Just purchased XM Navigation traffic service for my car. I haven't seen any other posts on it so thought I'd share.

Apparently, the car comes with 3 months free trial of a) radio b) live traffic, and c) weather/sports scores, starting from your day of car purchase. Here's the weird part - to get your free three months, you actually have to call SiriusXM to activate it. So the clock starts ticking on your three months from your day of purchase, and SiriusXM has an account on you with your name and address, but you still have to call them to activate the service. The free trial ends 90 days after your car purchase date.

The traffic service (B) is quite cheap. $4 per month. I paid for one year up front and they gave me one month free. So $44 for the year. Seems like a good deal to me. Traffic service works like Google Maps - green, yellow or red on your path, the PCM can navigate around it.

(C) is only $2 per month but doesn't seem necessary. I don't drive far in my car often, so i skipped (A).

 

Sirius XM is hit or miss. Some like it others forgo it. I have it as mine is a daily driver. Mine is a first wave car and I don't see any weather, but the traffic portion I find very useful. I also like it for the sports. Can listen to football games on our way back from Tampa.

 

My salesperson did the activation earlier the day I picked up the car. The official activation date was about 2 weeks later though.

Getting my own (after the 90 days) took 65 minutes on the phone and was one of the worst buying experiences I've ever had. Also, reception in my area sucks as the XM satellites are too low in the sky for being able to be received well this far North. Sirius reception is much much better up here.

 

So I'm a little confused. I bought a used 991, April 2012 built and the first few weeks I had traffic on my nav but now I don't. I can't figure out why. Can anyone explain how I had traffic for a few weeks on a used car? Unless the first owner finally canceled it?

 

Bingo!!

 

I find the traffic and weather very useful tools in Los Angeles.

 

I never thought to get Traffic w/o Radio.
Very Good Idea!

 

Yeah, me too. Good tip thanks!

 

I live is Temecula so i say this with a smile. Weather in LA useful? The huge weather shifts of 3 degrees above and below 72 can be tough to deal with!

 

Still think it is ridiculous to have to buy XM traffic just to get traffic info on nav map.. (yeah I know it's only $3 or 4/month) but you can buy a $200 Garmin portable and get FM traffic for free and seems to be available in both Europe (at least in Germany) as well as in the US..

I read an argument that XM gave you better coverage, however I got FM traffic on a cross country from Los Angeles to the Florida and it was available everywhere there was traffic to worry about.. Same was true on a drive through northern Germany

It isn't just Porsche in this regard seems to be the same with all of the auto mfgs.. I can only conclude there are business arrangements between XM and the OEMs that drive this..

 

Bmw does it for free over FM.

 

I called in. Got the service. Was fun talking to XM sales staff in the Philippines. Good people. I don't think I will renew the traffic service, however. It only does main highways, mostly interstate, and now that I mounted my iPhone properly next to my PCM, there's no way XM could match the resources of the traffic, back-up navi, and music, weather apps on my phone. Heck I can even play live German radio now.