BMW of North America has re-upped its partnership with Sirius XM Radio Inc., extending the relationship through September 2011. It's a short renewal period, especially when compared to Toyota, which extended its contract with XM through 2017. But BMW isn't known for its long contracts anyway, having extended its contract with Sirius once before for about the same duration.
Sirius is available as an option on all BMW vehicles with a 1-year bundled subscription included in the price of the vehicle.
I wonder why it has to be an option and why they just dont bundle it together with the price of a new car?
If its done that way then the consumer has satradio on their new car for a year and if they dont want it after that they can cancel. This would get alot more subs paying for the service in a years time and help the company for sure. Dont know why its not done that way.
Ryan ,
You're alive ! Where have you been the last five days ?
Sorry guys.
I got slammed at my real job with client meetings and projects, and literally didn't have the chance to even check Orbitcast. I'm not sure if I can describe the guilt I feel if I don't post for a day. :)
Thanks for hanging in there
A friend who owns a BMW told me he paid about $800 at a dealer to have the Sirius module added to the regular audio system, which is "Sirius-ready" but not "Sirius-equipped."
I suppose this is for these reasons:
1. BMW audio systems are made for a world market, most of which does not have access to U.S. satellite radio.
2. They can say "Sirius-ready" on the car specs, so you get that name in there, and consumers who don't read carefully think they're actually getting satellite radio.
3. Dealers get to make $800 of essentially pure profit on the deal.
4. If you have to ask what it costs, hey, you woudln't have bought a BMW.
SiriusXM is only a option because since 2007 BMW has put HD Radio in as standard on it's entire fleet. BMW will not be caught putting obsolete satellite radio gear in it's fleet since SiriusXM will be only a blip in the history, a fad with it's time had run out. Also why would BMW downgrade it's customers by giving them the crutch of satellite radio
Well, anon, your comment really does not make too much sense, but it probably got truer today.
But it's funny to call satellite radio a "crutch." How so? Is TV a crutch? This is just another form of entertainment for people who want it.
And how is HD radio an alternative to satellite radio? With XM I used to get 170 good channels for $12.95. With HD I get two or three channels intermittently for free. Where's the validity of the comparison?
Actually, I bought a 7 in 2006 and had to pay $495 for the Sirius to be enabled, and it included 1 year of service. It's nearly impossible to DIY it since all the audio cabling is fiber optic, and the head unit is tightly integrated into...everything...the iDrive controls the a/c, radio, seat options, etc...can't exactly replace it with a Kenwood from wally-world!
I think the fact that it's $495 (I think it's $795 now) is what turns most buyers off..