Sirius, do we need it?
 

With the advent of BMW apps, and the ability to stream internet radio from all over the world, and Pandora radio. Do we really need to spend $400 for Sirius satellite radio?


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$400 - hell no... let alone $700+ I was quoted by a dealer when asked how much to activate it in my '10. Frankly speaking, considering the hardware is already there, it should be free, and any costs to BMW should be recovered via revenue sharing with SiriusXM, like what cell phone co's do with subsidised phones & two year contract.

If you only want to listen to music, probably not.

If you want to listen to sports, weather, news, comedy, or talk, then probably.

Yup. Agreed. Sirius is however useful if you like Howard or live sport.

I just plug my Iphone in and stream it

I get every baseball game on my iphone with the mlb package. So no need for sat radio for that.
Can't you sub to Sirius/XM and get a player on your phone to stream the content? I guess only if you need Howard or Mad Dog.
Say what you will about the sat radio music content, the quality of their bitrate is for the birds. Radiotime on droid or iphone is many times better and real stations. Especially nice if you like local talk radio or just want to listen to bbc world service, etc.
I guess all of this helps if you have an unlimited data plan which is rare now as VZN has even let it be known that they plan to cap data usage.
+1 for grandfathered at*t iphone users.

The problem with Pandora is it drains your phone battery while you are just driving + it uses up your data plan as well when listening while driving. If you are on an Unlimited plan (which I got grandfathered in on with AT&T) no problem but there is a large population that is just on one of the smaller data plans. I love Sirius-- you can get the basic channels for like $12 a month it's not that expensive--if you love music.

Cell phone companies are going to eventually price themselves out of the market with these data plan gimmicks. It's almost impossible to find a decent looking, functional, normal phone that doesnt require a data plan. The unlimited ones are at least a reasonable deal if you are a heavy user, but the bills that become possible with pay by MB are going to scare people away. Pay/go cell plans are looking more and more attractive.

I have Sirius on all my cars and feel it is worth it to have the variety of channels I can listen to.

a must have for me!