FWIW, my experience has been quite different than yours with NavTraffic. It is the thing I DO like most about the whole SiriusXM experience. My impression is NavTraffic pretty much is tapped in to the same major roads you will see on say the morning or evening news, as well as other services that read off the road sensors -- so to the degree the area you are traveling involves those roads, NavTraffic has the opportunity to see if there is a slow down, stopped traffic, or not. (I keep the green/yellow/red lines turned on in Nav so I know which roads are covered all the time on the map.) I would suspect a general route from here-to-there may or may not involve roads that have the road sensors and your trip that got you stuck around a major sporting event likely involved roads not part of NavTraffic, so the situation may have been exacerbated by something beyond NavTraffic's part of the equation... Anyway, the biggest issue I have with NavTraffic in the area I live is it's timeliness -- roughly 20 minutes between updates from the satellite down to the vehicle it seems, and a lot can happen in that time, especially here in Southern California with our freeway system. ...but in the end, I will continue to pay for NavTraffic on both my vehicles, even though I consider it a bit over-priced for what it is, as the ability for the car to notify me of possible problems ahead and suggest a reroute is valuable to me. It's saved me more time in the last 18 months, than it's cost me in delays or errors -- but that will be different for everyone based on their location, roads they generally travel, and situations they incur. I guess I've just learned how to work with it and it's benefits outweigh the challenges for me.

Also perhaps of interest is Lexus announced and is in process of migrating future vehicles away from NavTraffic to use free "simulcast" traffic transmission on some FM channels here in the US. It's likely the next gen of RX will use that capability. My 2009 BMW used that capability vs XM's NavTraffic, and when I owned it and my Lexus, my impression was both implementations covered the same roads. ...but our advantage as Nav owners in future Lexus will be ZERO ongoing cost for those that are within reach of the FM channels sending those simultaneous signals. If that coverage is better or worse than NavTraffic, I don't know, and probably varies by geography. Some will complain about satellites, others about not having the right FM channels or signals.

Anyway, there's a perspective and a bit of trivia to get you started on your NavTraffic research. Good luck with you decision.

 

They also seem to be offering an a la carte option of 50 channels for $8 a month if you don't want to argue the price down. I've read that you can get the full package for $86 a year of you are patient and negotiate hard.

 

On my boat Sirius radio, they offer me $25 for 6 months to try and keep the account active. Works out pretty well when i renew EACH SUMMER ONLY.

 

I had XM for a couple of years. But decided to cancel. Called the 1-800 number and told them to cancel my service.

They offered all type of prices. Told them no. So they offer me 30 days free to think about it.

6 months later I get a call if I want to extend my service. Again told them no. Got another 30 days free.

This goes on for 3 years. Till they finally stop the service.

If you try it cancel your service. Make sure you cancel the credit card you used to sign up. So they cant charge it.

 

My complimentary subscription will expire next month. What exactly will change on the central console?

I will lose :
XM Fuel Prices - will substitute with gasbuddy on my phone
XM Stock Prices - Can wait till I get home to find the prices. Sometimes, I do not check prices for several months anyway
XM Weather - Never worked for me
Traffic assistance - SF Bay Area freeways are always clogged Mon-Fri. It has never really found a better alternative route for me (at least on my commute route). I will not miss this.
XM Radio - Can live with local AM/FM

I am more concerned whether the maps navigation feature will go off. Please comment what, if anything, changes in this regard. And will I be losing anything else?

 

Everything else with your Lexus Nav will remain the same... You simply won't get the green/yellow/red lines on some roadways indicating traffic conditions, you won't have announcements of traffic conditions on your route (if you enabled those in the first place), and you won't have the option for the Nav to reroute you if there is traffic ahead.

 

I had XM for five years. I always cancelled just before renewal time. They made lowball offers at the time of my cancellation, and sent me emails for months (each offering a better price). I finally signed up at less than half the "normal" price. I did this three times. Hope it works for you.

 

This has worked for me too. Also, additional discounts can apply if you renew for multiple years, like 2 or 3.

I did have a problem when I chose to give XM my credit card number to avoid a $1.00 charge for a mailed paper bill--they kept charging my CC every few months for what seemed like trivial reasons. All that foolishness stopped when I forcefully told them to revert my account back to paper & NO more charging the CC.

 

Yes, they do, i didnot renew my membership after it expired, two months later im getting letters and emails asking me to come back, atm they lowest they gave me is 25$ per 6months without any fees,still waiting for another couple of weeks

 

Yeah, there's no reason to ever pay more than $25/6mo for Sirius.

Mark