Satellite Radio Comparison...

Ok...hubby ended up w/a new car last week. It's a LONG story, but here's the short version:

Last Tuesday night we tried to put the baby seat into the back of hubby's sedan. Remember that hubby is 6'2". Neither my son or the new baby can sit directly behind hubby. No configuration of the 2 car seats in the other 2 rear seast (middle seat and behind-passenger-seat) worked. Truth: this car would no longer work for our family.

So Wednesday hubby and I take lunch and goto the Toyota dealer near my office to checkout the new Sienna minivan. Hubby is SO not a minivan person, but he was thinking he could take one for the team if we liked it enough...He hated it. Seriously, he was looking rather green and like he was going to vomit the whole time.

I suggested we look at some bigger sedans and we found one he liked and had room for hubby to drive and the sales guy ( 6'1" tall ) to sit BEHIND him. That is a large sedan!

But back to satellite radio - this car came w/Sirius radio, where we have only been an XM radio family. So this weekend, on our trip to visit family in PA, we got to sample Sirius' programming.

So here is the review:

quality of sound --> XM and Sirius are equivalant, I guess. I did not notice a difference.

signal strength -->Sirius dropped out more than the XM Radio did.

Programming --> selection of stations was equivalant.

Commercials? --> XM Radio is commercial free. Sirius is NOT and that is quite annoying.

Talking DJs --> XM Radio only has DJs for the commuting part of the day, and they limit their talking to announcing song requests, and this is not on all stations. Sirius DJs seem to YAP after EVERY SONG, on every station, which is annoying if you're not used to it.

So - if you have a choice (some car makers only offer 1 or the other), get XM!