How to get Satellite radio on my 2003?

[Coopspeed]

The rumor is confirmed by my sales person. My 2003 is prewired for Satellite radio. That's all she knows. Can anyone be of some assistance here. What do I need to buy to get it going?

Thanks

Jim

[duboy]

Jim,

i'm interested to know as well. as far as i know, you'll have to buy a satellite receiver and if the radio has inputs for it, you just hook the satellite receiver into the inputs, subscribe to service and you're all good. anyone else know better?

[Coopspeed]

I did a search for satellite radio and got some good info.

I seems there is an adaptor made by blitzsafe that allows you to plug a Pioneer XM receiver into the factory CD changer plugs in the boot.

The adaptor is $70 plus S&H. The XM I don't know the cost of.

I'm still doing some research on this topic so I'll post here if I find anything else.

Jim

[Cooper_Matt]

I have no idea if this is any use to anybody. However in England Sat radio is not heard of. I am in the forces and spent some time with Americans at Bagram at the start of this year. The lucky bu**ers get issued with Sat radios, and with a small amount of trading between nations I ended up the proud owner of a Sanyo world space reciever and picking up great tunes up in the middle of Afghanistan!
All I can say is that it the way ahead, the best station I found was 24x7, only tune in if you like dance music.
I just only hope that one day it will be available in the UK (obviously at a reasonable cost!)

[stryder]

We need to keep our satellite radio straight. It is only available in the US as the satellites are in geosynch orbit to cover a specific area.

Anyway, there's two different competeting options currently available. XM which has heavily advertised and is what most people think of 'Beyond FM - XM, etc...' and Sirius. Sirius has partnered with many OEM companies including BMW/MINI to provide their service. So if your salesperson talked about the radio, they were talking about the '03 MINIs that are 'prewired' for Sirius. I have no idea what is entailed in getting this, besides paying the dealer to install something and paying for the montly service. But its a dealer item, so if they don't know how to do it, its not going to get done. (Though as we all know dealers vary, so maybe someone has found a dealer who can do it already).

Onto XM. I believe everyone who already has gotten Sat radio on the '02's has gotten XM. In any event, to do this on a car not prewired for it ('02s), they've usually purchased the aforementioned bliztsafe adapter, either one with RCA(Phono) plugs, or specific to XM. In either case, that plugs into the CD changer prewiring that's in the boot of US cars. Then you plug in the XM tuner, and you control it from there. MiniYoda had this setup at the OH/KY/IN meetup and seemed to like it. (looked pretty cool too). The '03 radio also suposedly has an AUX input on the back, so if you wanted XM instead of sirius, you could get the dealer installed aux kit to be able to use it, and then plug in an XM tuner.

To continue to keep them straight, Sirius is $12.95 a month and is commerical free, XM is $9.95 and has very limited commericals on some channels compared to analog radio. They have similar programming but its not the same, so check their websites for specific info.

[PhoenixMiniS]

Just a side note, Sirius's Demo car is a Mini Cooper S.
I posted pictures of it in my gallery.

The company I work for has partnered with Sirius, I've had it in my car for some time now and love the programing, also it is commercial free on all of the music stations which XM isn't

[jlivingood]

Quote:

Originally posted by PhoenixMiniS
Just a side note, Sirius's Demo car is a Mini Cooper S.
I posted pictures of it in my gallery.

The company I work for has partnered with Sirius, I've had it in my car for some time now and love the programing, also it is commercial free on all of the music stations which XM isn't

Did you need a different antenna?

Jason

[Coopspeed]

Yes

A new antenna is required for XM

I've seen several styles. The one I liked was about 1"x2" at the base and about 1" tall. It sticks on (no holes drilled) and cost less than $75. Can't remember the cost.

Jim

[jlivingood]

Sirius delays interest payment
By Troy Wolverton
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
October 11, 2002, 5:00 PM PT

Sirius Satellite Radio skipped a scheduled interest payment on its debt last month, the company said Friday. The payment of $720,000 was due on Sept. 30, but the company decided to delay payment while it negotiates new financing, Sirius said in a statement. The company has a one-month grace period and will not technically go into default until Oct. 31. The interest is on $16 million worth of convertible notes that are due in 2009.

Sirius has about $250 million cash on hand, the company said. However, the satellite radio company has $569 million in long-term debt and warned investors in mid-August that it might have to file for bankruptcy protection if it doesn't raise $300 million by mid-2003. Unlike competitor XM Satellite Radio, which claims 200,000 customers, Sirius has shown disappointing adoption rates. The company, which launched its paid radio service in July, has less than 10,000 subscribers.

[stryder]

Such a typical example of first to market wins. Sirius seems to have a good product, and competition is useful. It'd be nice if they actually got subscribers as the '03 models (not just MINIs) start having it as an option. Though raising $300 million at $12.95/month/customer will take a very large amount of customers.