gridpower

My wife just got a sweet 2013 GS450h and it has the Mark Levinson system. It sounds fantastic and we got her setup with a free SIRIUS 3 month trial. She has never had SAT radio, so she was PUMPED to get it..>LOL<

I have noticed that in order to get WEATHER you need an additional XM subscription. However I am wondering if you can install a 2014 GS350/450h head unit, can you get SIRI EYES FREE and then also WEATHER/TRAFFFIC for free via the HD Antenna? I am not sure if the 2014 radios use XM for weather/traffic or if they switched over to HD instead?

Also, would I need to purchase a 2014 ML headunit in order to keep it compatible? The ML hard drive only has the original NAV maps on it, so not a big deal there.

Thanks in advance!

jdpdata

Member @peasodos have done 2017 radio swap on his 2013 450h. You may want to read his upgrade thread. IMO, the weather/traffic that Lexus offers is virtually useless. The lag of receiving timely traffic and weather updates make it impractical to use on your daily commute. You are better off installing aftermarket Android device like GROM VL2 or Carlinkit for full use of Android Apps like Google Maps. Read up on the many threads available on this forum.

JDR76

If you want free traffic/weather via HD Radio, you would need to go to a 2015 unit.

peasodos

iTrader: (1)

Just get apple carplay/android auto from Grom or Beatsonic.

The factory maps, traffic, and weather suck compared to Carplay or android auto. Carlinkit doesn't work correctly yet for 2013-2015 GS.

Also upgrading to a 2016+ head unit is not practical at all unless you can get an amazing deal on used parts like I did(you would have to change the 12.3" display and the head unit). Not to mention getting a video cable that you can't buy from Lexus and would have to harvest off a used wiring harness.

gridpower

Thanks for all the responses. After researching the Beatsonic solution for CarPlay it looks like a fantastic option without losing the rest of the factory feel.