I purchased an 06 Touring with navigation last night that did not have satellite installed. As part of making the deal, the dealer said that they would order the factory Sirius satellite hardware and have it installed.

Can the existing Bose stereo be used if they install satellite, or will it have to be replaced with a compatible unit? Also, isn't the satellite antenna a body colored piece that attaches on top of the car? Will they have to drill a hole in the roof?

Basically, what I'm asking is if anyone has had experience with this and can let me know what is involved. Thanks.

 

yeah you can use the bose headunit, and there is a black box that sits over the passenger side (on top of the car obviously) as for the hole... i dont know how they installed it for me. Im lazy so im not going to add a photo, but check out the first picture on my cardomain, www.cardomain.com/id/vsilverstreakv you can see what it looks like it (i forget about it now, its rarely used and i forget i have it sometimes, haha
hope this was at least a LITTLE helpful

 

wow...what a tacky antenna install! Mark, if the dealer is installing it for you, ask them to install the antenna on the rear strut bar. Many people on the board have their sat. antenna on the passenger side of the strut bar. It looks 1000 times better than it does on top of the car. I'll see if I can find a pic.

 

here's the location most people use for the antenna:

 

Thanks for the responses guys. I think I will see if they can install it on the rear strut bar.

One other question...since there isn't a "Satellite" button on the Bose stereo, how is it that you put it in satellite mode?

 

Once the sat. unit is installed, your 'Radio' button will cycle through am, fm, and sat. options. At least that's how it works on the 04 and 05's.

 

Again, thanks a lot.

 

NO! not on the rear strut but INSIDE the plastic housing. Works great in there.
MJD

 

even better....but anything is better than that godawful huge mass on the roof of the car.

 

So the plastic will not block or degrade the satellite signal?

 

It's all a matter of degree. Lots of the people on here who have been having good success with the rear strut bar live in areas with terrestrial retransmission of the signal... however ANY metal in the way will block the satellite signal. So, an install like that might work fine until the moment you decide to take that long road trip. Probably you'd have the most trouble traveling south, because the roof will block the satellite signal.

The biggest problem for the factory install, for me, is the huge antenna. They make excellent antennas these days that are much smaller, like the Terk XMicro2. Because I wanted the best reception I could get, I decided to have the antenna installed to spec, but it looks a lot nicer than the factory install:

Here's the whole story including a link to some of the reasons I went with this antenna placement

-- Mark

 

BTW, you might see if they're willing to install the factory system but order a Terk XMicro2 to use instead of the factory antenna. An adapter might be required but it'll look a lot nicer.

 

If you get satellite radio installed from the factory, where do they put the antenna? Does anyone have any pics of a factory installed antenna?

 

I believe the factory install looks exactly like the second post in the thread.

-- Mark

 

i agree the looks of it aren't amazing... but i guess it kind of gets forgotten about as i said in the 2nd post. i dont really like it too much but it doesn't madder because its on the roof and i dont see it much, and not alot of people even notice it (as hard as that is to believe) Just let me know what you decide to do. the dealer offers good deals sometimes if you are happy with the strut install tell me because i might do that down the road.thx
-Shea

 

BTW, I didn't mean to be bashing the look of your car, just saying I wished that Nissan had gone for a lower profile look once one was available.

My attitude is that I can't see the antenna when I'm inside the car anyway, so who cares. Might cut down on the mileage when I'm driving 150 though...

-- Mark