Yeah, that's what I said.

Yeah, I'm wondering that myself. The voice activation is awesome. I barely use half of what's available, but the ones I do, I've gotten lots of use out of them.

 

Count me as one who also got taken in by the "XM Ready" BS. I was led to believe all I needed to do is activate it. Discovered the truth a couple days later.

Called my dealer on the carpet about it, they've agreed to install - total price $366.00, basically the price for the parts. During our discussion, I asked them what they thought "XM Ready" means? Sales Manager and Salesman gave up rather quickly after that question. Both agreed, it means the car is ready to recieve XM radio signals. Still $366.00 for XM is way too much; even for the parts. But I'd like to have it integrated into the car so I'll pay.

Honda must be taking a lot of crap over this one. Honda and the dealers really need to be more truthful and let potential owners know the radio head unit is "XM compatible", not "XM Ready". And that the option costs $700 - $900.00.

I'm off my soap box, thank you for listening. As far as the car goes, I love it.

 

Hi Kevin;

Well two really great things took place for you when you stop and think about it.

1st: You are getting the X/M for Parts only Cost:

2nd: You have a New HCH ll and that in it self is a Major Plus:

Have a Great day:

Terry

 

Anyone buy an aftermarket stereo lately? What is the wording on the literature/packaging for an aftermarket stereo that says XM Ready? Kenwood, Alpine, Sony, Panasonic... Does it say XM Ready on it? Or XM Compatible? Or something else?

I don't remember what it was I saw last when I was looking at an aftermarket stereo, but I do remember all it meant was you could control the XM unit through the stereo. You still had to buy the XM unit that plugs into the stereo. But before finding out about the additional component I would have had to buy, from reading XM Ready, I was under the impression it was ready to go out of the box. No additional parts to buy.

On a mass production scale, such as the Civic, it's amazing Honda didn't just integrate the XM unit into the car.

And speaking of XM Ready... that's like saying the Civic is Road Ready (note 1).


NOTE 1 - When purchased with the 'additional' transmission. Labor and parts extra.

 

I was at Best Buy today. A Sirius car install is maybe $120 for a top Sirius receiver plus less than $100 for installation. $1000? Ridiculous.

 

3rd: You informed the rest of us what the deal is. Maybe this has been discussed to death in the 06 threads I've been ignoring, but wow this some good information now and for the future. I thought at face value that XM was ready to go and all you needed was activation. I thought Honda was above shameless ploys like that. Thanks!

 

Follow up with everyone:

Dealer installed XM today. Stated this is their second XM installation on an '06 Civic Hybrid and their last. Too much work required (many parts removed from interior), too many man hours to perform (Tech needed 4hrs to install). Install required two bays, due to all the parts removed from interior.

Tech stated Civic EX has XM parts built in from factory, Hybrid does not. For the EX model all they do is plug in the code on their computer.

I did some major complaining about "XM Ready" or should I say "not ready". Total cost to me was $366.00, basically parts cost. Actual bill came to $805.00, dealer/sales ate the rest!

Dealer did an outstanding job performing the install. Many interior parts removed. Finished task, inside of car still looks like brand new.

Also note if you have this work done, ask for the one month free promotion from your Honda dealer. Hey it's only one month, but free is free....

 

Interesting. That is probably because the hybrids are coming from Japan and they don't have XM there yet and can't test it, blah, blah, blah. I guess I won't be getting XM this time around.

 

Do yourself a favor and get Sirius vs. XM. I have been an XM listener for 3 yrs now and plan on shifting over to Sirius when I get my 06 HCH. Much better proramming on Sirius ( and I don't mean H Stern). XM repeats titles a bunch and their 80's station is stinko.

Rick

 

I've never had Sirius but a friend of mine has had both (in each his and his girlfriend's cars). He said he prefers XM because of their lineup. He says the channels are much better on XM.

I really don't care about listening to Stern either. I didn't mind listening to him on FM, but I wouldn't switch to Sirius just to hear him.

Also, if I remember correctly, my friend said Sirius has pretty good receivers. The one he has is like TiVo. He can scroll back through something like 30 minutes of programming. But that was the only benefit of going with Sirius.