Aquapools

I know that the King Ranch and Platinum's come standard with Sirius XM, but does that package come with free service for five years? If not how much is the monthly service?

BlacknTan2

In the original order guide, I'm pretty sure it was 5 years of Siruis and Travel Link for 5 years for the Lariat 502a package and up.

Edit: standard XM Traffic and Travel Link in all Lariats and up when you get NAV, but looks like Sirius Radio is only a trial subscription. Not sure about XLTs:

GearheadGeek

Sirius is just a trial because they want to get you hooked into their subscription model. I bought my truck used and they offered me a trial period as a new owner of a used vehicle, which I cancelled when they started billing for it. Then they made me an offer that was drastically less than their normal rate if I paid 6 months up front, after which it renewed monthly at the high rate and I cancelled. We went through this cycle a couple of times before I found a nice bluetooth adapter that plugs into the aux-in port (mine's an '07, no BT) so I could get music off my phone. Between that and data CDs of MP3s, I've managed to ignore SiriusXM for quite a while now. I'll give them another chance during the trial when I get my '16.

TL;DR: Cancel after the initial trial and they'll make you a better offer. Lather, rinse, repeat.

BlacknTan2

But the trial period is now 5 years...

GearheadGeek

Incorrect. The included subscription for TRAFFIC data is 5 years. "Traffic and Travel Link." I don't know how long the music/news/talk-radio trial is, but I'd bet you a mortgage payment it's 12 months or less.

From this link I'd guess it's 6 months.

Derodeo

Yes there is only a 6 month trial subscription for the "real" part of Sirius. For any vehicle with a built-in satellite radio, you can get a free 2 month trial by signing up at https://care.siriusxm.com/preownedve...al_view.action. The interesting thing about that site is you can keep signing up every couple of months, over and over again just with new account information. It works for Canadians as well (using a US address, real or fake) and has been working this way for more than 2 years now.

Curmudgeon

Explain "with new account information." Do you mean acquiring a new RADIO ID each time in addition to your name, etc. Are you faking the entire info requirement, i.e. Radio ID, VIN, name, address, etc.? Is SIRUS' computer system so inadequate they can't figure out such a scam occurring? Perhaps so, since all of the 6 month trial periods in two vehicles took over a year before service was discontinued.

Derodeo

The radio ID stays the same - it has to be a legitimate factory install, the rest can be whatever you want. IMO SirusXM is itself a scam, a business model with highly questionable practices that keep it alive such as automatic subscription renewals at rates 3 - 5 times what others pay for the same service.

Curmudgeon

I fully agree with your appraisal of SiriusXM business practices. When my trial period finally expired on my two current vehicles, I did not renew due to a frustrating, exasperating experience I had with their aggressive auto-renew procedures, repeated billings, and threats of litigation. I finally beat them down with written notices of cancellation and counter-threats of litigation (I was serious...others have successfully brought suit). There are viable alternatives to music in my vehicles in lieu of such agonizing experiences from that company.

dubsesd

it clearly states on my window sticker that sirius xm is a 6 month prepaid subscription. In my current f150 it just stopped working after 6 months, i didnt get any charges after the prepaid portion expired