My '06 TL had the usual 3 month trial of XM, which would have expired about a month ago.

I got a letter from them a couple of weeks ago saying my trial would be up soon and that I could renew for "only" $12.95 a month. (Yes, I know about the $77 renewal.)

So, basically, I've gotten an extra month of XM free so far. Is this the way they normally do it, or have they forgotten my trial period is up?
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hopefully i'll get the free month too since mine is supposed to be expiring tomorrow...11/7/06

 

My guess is that it depends on how your dealer communicates with XM. Mine cut off exactly 3 months after I got my TL. I used the $77 deal that same day after the cut off and am working fine now.

DV

 

XM works like this. Normally your radio is deactivated. In order to listen to channels, the radio has to be "activated" as such: There is a "secret" channel that you can't access that carries radio IDs for radios to be activated. It continuously broadcasts new radio IDs for radios to be activated. Your radio is constantly tuned to this channel. So when you call XM to have your radio activated, XM adds your radio ID to this broadcast. Your radio, tuned to this channel, finds its ID in the broadcast and then it knows to activate itself. That's why they tell you to put your car outside and turn it on right after you're done calling them. If you want your radio activated, it has to be on so it can recieve it's ID in the activation broadcast. I think your radio ID gets broadcasted several times in 15 minutes. If you miss the 15 minute window, you have to call them or go online and they will try to rebroadcast the activation.

I believe deactivation works the same way. Your radio is constantly tuned into a similar "deactivation" channel. If you let your account lapse, XM will send your radio a deactivation command by broadcasting your radio's ID on this channel. The only way your radio will know it's time to deactivate is if it receives this command from XM. I've always wondered about this and I think it's possible that your car just happens to be turned off every time your radio ID is broadcast on the deactivation channel. My radio went about 4 or 5 days over the trial period before my luck ran out.

I'd theorize that they will only broadcast your radio's ID on the deactivation channel for a maximum period of time because they only have so much bandwidth on each channel (hence the noticable poor sound quality when compared to FM, CD or even MP3). They have no way of determining whether your radio recieved the broadcast and was ever actually deactivated. I would be willing to guess that the maximum amount of time that they broadcast the deactivation signal would be less than a month. So if you kept your car turned off for an entire month, your radio would never recieve the deactivation signal and theoretically you would have a free lifetime subscription.

I hope that made sense. Thoughts?

 

I think a more likely explanation, and what I noticed with my car, was that it took the dealership at least 2-3 weeks to turn in the paperwork to XM that my car had been bought and therefore the free trial period didn't actually begin until 2-3 weeks later. Maybe your dealership did not turn in the paperwork for at least a month. I think if you go to XM's website and using your radio ID, login, you can see when your period actually expires.

 

I don't know what the deal is, but I ain't sayin' anything as long as it's working!
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(Desert_TL: I've had my radio on XM almost every day during this month-long period. I suppose it may have gone a day or so a time or two without being driven, but that's all.)
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I have a question about this XM. I've had my 06 for slightly over 2 months now and have never bothered with XM. As of right now, I have stations such as DECADES, COUNTRY, REGIONALWEATHER, TOP 20 (or something like that), URBAN, and I think one more. For one, I can't use the steering controls to navigate through them because it always shows "XM PREVIEW". I have never called or gone to the website to do any sort of activation. Now I'm curious to actually activate the thing and see how long I can keep it since I believe it's never been activated. Any comments on this?

 

Have you tried changing the channels manually or using voice? I found the steering wheel controls only work with channels you have set on presets (which, by default, is XM Preview). Try adding the channels to the preset and use steering wheel controls.
BTW, you should have access to all the channels.

 

Yeah, I just realized that you cannot use the steering wheel controls or the + or - buttons on the radio to navigate through the channels...you have to use the right knob. Can't believe two months have passed and I didn't realized I had XM the whole time Well I have about a month to play around with it and determine whether it's worth keeping before it expires.

 

That sucks......But I have an 06 Accord and I can change the presets on XM using the + - on the steering wheel, I didn't realize it doesn't work on the TL....

 

Well, to follow up, XM finally woke up and shut off my Sat radio.

Actually, I think the real reason they noticed it is that the Nav Traffic on my RL didn't seem to be working and I asked them for a refresh on that. The lady at XM hesitated a minute and then said, "You have 2 satellite radios?" I told her I did, but that I was only calling about the one with Traffic.

She went ahead with the refresh, but within 24 hours I had a call from them asking if I wanted to renew the subscription for the TL. I checked it and all I could get was channel 001.

But I got over 4 months for free, so that's not bad. I figure they'll offer me the $77 renewal and I might just take it.
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whats the $77 deal everyone is talking about and how do i get it?

 

After my three months expired back in 2004 I continued my service up until 3 1/2 months ago. I canceled, I just didn't feel like paying the normal rate and was going to try that $77/year deal but XM has still yet to shut mine off and I am not about to tell them

 

For everyones information and this may not be true now... but I had installed XM in a car a few years ago. I took it out of the car and cancelled it. I decided to put it back in the car 6 months later. Unit still worked and I ran it for a good month before I took it out again. I think after a certian timeframe they might just stop sending the deactivation for a radio. Anyways, it may be different now.. who knows.

 

See the thread in the audio section for an explanation. I got the 3 month free trial on my 06 TL, when it expired I did nothing. A month later I got an offer of $4.99 a month for three months then the normal $12.95 in the mail. I did nothing and then two monthes after the trial ran out I got a card in the mail for $77.00 for the year. I took them up on that.

 

I bought my 06TL Nov of 2005 and had the "trial" XM running till roughly about July of 2006 before it got canned.

 

My XM subscription expired in August. I drive the TL very little. It was still working Wednesday as I began a road trip of 200 miles. By the end of the trip, the XM had shut down just giving me a preview channel and emergency road info.

I am going to be out of town until after the first of the year so I will not renew it until I get back in January 2007.

This seems to confirm that they send the "shut down" signal sporadically and since I wasn't driving it when the signal went out, I kept getting it.

 

Does anyone know how to make the XM "Title" or "Name" as a marquee or something? XM cuts it off if it can't fit on the display

 

Not sure that you can. Another nice option would be if it flipped between channel name, title and artist.

 

I figured I won't be able to, but I just thought I ask anyway. That really sucks.

 

Interesting. We got 1 year on our 06 RL for free. The 07s have 3 months.

 

mine just shut off 2 weeks ago after about 4.5 months free.... so i'm gonna have to renew.

 

I'm in your situation, but just got the $4.99 offer. I actually thought about taking that offer, but didn't want the trouble of having to cancel again. And even though $77 is not a lot of money, it just didn't seem worth it for XM. I think I'd rather go buy 5 DVD-A discs with that.

 

I called and did the $77 deal from here and they never charged me so I'm getting it free for a year right now. I think XM needs to help getting everything right - however it works out best for us!