Just another wireless or wired streaming option besides Pandora - http://www.radioio.com I use my phone's browser - no app is needed and AMBIENT and CLASSIC ROCK are what I listen to.

 

I think I'm going to keep the Sirius, with all the cell phone plans going away from unlimited data, relying on streaming music for you car seems like it is going to cost you big in the long run.

 

When our Mini was returned after service, the paperwork on our Countryman indicates the following:

"I test drove the vehicle and the satellite radio did not cut out but the whole stereo popped really loud. Per SI#65-09-11 I will replace the radio and program the vehicle"

We had never noticed a loud popping in the Countryman before. However, our Audi Q7 had experienced loud popping before the bluetooth module failed. A $700 item! Luckily Audi replaced it under warranty.

The test drive and radio replacement in the Countryman was in response to two complaints we had made at the one year service. 1) The Sirius connection was lost frequently and had to be re-established. 2) The bluetooth pairing was lost frequently and our phone had to be re-paired.

 

This works, except if you have a mixture of Sat and AM/FM stations in your presets. In info mode, when you scroll past an AM/FM station it kicks you out, and you can't see artist/track info any more.

Both the radio and the satellite radio implementation (with Mini Connected) is just terrible in this car. There needs to be a "home base" display screen for each media type that displays artist/track yet still lets you scroll through presets.

Yes, with time you learn to use the system but the lack of basic functionality is just stunning. It's almost as if the designers of the system never actually spent any time in the car.

The $50 portable Sirius unit I had in my old car had a better UI. Just like the Nav system, my $150 Garmin was orders of magnitude easier to use than the system in this car.

 

I stream at work, home and in the car, pandora, I Heart Radio and Spotify, I rarely go over 2 GB on a 5GB per month plan.