I'm currently a long term Sirius subscriber and now I'm going to have to start paying for XM if I want to keep the XM services in the car (including traffic and weather).

I was wondering if you guys knew whether they (i.e. XM) offered and occassional specials or if "the price is the price."

Right now the letter I received in the mail tells me the best I can do is $190.33/year (XM +Navtraffic). If I want to add "Best of Sirius" that goes to $234.77/year.

Have any of you done any better?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Google around for the "XM $77 deal." A friend owns a 2005 RL and says if you wait up to the time it expires, you should be able to get the radio part of it for $77 if you're persistent and threaten to let it lapse. Basically, if you get a rep that won't do it, thank them, hang up and call again. He said its harder to get a deal on the traffic/weather part of it.

 

this is the link to the sticky (long running post) in the 3G forum about how to get the $77/yr - I paid that every year w/ my 3G. The problem now is I don't think they will do any deals for the weather/traffic - that come w/ my new car

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-audio-bluetooth-electronics-navigation-94/renew-xm-radio-%2477-12-months-part-5-a-633759/

 

They don't offer specials on the XM Navigation (Traffic) or the XM Weather. In my opinion both of those services are useless as they are very delayed anyways.

 

Doppler radar is nice - at least it's up to date. yes I can get the same on my phone for free
- On a trip recently I saw my nav route appear on the radar screen

 

I didn't want the XM radio, but had to have the traffic here in LA area... there didn't appear to be any way to get traffic without also getting the radio, but I was able to get a $9.95/month deal for traffic only (no weather -- don't need in LA, always sunny!).

Good luck!

 

I hear you on the LA weather, it's a waste. But I got a tell you the traffic is not always 100% correct! There's a delay, and if you catch a "fresh" accident, you will be pissed off or at least surprised if your patient. It happened to me on Sunday traveling East on the 101 fwy at Tampa/Reseda, the map said clear, but there was a motorcyclist who bit it into a car. The 101 and 405 are the worst fwy's I've ever been on, so I won't hold it against the auto nav traffic.

 

Warning XM is trying to pull a fast one, at least on me. They gave me a renewal rate for a year of $91 with NAV/Traffic. Three months later, I got a letter from the collections dept saying I need to pay another $23 for this account. F'in bastards! No wonder there going under, so watch your back and try to get it in writing.

 

Today I called to lock in something after my trial is up and roll over 2 other accounts I had. I got a letter from another account offering me the $77 deal, so I was able to get that and traffic/weather for $84, grand total $161 plus tax for a year.

They also rolled over days remaining on the other accounts, which basically added another 293 days of XM audio.

Total time on the phone, 52 minutes with an XM rep and transfer to Customer Care. No one asked asked for any discount codes.

 

Just an update on the traffic/weather reliability. Today was going up to Lake Castaic to visit bro, and sure enough a huge accident on the 5 northbound wasn't even on the traffic map? This accident was likely 5-10 minutes before I got there, as CHP was already on the scene with ambulance's in route on the shoulder behind me. So it's not the quickest report in the world.

 

Yep, pretty much found out the only thing traffic is good for are long-established construction zones. Even my Garmin Nuvi was slow to update.

If you want real-time traffic through your mobile browser, check out trafficland.com or worldcam.com. You can dial in your area and see what's on traffic cams and city cams.

 

I use my iPhone, it's much more reliable.

 

although its a pretty cool feature, albeit slow to update, its only useful if you live in metropolis, as far as traffic goes, it does report accidents and construction in other areas.

 

Your right it doesn't report specific accidents, but it does indicate slow traffic which equals accidents or otherwise which is the same thing overall.

 

Yes, but it only does this in big cities, boston, LA, NY, Miami. so for the rest of us who don't live in big cities.....not so useful.