I’m moving down there so it would be nice to know.

My brother in law takes his XM radio to Lorreto in MX and gets a great signal.

I use the XM Roady unit in my MINI and plug it in to the AUX input. Works great (if you don’t mind the wire running from the XM unit to the AUX input) and wouldn’t have a car without it. I split the time 50/50 between XM and my iPod. My fave station on XM is U-Pop. They play a lot of songs popular in Europe and other parts of the world that you would never hear on regular radio. There are dozens of artists that I have purchased music from because I heard their music on U-Pop.

I have never used Sirius mainly because I have been an XM subscriber since before Sirius offered service.

Of course radio waves being radio waves means that there will be some coverage in Canada and Mexico, but since neither company is concerned about the Canadian or Mexican markets, whatever coverage you get there is essentially “bonus” coverage.

But the claim that they don’t offer coverage in Canada or Mexico is 100% correct. If you live in Mexico or Canada you can’t purchase a subscription for use in those countries. Neither provider will guarantee any service outside the US.

That sealed the deal. Plus, the Dance and 80′s stations were pretty good.

I think people could be happy with both, but decide based on the obscure content. Like I said, the English Premier games was the clincher for me.

In general, satellite radio is definitely good i.c.e. for long road-trips. None of your buddies (or back-seat drivers) can blame you for poorly stocking up your iPod or MP3 player when you can flip through all the sat-channels ad nauseum, wherever you go.

Yes, the monthly subcription price has just gone up! I also haven’t seen my monthly cable bill go down in over 10 years either!

(caveat: I own/ed stock in either company, currently or previously.)

My XM Direct box did include the Blitz Safe adapter.

In the who’s best category I want to repeat what Josh said, but in reverse. I have found XM to play far more obscure and interesting versions of songs than Sirius, at least on the channels I listen to – 80s and upop; some very cool Brit stuff. And the Sirius DJs I heard were very irritating.

I suspect it comes down to what kind of music you want to listen to most and who has the best channels of that kind. So as he says, check out the trial feeds and make up your own mind. Something for everyone.

Thanks for any help.

I’ve been using Sirius for several years, and find it was valuable enough to me to warrant spending the $600 on the OEM MINI sirius receiver. But $100 on a PNP receiver and the Aux adaptor will work almost as well.

I’ve given XM a try and find it is much more commercialized, the stations do not play as good a selection of music, the station tags are overabundant and annoying, and the DJs have no personality. Not surprising from a company run by ClearChannel.

The deal cincher came when I found out ClearChannel is an equity partner in XM. I don’t like what ClearChannel has done to local FM radio and don’t want to support them if I can avoid it.

I’m currently using a Blaupunkt plug and play radio because I wanted a more extended test prior to committing to expensive MINI specific equipment. I plan to switch to the MINI parts later this year.

My car’s an early ’04, so I don’t think I’ll be affected by this change.

According to my buddy at XM there are more BMW/MINI’s with XM installed than Sirius!

Also, you can’t get Opie and Anthony on Sirius – only that doom and gloom guy Howard who says “I don’t care.” :-)

CB