OK, I got the Vais Technology Sirius satellite radio installed in my blue onyx IS350. The antenna is roof mounted next to the rear window. It's small, black plastic and about 1.5 inch square and only about 3/16 inch high. Too bad it doesn't come color matched to my car, but like I said, it's small. The radio integrates nicely into my nav system. If I'm in map mode and I change satellite channels, the station doesn't come up at the top of the screen like it does when I change FM stations. Too bad. There are 2 SAT screens similar to FM1 and FM2 so you can preset 16 stations. There is a SAT3 screen, too, that can probably be used to preset more stations, but I haven't tried. I do know that 2 of the presets on SAT3 are used for Satellite level and Aux level (don't know how/why I'd use Aux level).
With regard to the Satellite level, my biggest beef right now is that even with the Satellite level set as high as it goes (level 31), I still have to increase the volume 10-15 levels when going from FM to Satellite. Then if I go back from SAT to FM I get blasted. Not good. I took this back to my Lexus-outsourced installer today and waited for 2 hours while they tried to troubleshoot the problem. They replaced all my components while performing diagnostics and still couldn't change the level. They also tried adding a line booster, but this added to much noise. So I still have this problem . The installers have a call into the Sirius Techs. I am completely confident that the folks at Sirius will be of absolutely no help.
I would appreciate it if others could share their experience with the SAT vs FM (and CD?) volume levels.
Oh, one other thing. A friend of mine called the Lexus Service Center and they said they could get Sirius installed for $465. I told my Sales Manager about this and reminded him I was charged $1000 in February. He said that the $465 was a mis-quote and there is no way the installer actually had any Sirius radios to sell. So also please tell me if Lexus is selling you the radio for significantly less than $1000 so I can try and get some of my money back.
Thanks,
David