

Just received a subscription plan notice the other day from XM and the cost for 1 year is $172.45 and if you add NavTraffic it will cost $222.73.

I will make a call and ask for a reduction, one can only hope this will work and I will ask them to send me a bill instead of having access to my credit card info.

 

That's true, but they still have separate channel lineups for now. There are a few "Best of Sirius" channels on XM and a few "Best of XM" channels on Sirius, but subscribing to XM does -not- give you automatic access to the Sirius channel lineup except for the handful of "Best of Sirius" channels. You have to have an account on Sirius in order to get the entire Sirius lineup (and a Sirius radio because the two services are not compatible).

 

Is anyone getting a good deal to just have XM NavTraffic? Don't care about the radio part...it's not even 100% commercial free anyway...

 

The music channels are all commercial free (except for the 3-4 channels that are programmed by Clear Channel).

 

I don't think so... a lot of XM channels from 20-30 were full of commercials. Same with some Jazz channels...

 

Announcements are not commercials. Commercials are advertisements for products. The only music channels with commercials are the ones programmed by Clear Channel Communications (11, 21, 22, and 24). The remaining 50-60 music channels are all commercial free.

 

No seriously, I've had XM for years on my previous car and only the trial period on my this new Prius and they are definitely commercial (loan modifications and other services), not announcements. But you're right...channels 21 and 24 definitely had commercials...didn't know it was owned by CC.

 

Nope, you definitely will NOT hear any commercials for loan modifications or anything else on the music channels (except the ones I noted above). On the other hand, all the other channels (talk, sports, etc.) are riddled with commercials, and many of them are for shady (almost criminal) enterprises.

 

Some of the classic rock and vinyl channels have commercials. That's why I quit listening to those.

 

Here is the official channel listing from XM:

XM Channel Lineup

Only music channels in the "More Music" Neighborhood have commercials. The rest do not. All the talk/sports channels have commercials (except NPR and PRI) from shady businesses.

 

Do you work for XM/Sirius? You seem to know a lot...

 

Heh, heh...I work for a company that provides XM radio service to passengers of airlines such as JetBlue and AirTran.

 

I opted ONLY for XM Traffic. After working out a "deal", best I got was about 82 bucks a year. Expensive, but I like the feature. Better then illegally fussing with my iPhone to see traffic issues. And, it auto-reroutes me to avoid issues....and has been successful in doing just that.

 

I just got my 2010 Prius last Saturday and have the complimentary 3 month subscription to XM and XM Traffic. The only thing my nav tells me is that "in 3 miles, bumper-to-bumper traffic on the route, 1 mile long". It doesn't offer an alternate route. I have auto reroute switched "on" but nothing ever happens. Am I missing something on the set-up? I've tried calling XM but they're useless and Toyota doesn't seem to have an answer either.

 

The only time auto re-route appeared to me (it shows up as an audibe note and pops up a button on the nav screen) was when the traffic alert knew a road was completely CLOSED.

For the most part, Traffic tells me a lot of "in 20 miles on route, left lane closed ahead, 2 miles long" "in 18 miles on route, left lane closed ahead, 2 miles long", etc, or "in 1 mile, stop and go traffic for 3 miles". Normally my response is "yes car, i see that i am in stop and go traffic. thank you for confirming my own observation". I will not be renewing it after the trial.