I just purchased an '05 Cabrio and am eagerly awaiting its delivery. When I ordered the car I was told by my dealer I couldn’t get Sirius Satellite radio with my new car. I want to buy a new head unit that has Sirius (NOT XM). I have also seen that Alpine makes an adapter to use with I-Pods. I turned down getting the BMW I-pod adapter on my new car because of what I read on this site. Any thoughts about head Units? Is Alpine any good? What size fits in the '05? Is there anything I need to look out for? How hard is instillation?

Thanks for any input
--Tyler E.

 

well your stock head unit is made by alpine. and the intalation is not difficult. but you have to be good with wires. you can get an adapter so you don't have to cut any stock wires.

 

Did you get the Harmon Kardon upgrade or is it the regular system?

The reason I ask is that I have the H/K in my 05' Hardtop and I added a blitzsafe adapter which allows you to add sat. radio.

 

I don't know either. I built my car online, and SIRIUS was listed, but could not be chosen or priced. I asked a salesperson and he said it was dealer installed. Hmmm... okay. Most other companies I believe ship their XM or Sirius built in with the car.

So who is correct, how do we order it, and how much does it cost?

 

I think it's like the Works.
They're just working everything out to make sure it works as it should and finalizing the details. Until recently the JCW package was listed but could not be selected through the configurator on the website. When the finally had everything worked out they enabled it on the configurator and you are now able to add it to your build.

So it's probably just a matter of time before it's added back into the system to allow for adding it to a build.

 

I have the Harmon Kardon upgrade and am looking forward to the improved sound. I would add an adapter but I do not want to have some external remote to run the sat. with. I would like to be able to do it from within the head unit if possible. Does anyone have an expected date of when the new dealer installed Sirius head unit will be available? If it is a dealer option I can just have my dealer install it when they get it.

 

My dealer yesterday told me he had no idea of an expected release date for the Sirius in the 2005 (I'm waiting too!)

 

The blitzsafe adapter allows the use of the stock headunit and steering wheel to control the sat. radio.Of course this is all for XM that I have so you will have to check with blitzsafe to see if they make one to work with siruis....

You could always get XM now and change to siruis later if you really want siruis that bad.

The install for the whole thing took me 15 minutes and I was up and running.

Chris