I thought the tC came XM ready (minus subscription)? Now I'm seeing on Scion's site that you add this on as an accessory. Am I brainfarting or what?

 

"XM ready" means that the head unit can control the XM tuner. Subscription and tuner sold seperately. Alot of cars and head units are sold like this. To my knowledge there are no all-in-one head units on the market right now OEM or Aftermarket all of them require you to buy the tuner seperatley

 

im at work right now so i cant get the model number but there is an alpine that has an actual tuner, all you do is plug the xm antenna straight to the back of the headunit , my friend has it and i was there when they installed it.

 

You can get a tuner kit from one of the online dealers for $285 or so and install it yourself. I got a kit on eBay pulled from an xB and made fit the tC - had to get a new smaller antenna, but other than that it was a direct fit.

 

thats still almost 130 dollars more then what the same equipment costs for an after market HU. I know pioneer has just released a universal tuner with adapters that allow it to be controlled by many Factory and aftermarket head units. Unfortunately they have yet to have one for toyota/scion. These kits even allows for Sirius enabled HUs to control the XM tuner. I would be surprised if pioneer didn't release an adapter for toyota in the near future (pure speculation) The tuner itself costs 99 and comes with the SMALL antenna. Hopefully this could turn into a lower cost alternative then the dealer option.

 

I'd say good luck waiting - Pioneer will not try to undermine Toyota's efforts to get an extra buck or two. There is a good reason why they made these proprietary Pioneer/Scion HUs incompatible with existing Pioneer accessories. They are all in on it...

 

I would almost guarantee that Pioneer has a contractual obligation to Toyota NOT to make aftermarket XM adaptors compatible with the head units it makes for Scion.

On the other hand, you could do this: buy a TOY03-AUX auxiliary input adaptor from www.myradiostore.com ($69.99) and an aftermarket XM receiver. I originally bought a Delphi SkyFi SA50000 ($134 including car kit), but I just recently bought a Terk XM Commander which will fit nicely in the cubbyhole next to the lighter, on the dash, or above the mirror ($86). So, my current setup will have cost $156, less than a nice aftermarket head unit alone.

 

alpine makes one that's sirius READY......MANY other manufacturer's have their's XM or Sirius COMPATIBLE. Two totally different things.

 

w/ in the year there will be models where you can switch between Sirius and XM. Built in adaptors. But, yes..it's crazy that they do not make adapters for radio's like some JVC's and Pioneers that are XM or Sirius Compatable.....Some Retailers have been waiting for a year for those adapters from what I've heard if they will ever be made.....