Toyota Ramps up Sirius XM Radio Installations
XM Satellite Radio announced today that the ever popular Toyota Camry will now offer satellite radio as a factory installed option. The news is noteworthy in that the Camry is the best selling car in America, but tempered by slow overall auto sales, and the fact that it will be standard only on Camry’s with the premium audio package.
The program will begin with 2010 model year production, and XM anticipates that Toyota will have over 1,000,000 satellite equipped vehicles on the road by the end of 2009. In reading the press release, it may be easy for people to jump to a conclusion that Toyota will have 1,000,000 installations this year. This does not seem to be the case at all. While Toyota has been involved with SDARS for a couple of years now, the penetration rate has been quite low. On the positive side, the fact that Toyota is ramping up with the Camry bodes well for the future of the OEM channel, as other manufactures will need to follow suit to compete with what has become a very popular model line.
“The increased availability of XM services on the 2010 Camry is a testament to our relationship with Toyota,” said Jim Meyer, President, Operations and Sales, SIRIUS XM Radio. “We are thrilled that Camry buyers will now be able to experience commercial-free music from every genre, plus sports, news, talk and entertainment, as well as ‘The Best of SIRIUS.'”
In addition to XM satellite radio, XM NavTraffic will be standard equipment on all Camry models with navigation. XM and XM NavTraffic are already available on the Toyota Corolla, Matrix, and Venza, as well as on the Lexus LS 460 and LS 600h L models, the LX 570, the newly launched 2010 RX 350, and the upcoming 2010 RX 450h.
“The addition of XM and XM NavTraffic as fully integrated services in the Camry reflects Toyota’s focus on enhancing the driving experience for our customers, and is another step toward providing more advanced choices for entertainment and convenience in our vehicles,” said Jon Bucci, TMS vice president, Advanced Technology Department.
Every Toyota and Lexus vehicle equipped with factory-installed XM comes with a minimum three-month trial subscription to the available XM services on new vehicle purchases. Investors should understand that trial periods in Toyota and Lexus vehicles are not counted as subscribers. It is only after the trial period, and if a customer becomes self paying, that they enter the subscriber roles.
Position: Long Sirius XM Radio
I wonder what was the final year that indash 8-tracks were available. 1985?
Big Yawn…………….
Same lame hope. When the programming improves,let me know.
Tyler
The message here is simple. SatRad is becoming more and more a standard item in new cars.
At least it is not bad news But,
On that tone though- I tried to connect with sirius over questions re my recently bought stiletto 2 and operation re coverage in my rural area- My wife has sirius in her car and also needed a question asked and independantly called the company – after 20 min of hold we individually hung up.
I am so, so and I mean so, sorry I bought the stiletto -I took it back to best buy for a refund . I am so so sorry I bought this stock.
This is really sad- imagine how many others like me there are out there with similar stories-Boys and girls if they continue theie quest they are going to loose more then the quoted 400k subscribers -no matter what makeor model ofcar has the damn thing.
What really went on at that shareholders meeting-Was it just smoke and mirrors? It is what it is -sirius.Wake the hell up.
Amen.
I’m sorry you had trouble with the Stiletto. It has been my experience that the Sirius units & hardware are inferior to the XM hardware. If I was going to buy a truly portable unit (and I WAS PLANNING TO BUY an Inno UNTILL the whole acqisition/merger screwed everything up) I would try out the Inno.
All the truly portables will have some problem with reception but from what I used to hear from different people the Inno is superior to the Stiletto. Hopdfully you can get your money back and then buy an Inno.
I’ve had the same generation #1 SkyFi since Feb 2002 and have had ABSOLUTELY NO problems with it and I switch it from vehicle to vehicle to a docking station in my office.
That said,some of the programs/channels have been so decimated that even if you had a unit that gave you a signal strength of 98% all the time under all conditions the programming is still crap. Kinda like you can have a turd in a gold foil box. The box looks great but when you open up the box you still have a turd.
I have the stiletto and i love it.Sirius with the best of xm rules.what problems are you having elvis,its a perfect radio in car and portable,i even use it on a plane.
Thank you Mike-Reception in the Gulf Coast near Mobile is terrible. It doesnt work the minute I walk into my house
and as a result is useless unless using some other confounding wireless operation thru wifi-which for the price of the stiletto Im not about to do.
Perhaps since the ipone will stream thru cell it will be better
My point though is that when you do have a problem the company is useless
They offer two invisable things Mike-satellite waves and customer service.
Buy A home dock kit, put the antenna in a window and you’ll be fine…
That’s a great solution for what purports to be a PORTABLE unit.[rollingeyes]
Where is the IPHONE app?
The integration between Sirius-XM and the nav screen is so bad that I prefer to use my portable Sirius unit over the built in XM unit. Until they improve the half ass integration and poor usablility, it wont matter if they put the XM units in every make and model, people wont use it because it’s downright bad.