Quick question about sirius radio

[miringrains]

So my SA told me that while my car has the radio equipped, it is not coded. He said it would be $450 to do so... is there a cheaper way?

[chris s]

No way around the coding, no....

[kscarrol]

But you may be able to get the coding done for less by a third-party coder. Search as there are several good ones on the forum with a wide range of services and prices...

[grantmax]

Originally Posted by kscarrol

But you may be able to get the coding done for less by a third-party coder. Search as there are several good ones on the forum with a wide range of services and prices...

THIS. Why go to the dealer when a third party can do the same work for a reduced fee? Even if you don't use one of the reputable tuners here, an indy shop could hook that up for you for less than $450.

[chris s]

I may be wrong, but i'm pretty sure a 3rd party can't do what is necessary to enable satellite radio.

[grantmax]

Originally Posted by chris s

I may be wrong, but i'm pretty sure a 3rd party can't do what is necessary to enable satellite radio.

Most of them have the dealer tools. Not sure why they couldn't.

[kscarrol]

The tuner can enable it but the OP will then have to contact Sirius to sign up for the service. And now that I think about it, that $450 quote from the dealer likely includes the first year of service. Which services you get will determine the price but I recall it being around $19 per month or $200 a year....

Edit: I am not recommending Mike but BPM can do it for the for $249 which includes the 1st year subscription...

http://bpmsport.com/shop/services/co...ctivation.html

[chris s]

Originally Posted by kscarrol

The tuner can enable it but the OP will then have to contact Sirius to sign up for the service. And now that I think about it, that $450 quote from the dealer likely includes the first year of service. Which services you get will determine the price but I recall it being around $19 per month or $200 a year....

Edit: I am not recommending Mike but BPM can do it for the for $249 which includes the 1st year subscription...

http://bpmsport.com/shop/services/co...ctivation.html

+$125 if you don't have a coding cable for the car.

[kscarrol]

Right, but still $75 cheaper than what the dealer is quoting. Search for other coders as there many who charge less than Benvo does...

[chris s]

yup, already in touch with one.... thanks

[miringrains]

I have a subscription from the first car... its still active

[roastbeef]

If you have premium sound and hd radio, Sirius is a waste.
I did a three month trial and never listened to it. It's like comparing a cd to a cassette tape.

[BPMSport]

You do get a free year when we activate Sirius.

[soberin]

Originally Posted by miringrains

So my SA told me that while my car has the radio equipped, it is not coded. He said it would be $450 to do so... is there a cheaper way?

Yes there is. Listen to the freakin' engine noise coming from in front of you. Forget the crap on Sirius, and hear the beautiful mechanical noises.

[jphughan]

Mike did mine. It's not just regular coding -- and if you don't have CIC iDrive, it's not even just software work. But if you DO have CIC, in addition to coding you need to get an actual certificate (as in, similar to an SSL certificate) that's digitally signed by BMW and specific to your VIN. BMW doesn't give those away for free, which is why dealers and third-party vendors charge more for this particular retrofit; they go buy the cert on your behalf. This cert technique allows BMW to have a single hardware spec in the cars for manufacturing simplicity while still locking out certain features unless you pony up for them. They're doing this on the F30 with navigation now since iDrive has become standard. But at least there, nav is just an activation code you enter on iDrive itself, whereas installing the Sirius cert requires more software than is included in the typical coding/programming suite (NCS, INPA, WinKFP, and Tool32).

But OP, if you haven't listened to Sirius in a while, I'd reconsider springing for it. Recently they've added a bunch more channels, but in order to free up the bandwidth for that, they killed the bitrate on everything, so now talk radio is the only thing that sounds reasonable. Music sounds tinny. I'd rather listen to the commercials on HD Radio and enjoy reasonable sound quality than commercial-free garbage.

['Cane]

I just don't see the sense in paying $15/month (though they keep trying to get me back with 5 months for $20) for what they provide. Granted, I only drive my car a few days a week, and most of the time I stream what I want (iTunes radio) from my iPhone.