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Silly me thought that when the EX stereo was advertised as "XM ready", it meant that you just had to call or go online and subscribe. I quickly realized after a trip to the dealer that I needed to purchase about $700 of new equipment. I have decided to forgo XM for now.

Was I naive or is Honda's description of the stereo system as "XM ready" misleading?

 
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A little of both, I think.

Honda should have made more clear of what "XM Ready" means. In their higher line cars such as the Accord, S2K, Pilot, and Ridgeline top of the line models, XM hardware is already installed and the service is free for 3 months when you purchase the vehicle. This is not the case with non-navi equipped Civics.

However, you probably should have done some research when you bought the car to understand that the car didn't not come equipped with the hardware and that you would have to purchase it.

 
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well, if you're familiar w/ the stereo industry, you will know that xm ready means that the head unit will control your xm once you buy the equipment.. this is all that "xm ready" means.. so basicly you dont have to mount an extra controler for your xm and you can play it through a designated band like am or fm rather than using a fm tuner wich can sometimes get staticky and such.. what you need to do is find this equipment aftermarket, because honda makes a killing off of these units and it's no different than say the alpine unit except maybe for the plug.. and you can pick up an alpine or pioneer or etc. unit for about a bill at car toys...

 
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The plug on an aftermarket unit is different from the plug on the back of the radio. You can not use an aftermarket tuner with the factory radio. You would need to swap out the head unit too. There are converters out there, but not for Honda yet. Wait a year or so and the converters will come out, or purchase a plug and play unit. If you have the auxillary input (under the power port/cig lighter), you can plug the unit in there and not have to worry about the static from an FM station or losing your signal strength.

 
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Buy a SIRIUS portable unit for 50 bucks. The programming is much better. It takes 15 minutes to install and if you have the AUX jack in your car it will sound great. I have both services so I can tell you truthfully which is better.

 
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I agree with pico on the programming. I've been a SIRIUS subscriber for 2 years now and can testify that the content is 100 times better on SIRIUS.

 
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Yeah, when I looked over XM's offerings there weren't too many things that called out to me. I will give Sirius a look.

 
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I'm not sure why the folks at Honda did it this way. The Coupe EX with Navigation comes with XM radio installed; the Sedan does not.

 
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Really? Its not built into the navi on the sedan? What a rip off!