The worst thing about the Sirius system is the constant barrage of messages, by phone, email, snail mail, and "urgent warnings" on the vehicle radio insisting that you MUST TURN IT ON FOR YOUR 3 MONTH FREE TRIAL. The problem with turning it on is that they want your credit card number when you agree to the free trial, and promise to bill automatically for the "real" subscription when the "free trial" is over; but REFUSE to tell you whether you'll be able to turn it off if you decide you don't want it.

And it took me 9 MONTHS to find the first clue to how much the "regular subscription" would cost.(Just a clue, not a quote.)

The advertising claims it's very important that they be able to know when you've been in an accident so that they can send help even if you can't talk or move, with warnings that your cell phone is worthless because it will always fly out of the pocket where you're sitting on it every time you have one of your scheduled weekly accidents.

The system also has the ability to disable the vehicles if you report it stolen, but that capability is only on some vehicles that have some other assorted parts of the system, and they REFUSE TO TELL YOU which vehicle models have which features and which of the features aren't even on yours. (I asked the local authorized service dealer about a couple of the "features," and it was obvious that HE COULDN'T TELL EITHER which features are actually on my vehicle.)

They don't really have to be able to turn on the check engine light, since there are enough things that turn it on (that aren't even in the "overhaul manual") that will turn on the several such without outside intervention. For most of the "real warnings" it's not too hard to find out what to do about them, including turning them off without "fixing" anything else in most cases.

And having looked at the broadcast schedules for the "satellite radio" that they claim you must have to be happy on the road, I couldn't find anything I'd particularly want to listen to anywhere in their listings. (Most long haul truckers, who nearly all do have satellite radio, agree that the programing SUCKS.)

I just ignored it.

At least the "entertainment" part of it - and most of the urgent doomsday advertising - eventually goes away.

John