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Lexus ES 350 XM and Sirius

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    tliebmantliebman Member Posts: 5
    I took the car to the dealer, and they moved the antenna, which was stuck to the inside of the rear window, and put it on the rear shelf. Some of the others have had good luck with this, and I can already tell the difference. Putting it on the trunk is not an option, because it looks like crap.
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    carrelman2carrelman2 Member Posts: 80
    I see satelite antennas mounted on roofs of many cars that are nowhere in the price category of the 350. They are on Honda,Chevrolet,Camrys etc. Lexus really fumbled the ball on this one.I have yet to see a 350 with the rear antenna.My 2 previous cars were Acura TL's and the Bose radios were far superior than the radios on the 350.
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    flippantflippant Member Posts: 1
    A small 1" sq by 1/2" high black antenna like a small black cookie mounted on the center of the trunk line nearest the window. It is hardly noticible and I have had zero reception problems but only city and near suburban driving. Just 150 miles on my new ES and I sent it to the dealer for body side moldings. I loved the clean lines w/ the molding and the genius that mounted mine put it at center door height which is ideal for dink prevention but I would have preferred lower down.

    MY bad that I didn't talk to the installer and left it in the salesman's hands; but maybe fortunate in the long run if I get used to the placement. Car's gorgeous anyway.
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    johnymackjohnymack Member Posts: 18
    I bought an OEM Sirius tuner off of e-bay for $290 and had my friend install it for $100. The dealer wanted $800 before buying the car and then after I bought the car they wanted $1,000. I asked them why so much and they told me that it takes half a day to install. My friend installed it in 1.5 hours, it was real easy, if you take the side panel off next to the glove box the connection is right there on the back of the radio. Then he put the turner under the passenger seat and the antenna in the center on the back shelf. The whole thing is invisible and the only thing you see is a small black disc in the back window.

    The Sirius sounds great!
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    maximafanmaximafan Member Posts: 592
    I had this same problem after I had purchased my '07 RX350 last August and they replaced the tuner. Unfortunately, it still happens, though not as frequent as it was with the previous tuner. I had never heard of this problem before on any other XM
    satellite radio applications. I had the XM Roady that I used in my
    2002 Maxima. It was played through the cassette player, and I never had a problem such as this. The only glitch I would get occasionally with the Roady was the "loading" function would show up and was sometimes slow to come back to the song title and the sound. I wish I knew the answer to this.
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    atomicdog1atomicdog1 Member Posts: 4
    Hello:

    Did you ever get this resolved to your satisfaction?

    AtomicDog in Iowa
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    tliebmantliebman Member Posts: 5
    The problem with reception was fixed. Originally, the dealer stuck the antenna to the inside of the rear window, near the stop light. So, it was pointing down. After I complained about reception, they stuck it on the rear shelf , near the stop light, so that it was pointing up. The reception is very good now and hardly ever cuts out.

    The volume issue is still the same for XM or my ipod. For example, if I listen to the radio or CD at volume 20, I need to turn up XM to around 30.
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    larrymitlarrymit Member Posts: 80
    The lower volume for XM must be a design flaw. My radio works the same way.
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    lvarchelvarche Member Posts: 1
    Which side panel next to the glove box did your friend remove to install Sirius? If you have a picture that would be great.
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    johnymackjohnymack Member Posts: 18
    If you are looking at the glove box it is the side panel on the left. When you take this off you can then get behind the radio. If you want to e-mail me your phone number I can have my friend call you and walk you through it.
    The installment was very easy.
    Jm_proe@yahoo.com
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    stlgasmanstlgasman Member Posts: 141
    How do you remove the side panel next to the glove compartment to access the back of the radio?
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    stlgasmanstlgasman Member Posts: 141
    I am interested in installing satellite in my ES 350. It will definitely be a do it yourself job. It seems the Lexus part is easier to install, only because of the precise instructions. The Lexus unit seems to have volume level issues. The VAIS unit requires access to the back of the radio. Does anybody know an easy wasy to remove the panel to the left of the glove box to access the back of the radio? Which unit type is recommended?
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    smarty666smarty666 Member Posts: 1,503
    Suffice it to say that when I went to a lexus dealer to get a loaded 2009 ES350 at around $41375 and found out it didn't include satellite radio and they were going to charge me $899 added to the total msrp to bring the vehicle in and have them add something to the XM receiver and activate it that I was totally turned off and walked out of the dealership. For a car that costs over $40k not to come with sat radio in the price is totally outrageous and unacceptable; almost every other luxury automaker like Acura, Infiniti, Mercedes, and BMW, if your getting a car with bluetooth and navigation you get satellite radio with it. I mean my God, even the toyota camry when you get the DVD navigation system you automatically get satellite radio and that car costs around $30-32k. I even told that to the Lexus salesman and as usual he just sat there and had nothing to say. I was so shocked what the lexus dealer was going to do because I have a $34k Acura TL that came with satellite radio. Lexus is really out of the ballpark here on the ES and to make it even worse they were going to add a ridiculous amount to the msrp so in the end of the lease I would be paying for the sat radio 5-6 times what it even was worth. It shouldn't cost more than 200-300 dollars to do what they want for $899 and it should be something I could bring into the dealer after the fact and just pay the service department and not hose me for more money a month by adding it to the total msrp in attempt to jack the price of the car up; Lexus better get their act together because the other luxury automakers don't work this way and it totally turned me off and I really wanted the ES because it is a really nice looking and really well made vehicle - thats just my two sense
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    mbaker99mbaker99 Member Posts: 1
    Greetings, folks. I know there's not been activity in this thread for some time, but since this is plainly an XM related question, it seems like the best place for someone to find it.

    My dear parents have recently obtained a 2008 Lexus ES350 and are thrilled with their new car. But there is one very small matter which is bothering them (and as tiny as this issue is, I can actually understand why it's annoying them): upon starting their XM radio, the default start station is one which is entirely not to their liking. I have promised (silly of me?) that I'd try to help them with this, and I wonder if any of you kind (or less than kind) folks reading this can offer a specific suggestion as to how to go about changing this default start station.

    In the alternative, does anyone know the correct/best manner by which I can instruct them as to how to change to the default factory settings on their radio? I suppose that if nothing else works, that will, as I would imagine that the factory default will either start the radio on it's last played channel or on XM channel 1.

    Thank you all so much in advance for your help; I really hope that someone finds this message and can give me some specific instructions as to how to change these settings.

    Best regards and happy holidays to all.
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