Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Planning to install Sirius in my Model 3.....

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I don't understand the love for sat radio unless it has content that you need to have and can't get anywhere else. Other than that it is obsolete technology when we have pretty much ubiquitous LTE coverage and you can get several GB per month from your mobile carrier for a reasonable price - even here in Canada where these companies are infamous for their high prices. IMHO Slacker, Spotify, Apple Music, etc are WAY better than sat radio. I use the Slacker in the car 90% of the time and 10% of the time I want to listen to an entire album so I will use Spotify on my phone with BT.
 
We will see - SXM was the best way to listen to music and talk radio on your car and it came installed on almost all new cars - and there wasn't much alternative except for FM/AM. But now more cars are connected and come with services like Slacker and Spotify or at least AndroidAuto and CarPlay I think that will be the downfall of SiriusXM. I am betting that 20 years from now there will be streaming music over some future version of the internet delivered via 9G (or whatever) mobile networking but there will no longer be satellite music services. It looks like they are still adding subscribers, but growth has slowed according to this.

It would be interesting to know what proportion of Tesla cars have subscriptions to SiriusXM? When I traded in my Lexus for a Model S three years ago I transferred my license over, but once it expired after six months I didn't bother renewing. I was complaining about the poor quality of the SiriusXM app in the car on these forums but folks said "don't worry about it, you will prefer Slacker or TuneIn". And they were right, at least for me.
 
My wife and I have several "dead zones" that we drive through on a regular basis. Cellular data is NOT an option when we're going through the mountains or in certain areas of Cape Cod (where her family has a cottage).

I've been PERFECTLY happy with satellite radio since 2002 and got a lifetime subscription in 2006. If I have to buy a new radio and rig it to the dashboard, somehow, it might actually work better than having it built into the touch screen (depending on how the steering wheel controls are interfaced with it).
 
  • Like
Reactions: crackers8199
I don't understand the love for sat radio unless it has content that you need to have and can't get anywhere else. Other than that it is obsolete technology when we have pretty much ubiquitous LTE coverage and you can get several GB per month from your mobile carrier for a reasonable price - even here in Canada where these companies are infamous for their high prices. IMHO Slacker, Spotify, Apple Music, etc are WAY better than sat radio. I use the Slacker in the car 90% of the time and 10% of the time I want to listen to an entire album so I will use Spotify on my phone with BT.
Not everyone has cell service. Glad you do but I don't.
 
  • Like
Reactions: crackers8199
I don't understand the love for sat radio unless it has content that you need to have and can't get anywhere else. Other than that it is obsolete technology...

Not everyone has cell service. Glad you do but I don't.

Bingo.

I guess if you live and play in the greater Toronto area, or other places with cell coverage, you see no need for Sirius. But that sure sounds like a boring life to me. I'll take skating on the clear frozen lakes over the crowded malls. And snowmobiling in the mountains over the crowded ski hill. But I also like to listen to live hockey games, news, music, Stern, etc. -- and that "obsolete" satellite technology sure is great for me -- since there are no other options at all and there won't be in the foreseeable future despite putting streaming services in new vehicles. That changes nothing for me.

I've heard people like you calling it dead ever since I bought my first lifetime sub in 2008 when I also bought the SIRI shares -- and despite people's characterizations of "obsolete" like you, the subscriber base keeps growing and the stock keep going up.
 
Last edited:
My wife and I have several "dead zones" that we drive through on a regular basis. Cellular data is NOT an option when we're going through the mountains or in certain areas of Cape Cod (where her family has a cottage).

I've been PERFECTLY happy with satellite radio since 2002 and got a lifetime subscription in 2006. If I have to buy a new radio and rig it to the dashboard, somehow, it might actually work better than having it built into the touch screen (depending on how the steering wheel controls are interfaced with it).

i'm fine with an external portable radio for satellite, my concern is how are we going to get the sound to the car? bluetooth is one option, but i would imagine that'll affect your phone's connection to the car (only one bluetooth device can be connected at a time, right?)...

FM transmitter is a horrific option, i guess, unless there's an antenna wire that can be spliced into similar to the FM direct adapter some of the portable radios offer that cut off outside FM reception when the satellite radio is active...but we don't know if that will even be an option.
 
i'm fine with an external portable radio for satellite, my concern is how are we going to get the sound to the car? bluetooth is one option, but i would imagine that'll affect your phone's connection to the car (only one bluetooth device can be connected at a time, right?)... FM transmitter is a horrific option, i guess, unless there's an antenna wire that can be spliced into similar to the FM direct adapter some of the portable radios offer that cut off outside FM reception when the satellite radio is active...but we don't know if that will even be an option.

Yes, that's the problem. It drives me nuts that Tesla doesn't have an aux-in headphone jack. I tried a Bluetooth dongle but it didn't work reliably. Fortunately, my portable Sirius with a lifetime sub has the Pre-FTC strong FM transmitter and I use that. It works well for me since I mostly listen to news, sports and Stern, but for an audiophile it wouldn't cut it. Just transferring from CNN on TuneIn to CNN on Sirius reveals a noticeable drop in sound quality.