E46 Satellite Radio Retrofit Availability - Fall '09

[pz2]

Hi everyone,

I'm a relatively new forum member, and just bought a very nice 2003 jet black ZHP - low miles (<30k!) and bone stock - only options on it are leather and fold down seats. Naturally I'm thinking of adding a few things, amongst them is satellite radio.

I think it's been mentioned before that the Circle BMW page (http://www.circlebmw.com/parts/sirius/sirius-e46.htm) linked in the e46 wiki is way out of date - the people at Circle's parts dept tell me that these parts have been discontinued for close to three years now, and the newer part is out of stock. They mentioned something about development of a new part which keeps getting delayed, and the last date they've heard for availability is Jan/Feb 2010.

Does anyone know anything more about this? Is it basically impossible at the moment to retrofit satellite radio in an E46 without buying a used receiver on ebay?

[redrum0486]

I believe this is the case Everywhere. The guy at BSW told me his are out of stock as well, and the return of the improved part from BMW is hopelessly late from what I understand.

[tom @ eas]

Hi everyone,

I'm a relatively new forum member, and just bought a very nice 2003 jet black ZHP - low miles (<30k!) and bone stock - only options on it are leather and fold down seats. Naturally I'm thinking of adding a few things, amongst them is satellite radio.

I think it's been mentioned before that the Circle BMW page (http://www.circlebmw.com/parts/sirius/sirius-e46.htm) linked in the e46 wiki is way out of date - the people at Circle's parts dept tell me that these parts have been discontinued for close to three years now, and the newer part is out of stock. They mentioned something about development of a new part which keeps getting delayed, and the last date they've heard for availability is Jan/Feb 2010.

Does anyone know anything more about this? Is it basically impossible at the moment to retrofit satellite radio in an E46 without buying a used receiver on ebay?

How about XM? These are going for about 1/3 of the cost of Sirius at the moment.

[pz2]

How about XM? These are going for about 1/3 of the cost of Sirius at the moment.

What's the story with the XM/Sirius thing? Forgive my ignorance - do I get all the channels of both with an XM box?

[tom @ eas]

What's the story with the XM/Sirius thing? Forgive my ignorance - do I get all the channels of both with an XM box?

I would recommend checking with XM beforehand to find out what specific channels are available, they can be found on www.xmradio.com.

[redrum0486]

Most of the mainstream channels are the same, its just the specialized channels like Howard or Opie and Anthony that you have to pay extra for if you are not using their native service (ie XM subscribers have to pay extra for things like Howard 100, which is native to Sirius)