Hyundai makes XM standard (Go Air America, Go!)

http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/23/technology/xm_hyundai/index.htm

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Hyundai Motor Co. said Wednesday it plans to offer XM Satellite Radio as standard equipment on all U.S. models by 2007.

"we are setting a new benchmark as the first automaker to launch standard XM satellite radio across our complete model line-up," Robert Cosmai, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor America, said in a statement.

The move should boost the emerging satellite-radio business, and signals a win for XM Satellite over rival Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (Research).

XM serves up a slice-n-dice ARR day

XM only plays PART of Air America. I believe Randy Rhodes' show is one not played on XM.

I'd rather just have a junker AM only radio with an 8 track player than to be stuck with XM.

Sirius all the way!!

First is Ed Shultz and they play Colmes at night. No Malloy. My car came with XM, no choice. But the music is great.

I have ever encountered (THEY ARE AMAZINGLY INCOMPETENT!) and then there's the whole editing Randi thing. Unfortunately, I own too many XM radios to switch to Sirius at this point.

I am Sirius

junk, junk, junk,...cheap, but junk...

Not to me. I have a 2000 Hyundai Elantra, 100% made in Korea, and haven't have any trouble with it whatsoever, except for needing a battery replacement, and that was replacing a three-year battery after almost five years. The newer models are even better, per Consumer Reports. If I had the money, I probably would get a VW Jetta diesel because of the gas mileage, but I've driven my Elantra in mountains, highways, stop-and-go through large cities, etc.

And, they are also noways as "cheap" as they used to be, in any way. These are definitely not the Hyundais of 1987.

I'm not saying Hyundai's are the BEST car out there, but they are a good car. It bothers me to hear them called "junk," because I would never, ever spend my money on a piece of crap. It's the first car I bought new, and I did alot of research on what was a good buy AND a good car within my price range.

and it works fine with the after market Sirius setup I have on it now. At least with Hyundai, it's not as hard as other cars (like the newer Mazda 3's, etc.) to put in after market radio systems and not totally change the dash setup when the OEM models are "built in" to them moreso.

Sonatas were also rated very highly by consumer services for the last couple of years. My buddy had to buy an Acura last year and was chiding me for not buying another Acura (I'd had my Integra stolen earlier). Now he's suing Acura for the lemon law on his RSX because the alarm keeps going off and they can't seem to fix it.

Sirius is *so much* better than XM from my point of view:

1) Two left wing talk channels and full time Air America compared to one "shared" left wing talk channel for XM.
2) More NPR offerings on Sirius.
3) No "partial ownership" by Clear Channel. As long as Sirius is a strong competitor to XM (meaning we concerned folks buy it), then Clear Channel will be kept at buy from totally buying up satellite radio. If they buy a majority stake in XM, XM will lose subscribers, but if Sirius goes out of business or gets merged with XM, then there would be nothing stopping Clear Channel from buying them up and controlling Satellite radio. Especially with this FCC in charge now.
4) XM just announced they are raising their sub rates to be equivalent to Sirius's, so there's no longer any cost advantage.
5) Sirius has exclusive NFL, NBA, and NHL broadcasts (though NHL doesn't help much this year). XM has only major league baseball.
6) Sirius and XM both have different sets of college teams to broadcast. Neither one has a real solid advantage there (though I personally wish that Sirius would carry Iowa broadcasts). I wish ESPN would farm out all college teams to both setups like they do with Full court and Gameplan on Television, but I guess that will get sorted out over time.

Hyundai and Sirius make a good combo for me. Shouldn't be worried just because XM is announced with them. Ultimately I'd like to think some car manufacturers down the road will offer a choice of either service and won't "force" people to either one.

Their cars have improved significantly over the last five years, and are now pretty highly rated. My husband owns a 2003 Accent GL that gets fantastic gas mileage, drives like a dream and has been completely trouble-free. We're as happy with the Hyundai as we've been with my Honda.

But, it is still a lemon...

Like my ex-girlfriends 2001 XG300...the transmission that never knew what gear it wanted to be in, replaced twice at 30,000 and 45,000. Don't add high end items like a Triptronic automatic transmission to a low end car. As if the fake wood grain wasn't enough.

Or, my local bartender friend who has a 3 year old Accent...The interior "accents" seem to keep falling off...

One of the ladies in our HR department got a loaded Sonata last year and loves it. But it has been in the shop 3 times due to constant power lock issues. Your driving and it's locked, then unlocked, then stop and it locks itself again. Reminded me of the old problems Subaru had with wiring.

For $2000-3000 more anybody would be much better off getting a Corrolla or a Sentra. I'll admit, the styling looks a lot better the past few years, but they have a long way to go with the mechanical engineering.

And they all love them -- no problems at all. PLus, Consumer Reports rates them quite high. The Sonata was just recently named as the make/model with the lowest number of repairs. So, I don't know about your coworkers. And, the Sentra didn't have a great repair record. For someone like me, I can't afford any extra $3,000.

was having two separate occasions in the last year where rocks thrown up from trucks/cars on the freeway in front of me have put cracks in my windshield. Through the many years I've had my Integra before that (about 10 years), I never had any problems with the windshield. I do recall them trying to sell me added insurance for my windshield when I bought the Sonata, so perhaps the quality of glass they have for the windshield isn't as good as some other cars.

Had a recent tire blowout and a bent tire rim when I ran over one of a number of big holes in the streets left over from recent southern cal storms here, and it was a problem changing the spare tire (couldn't get the wrench to turn the lug nuts without slipping). That also arguably could have happened to almost any other car too though, and it could have been the dented tire rim might have hurt the ability to unscrew the lug nuts as well.

Both of whom disagree with you.

Actually, I'd flip that statement of yours and say that even with a great car, you'll get the occasional lemon--that's much more in line with statistical probabilities.

You don't like Hyundais, fine--don't buy one. But your opinion doesn't negate the good reviews (and my own experience), sorry to say.

And your price comparison is a bit off, as well--the Accent runs about $5,000 less than a Corolla or Sentra (and the Hyundai warranty is FAR superior). We got ours as loaded as it comes (sport package, upgraded engine with the 5-speed stick, etc.), and it still came in at just a hair over $11k. It's got 55k+ miles right now, and hasn't been in the shop for anything more than oil changes and a 30k service.

Great value "for the money." Made well, never break down.

The fact is XM carries most of the AAR lineup including 2hours of Ms Rhodes show.

Music is important also, the XM playlist is far bigger in all genres than Sirius.

In order to maintain a healthy psychlogical balance one should not listen to talk radio liberal or not, all day and night. At least half of your listening time should be devoted to music. Otherwise, you run the risk of becoming another DU type geek endlessly typing things like "OMG", "WTF!", "Did you hear what just Tweety said!".

"Have you ever heard Antal Dorati's version of the '1812'? OMG!"
:-)

I've owned many cars of many manufacturers, but I have to say my Hyundai Scoupe (a little car they no longer make) was my most reliable, gas efficient and good car ever. I don't own a car now (I live in NYC), but I'd buy a Hyundai no problem.

I also have XM radio and I love it; in fact, I prefer it over Sirius. I listen to music and sports 90% of the time, so whether or not it has the full Air America lineup on its America Left talk channel is of no importance to me.

XM's music is definitely better arranged and developed than Sirius. My favorites are Fine Tuning (where you can listen to a variety of genres and artists all together), Lucy (alternative rock of the 90's), Frank's Place (standards by crooners) and Top Tracks (rock classics).

and XM tricked the peoples.

They started off with low prices and then they just jacked them up to 12.95 a month.

SIRIUS has WAYYYY better programming plus a full feed of AAR.

Sirius LEFT, and the MUSIC is AWESOME.

:thumbsup: to sirius

I LOVE IT!

the myth that CC owns XM.

I think it is really cuz they feel bad cuz they have crappy XM. :P

Sirius is REALLY BETTER.

WAY BETTER (plus it is Mercedes Benz's choice)

Yes' I know Porche is (XM) but who gives a rat's ass about Porche. Mercedes Benz is WAY BETTER than Porche anywaze.

as someone here said Sirius: full AAR feed, XM: more alternative music and full BBC feed (Sirius has only BBC news).

Living out in the middle of nowhere it is heaven to have both.

http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/CachedPage&c=ChannelAsset&cid=996089496790&flash=flash

BTW, does XM?

OMG! WTF!

She must have connections. Does she still mention among her senseless meanderings that she works for Drudge?

I absolutely love Lynn Samuels and the Young Turks. S I R I U S !!!

and Lynn Samuels moved to some other time of day. Thom is as good as it gets when it comes to giving you the greatest bang for you buck for short periods of time in terms of getting meaningful information quickly, which I'm more in the mood for in the mornings during my drive time here in California. A choice between him and Al Franken would be great and I would never find myself "without" when I'm on my morning commute. Randi Rhodes is also good for lunch hour here too in that respect.

Lynn might have interesting topics or guests at times and be someone I'd like to listen to for a bit longer at times (which I might do when I get home from work after listening to her in the car if her topic is interesting enough). Malloy works for me pretty well in the evenings in this respect though.

I guess I just never have been a big fan of Lynn Samuels and I do miss Hartmann on my morning drive times (that I used to listen to all of the time before Air America).

Stephanie Miller is also a good person to tune into on Sirius Left as well. And tuning into Alex Bennett brings back memories of his morning show on Live 105 when it was at it's best in the bay area during the Modern Rock era.

1 - CCU dumped ALL their holdings in XM in June 2003. This may be verified by examining the 8K reports and 10K reports with the SEC... easy to do online.

2 - When CCU sold its stock, XM removed both Mays brothers from the board of directors. Once again, read the SEC filings from 2003.

3 - Clear Channel has never had any influence on XM's in-house programming. When the T1 was unpluged from the channels they used to provide, that ended their involvement with the channel. The channels belong to XM - they call the shots. As the brochures say, it's 100% original XM Music Programming.

4 - XM ran terrestrial feeds from CCU stations for less than a year (Lite-FM New York, Mix 96.5 Houston, WSIX Nashville, and KIIS Los Angeles) to give them time to get their own programming together. They replaced the feeds when they were ready, plain and simple. (Okay, from what I understand, they dumped KIIS because they screwed Rick Dees, and gave Seacrest a chance until they realized that the show was a giant turd. Prediction: KIIS will soon be erecting billboards all over LA saying "Rick Dees, we're sorry. Come home. Please forgive us." Or they should.)

So you can put all the Clear Channel conspiracy theories to rest. If Clear Channel is screwing up local radio, it's because they're screwing it up, and not because they have a dastardly plan to drive listeners to satellite.

And if you've made the conscious decision to not patronize Clear Channel businesses, you can safely keep your XM subscription because they don't own any part of XM. It's all a matter of public record.
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http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1116317/000119312504195532/d10q.htm

Page 44 of the 10Q states:

Holdings and we are a party to a long-term distribution agreement with OnStar Corporation, a subsidiary of General Motors that provides for the installation of XM radios in General Motors vehicles, as further described in Note 6 to the condensed consolidated financial statements. In connection with the development of our terrestrial repeater network, we were a party to a contract with Hughes Electronics Corporation. DIRECTV has provided consulting services in connection with the development of our customer care center and billing operations. DIRECTV ceased to be a related party during the three-month period ended March 31, 2004. Holdings and we have arrangements with American Honda relating to the promotion of the XM Service to new car buyers, the use of bandwidth on the XM System and the development of telematics services and technologies. We have an agreement with OnStar to make available use of our bandwidth. Clear Channel Communications provides certain programming services to us. Holdings and we have a sponsorship agreement with Clear Channel Entertainment to advertise our service at Clear Channel Entertainment concerts and venues. Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, has in the past served as one of our advertising sales representatives. Holdings and we also run advertisements on a spot and network basis on radio stations owned by Clear Channel. In addition, we lease 4 sites for our terrestrial repeaters from Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel Communications ceased to be a related party during the second quarter of 2004.

XM only carries BBC News, PARTS of AAR, and no Howard Stern.

XM full BBC, Sirius BBC News

It's NPR that XM doesn't offer that Sirus offers.

so this whole, which one is better will be moot. I read (sorry no link, it was like a month ago) that they were in preliminary talks of XM buying Sirius.

I personally hope this never happens, because that is the day that freedom from the Clear Channel monopoly will end. If they merge, then Clear Channel will buy them up without fear of consumer retribution because the consumer will not have any alternatives to choose from any more. As long as these are separate entities, Clear Channel will keep their stake in XM low so that XM doesn't get penalized with being a "part of the monopoly" that would have more users move to Sirius.

It's worth it for Michelangelo Signorile alone...