I just got my V12V about a month ago and I've noticed that the Sirius reception will go out briefly when I go under an overpass or drive on tree lined roads. The drop is temporary (a second or two) but happens often, especially driving hill country roads around Austin. I have a Range Rover with XM and it never drops, ever.

Is there something wrong with my radio/car or is the in-glass antenna on the V12V just a crappy implementation? Really annoying...

Thanks,
Brian

 

My vantage does the same thing. If satellite radio wasn't already installed in my car when I bought it, I never would have purchased it because of exactly the reason you mentioned. My Z06 did the same thing so it's not our cars. I would imagine it would work great on the Bonneville Salt Flats but that's about it.

 

It happened in my V8, it happens in my V12 it happens in my wife's Boxster and in my Nissan DD. The only car that seems to be immune is the BMW X series. This is more a factor of the Sat radio world than AM.

 

It's not your car, it's just how satellite radio works. Unless there are ground-based repeaters (which are generally in urban areas to prevent dropouts around tall buildings, etc.), you need a line-of-sight view of satellites to get a signal. So, when you go under an underpass where there's no repeater, you get a dropout.

Sirius is more prone to dropouts than XM due to the position of their satellites, which tend to be lower in the sky.

 

Thanks for the replies. What a lousy experience for $1500. Ridiculous. Note to anyone shopping for a new car - don't waste your money on Sirius!

 

Had aftermarket Sirius installed in my 2007 V8V and have very little drop outs here in FL. Antenna is on front area of dash (inside car) - get the same reception as on my 4Runner - where antenna is high on back of roof - small square antenna, not a wire.
I am a little curious where S antenna is on V12V ? Is it really just a wire in the glass ?

 

Happens to my car as well. I didnt think its a big deal, doesnt bother me much. But it definitely does happen.

 

For what it is worth, my Range Rover has the hockey puck antenna on the top rear and I don't think it has ever dropped. It even works in my garage. I don't see any externally visible antennas on the V12V.

 

The bigger problem with Sirius is that the sound quality is so bad due to overcompression that it's unlistenable--at least for music.

 

I have a factory Sirius in my A4 Avant and an aftermarket XM system in my 07 AMV8. The aftermarket XM system works much better.

 

Come to think of it, my gf's Jetta's has better continuous signal as opposed to my Aston Martin.

But the real question is why is the radio on, listen to that beautiful exhaust note.

 

all of my other cars that have sirius do the same thing.

 

I finally activated my Sirius and it seems to work fine. The signal is lost inside my work parking garage, but the same is true for my cell phone. It's pretty cool to have all that content available, but I agree that the sound quality for music is poor.

 

But at least you can use the full capabilities of your sound system (like surround), whereas with the radio you lose that dimension.

 

Yeah, I'll need to play around with the settings.