I'll admit that I was one of those guys who just never thought about adding the sat radio option to any of my vehicles. I never really thought it was worth it. Since my new C350 came with the free intro offer, I finally got turned on to it and I don't think I've listened to "regular" radio since.

Is everyone else hooked and planning on renewing?

 

 

I havent listened to regular radio for over a year (subscribed a year ago), and when I rent cars I make sure they have sat radio.

 

Yeah, hooked it up. And knew I would like, so I bought the 2 year plan off the bat.

I knew I'd like it since having sat radio was one of the things I liked about my wife's honda when she got it a few years ago. She has XM, however.

Surprisingly, I haven't listened to Howard yet. Not that I'm avoiding him, just haven't tuned in yet.

THe sports is better on Sirius, for the most part, except that I'm a baseball fan, not the others. XM has baseball, Sirius seemingly everything else. I'd love to trade for baseball.

Sirius' reggae station is heads and tails better than XM's. Not that Sirius' reggae station is great, there is much to be desired, but it is pretty good and compared to XM it is like a gazzillion, million times better. Xm's sucks that bad.

However, I like XM's dance channels better. Their house/progressive house is better than Area 33 on Sirius, which to me is just kinda clubby and tehnoish. And XM's electoronica station is better, and XM even has a trance channel, haven't found that on Sirius. XM then also matches Sirius' club and classic dance, which music I don't like much so don't tune in much to those.

Jst beginning to explore Sirius' alt rock stations, but gotta say XM's is impressive on those with Fred, Lucy and Ethel stations being pretty darned good. Not saying Sirius isn't as good on those, yet, but just saying if Sirius is going to beat XM on those, then we're in for a treat.

Not sure on the rap stations yet, mostly becuase I haven't found them yet. SNoop's classic rap station on XM is pretty good, but too much of the same stuff. I have hig hopes for Sirius here since Eminem's rap channel (modern rap, not classic rap) is supposed to be real good.

MY wife says the starbucks channel (or its equivilent) on Sirius (one has a starbucks channel, the other a copy, not sure is which) is better than XM.

And XM has the Bruce all the time channel, which is almost worth the price of admission right there. Or, if you're inclined, also a Dead channel all the time, although I've never been a dead head so can only take it in small doses.

All in all I likes it, but think other than specific channels, XM might be better. Not really sure yet, and this is likely to be merely because XM has more channels it seems (XM goes to #250 vs. #200 for sirius, although there are blank gaps (non-used channels) in each's lineup, so not sure if its a full 250 vs. 200).

Oh, and on quality I'd say they're equal. The Merc's might sound better, but likely only because of the stereo system than the satellite provider. However, I do encounter more drop outs with Sirius than XM. XM seems to have a north-south axis to its transmission, while Sirius is more East-West in its transmission, and out here (Watchung/First mountains in Essex County) all the peaks and valleys and ridges run North-South, meaning east-west transmissions fail when you're below a ridge or just crest a mountain (well, hill, but they call them mountains here!).

Just my $.02

 

we bought a car back in 05 with XM. after the introductory "free" period, although we liked the service, we decided not to sign up. Over the course of a year we continued to receive offers from XM. I think it got down to $4 a month.

 

i never thought i would get sirius either, but after trying it out, i like it alot. i think i will renew. the entertainment channels are great for road trips.

 

Anyone know if Sirius does that? If so, I'll delay my renewal after free period.

I think it's nice to have the sat radio. Why not have something else to do or listen to, and it has useful information. For me, being able to listen to CNN TV channel is a *big deal* I love politics, particularly if I was missing an election night or something.

Plus, it's really cheap. Compared to to what we spend on the car, or gasoline, it's like almost free. Don't get me wrong I'm one of these people who does not believe in monthly fee stuff normally, like my sat tv has very low packages and everything, and I don't stay subbed to netflix more than a month or two until I've seen the couple movies I want, but I think the sat radio is one of the things worth it to me.

 

FYI for those thinking of renewing your free 6 months, I posted this up the other day.

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w204/225070-sirius-subs.html

 

Same. There was no way I was paying for radio. But I liked the kids channels for my boy on long car rides. Liked it so much that I bought a receiver for my wife's car too. They let us sign up her car as a second sub at 50% even though I'm still in my free period.

After about 4mo though I'm a bit bored with it. The playlists on the stations are in heavy rotation and I've found that I really only like 2 or 3.

But I still listen to it over free radio; I'm just not as excited about it as I was in the first few weeks.

 

Yeah I still have trouble thinking people actually pay 12.99 a month for it. Honestly I find myself only listening to two out of the hundred and some channels. Now that the weathers been bad where I live, I have to change it from Sirius to my local station to get weather info and traffic info anyways. I'm guessing though like any service, if you call them up and haggle long enough you will get a discount, but 4 dollars seems pretty unrealistic for a service normally costing 12.99, I do know XM offers better rates than Sirius though. Hopefully that merger between the two will take place soon, as rumors are floating around that you will be able to customize your package and only include the stations you want from both networks, thats all speculation and would most likely cost more.

 

Listened for the first month but now I only listen to CDs. I do not like to hear some DJ talking about nonsense. Now I only hear my favorite tunes all the time and its free.