Greetings fellow enthusiasts. New member here and new owner of a 2012 X5 xDrive35i Premium. Just wanted to say 'hello' and say how great it is to be a member of this really impressive club. There's a ton of information here and I look forward to participating in as many events as possible. I have to say that I am loving the X5. We needed an SUV and the X5 was the perfect fit for us, zero complaints thus far...and this is coming from an Audi fanboy (shhhhhhhh). I do have a question regarding the satellite radio functionality, I've heard differing things and could really use an informed answer if possible. Is there anything physically that I would need to have satellite radio functionality? It's my understanding that it's built-in and would need programmed/activated at the dealership? I thought I had read that the Premium model came with a free trial and and satellite was already active, is that not the case? Appreciate any insight you all can give, thanks in advance!
Welcome to the club and forums first off! Yes you are correct that the sat radio is built into the head unit and just needs to be programmed to be activated. Easy way to check if it is already active is to go to the radio menu on the I drive and see it sat radio is listed below am and FM. If it doesn't show up then it is not activated. If it does then you just need to call sirius to get a account set up. All sat radio in BMW comes with a 1 year account on new vehicles.
Welcome to the club & forums! (Cincy here also) (I wrote this reply earlier prior to Charlson's, for some reason it didn't post, so please excuse any superfluousness as to sat. radio inquiry). I presume any free satellite trial would have been for the original purchaser. If it had satellite before, I _think_ typically you can tune something like the first couple of channels, which put up some basic info suggesting subscribing, or some-such. In any case, if you can get anything on any satellite channel, presumably you ought to be able to sign up with siriusxm and activate the radio, a matter of finding the radio codes, etc. and getting signed up and activating via the sirius website or by phone. If selecting the sat. radio yields silence, then getting it going, if possible, might be more complicated. You can check your vin here (http://www.bmwarchive.org/vin/bmw-vin-decoder.html), which will tell if yours came with sat. radio prep - if you don't have a sharkfin-style roof antenna, then I think if the vin check indicates sat. radio prep, that might mean the wiring and modules, but nobody prior installed the antenna or do whatever else might be needed to get the sat. radio functioning. I'm sure sat. radio requires the sharkfin antenna, but it may be that all recent BMW's have shark antennas, sat. radio or not, not sure if having the antenna means absolutely there's sat. radio functionality. Local info: You'll get an email about the next Buckeye Chapter newsletter available for download, but past issues are on the Buckeye website, as well as other info - http://www.buckeyebmwcca.org/ chapter Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/153450721386951/ The Cincy Area governor is Mark Jeanmougin - please send him an email (see http://www.buckeyebmwcca.org/contact/) and he'll add you to the Cincy area members email list for local events. Typically, Cincy area meets 2nd Wed. of the Month (excepting Dec.), 7:00, default meeting locale is Dewey's Pizza at Harpers Point in Montgomery, but we mix it up a bit - Aug. meeting is a potluck at Sharon Woods, details will be forthcoming on FB & email.
Thank you all for the warm welcome. In response to Charlson: Thank you for that info, that was what I was hoping was the case. In response to Garrison: Thank you as well for the plethora of information, all was very helpful. And it is great to meet another Cincy resident and member! I will most definitely reach out to Mark to be added to the area email list, and I look forward to meeting you and all Cincy members very soon. Can't go wrong with Dewey's as a meeting place, that's for sure. Have a great weekend, hope to see you soon.
