Trying to improve poor XM Sat Reception in 2012 Tacoma

I have a 'new' 2012 Tacoma DCLB with just about every option (JBL Speakers, entune, NAV, bluetooth, sat radio). This is the 3rd vehicle I've owned with Satellite radio and as I drive alot, I listen to the radio a LOT, mostly satelite radio.

Of the 3 vehicles I've had sat radio hooked up (2011 Grand Cherokee, 2007 S4, this taco) this vehicle has terrible satelite radio reception. I can carry the same stations through the exact same road in my wife's 2011 Cherokee when the tacoma is constantly dropping the signal. I presume the 'shark fin' sat radio receiver is no more than a facia over the nub that the 2011's had. I look across other Toyota brands and see more of the style of actual antenna that my wife's cherokee has on the Prius and Matrix and it appears they have a similarly large base like the shark-fin on the 2012 taco.

Where can I read up on what options I have on installing an actual antenna instead of the 'shark fin' - more of what Priuses have? I'm just presuming this will improve the situation, but if anyone knows more on why the chrysler product does a vastly superior job of XM radio reception than the toyota product I'm all ears.

 

I've only had my truck a week, but so far I haven't had any trouble with my xm radio. I don't have entune so we have a different head unit, if that would make a difference.

I don't really know much about how it works but im sure someone here does.

 

I don't know whether it's an issue of one head unit having some type of buffering to take care of this, or simply an antenna issue. My $$ is on the antenna. Are spec's on these things available anywhere? I'd love to be able to find out whether a prius sat antenna would be a direct replacement.

 

Just picked up my taco a few days ago and have the same experience. Driving around town it often drops out and is annoying compared to the satellite radio performance in my TDI.

 

Had my satellite radio work all the time in the city...then I go on a long 1500km trip and the darn thing worked mabe 200km of it...useless.

 

Was there ever a resolution found for this? The satellite I had in my old Explorer (plug & play model) gave me way better reception than on this truck...

 

so, I'm not an expert, don't play one on TV, but I gave up doing additional research after finding out that basically sirius and XM are still using their seperate satelite networks even tho they are the same company, lineup looks exactly the same to me. My 2012 (presume all) was fitted with an XM receiver. It's embedded into the deck and can't be swapped out. So you have what you have and unless you sell the truck there isn't a thing you can do about it. I'm very annoyed and will probably take the loss and never come back to toyota.

One quick observation: while overall sirius trumps XM for consistently better reception, I am interested that I can carry an XM signal under overpasses and through tunnels a bit more than I can carry the sirius signal. It's a minor detail in the grand scheme of the XM reception cutting out much more in places I drive alot more through but it does pique my curiosity.

 

So youre never buying another Toyota because of a crappy factory radio?

The factory radios suck. Thats just how it is. My factory XM was terrible and always dropped signal and even worse often times wouldnt even get it back unless you started the truck again. Have an aftermarket radio and XM setup now and it works flawlessly and never gives me reception issues.

Dont hate on the brand itself because the radio is subpar in a vehicle thats nearing the end of this generations lifestyle. FWIW unless they changed things completely for 2012 the ACTUAL tuner itself isnt inside the radio.

 

I have a 2016 Tacoma TDR OFFROAD and my XM drops constantly my wife has a 2015 explorer and I only know of three places where it drops momentarily I'm hoping there is an antenna fix because I do like the JBL entune system !

 

It was mentioned above but it is because Sirius and xm are on different networks. Sirius has 3 satellites in orbit and xm only has 1. This is why. I hate it too but aside from installing a complete aftermarket set up I'm not aware of a fix. Sirius/xm needs to stop selling the inferior xm version and stick with the Sirius stuff. I know BMW, Chrysler, Ford have always been with Sirius. GM used to be with xm, not sure if they still are.

 

Bummer yesterday I was sitting in wide open space with no trees or hills in the way and I was still loosing signal !