Sirius satellite radio and travel link, worth having?

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Does anyone have any experience with Sirius satellite radio, Navigation or Travel Link?

I bought a 2016 Ford Taurus and it has a 3 month trial of these three features.

I'm wondering if I should keep this subscription when the trial is up or not.

From what I can tell the Sirius navigation gives map updates and traffic reports. Travel link gives fuel prices, sports scores, weather and a radar map that I can request to show on the screen.

Does anyone know if my navigation will still work without the navigation subscription? Or will I just lose the map updates and speed limits? Is the satellite radio worth having? I haven't really listened to it much since I've been using just FM radio or CDs mostly. I do like the jazz channel and a few others I've listened to.
 
 
I can't say about your Navigation system ... but mine (2014 Fusion) does (or can) operate separately from any Sirius tie-in, although it does not provide any reference to current traffic conditions.

I had the trial period for Sirius, opted not to keep it.

Navigation still works.  I get a notice via postal mail whenever a map update is available.  $150 a pop.  I have a Garmin for which I paid $99 for "lifetime" updates (have gotten 6 or 7 thus far) so I skipped the Ford updates until I gave-in on the most recent.  Wasn't so much worth the effort to me (I rarely take road-trips to unknown locations).  One error in the new map came up almost immediately, can't say if there are others.
 
We kept the SiriusXM after the trial period ended in our Lincoln.  I never tried the travel link and typically just use our Garmin for navigation since I'm more used to it anyway, although the car's navigation isn't bad.  I like being able to drive from TN to NOLA without changing the radio station.  I did drop it down to a more affordable plan though.  I don't need sports or any of that crap.  We listen to maybe 5 stations....70's, 80's, Hits, The Message, and occasionally I'll flip it over to classical (when Tony's asleep).
 
I had Sirius for 6 months free with my GM Certified Used Traverse, but only use it during their free trial periods (usually around holidays) and when I get a promo trial, like when I went in for service and got 2 free months. You will get bombarded with snail mail and phone calls to subscribe, so have the paper shredder ready and never answer your phone!. Other than that, they tend to repeat songs on a 30 minute cycle, so longer drives you are hearing the same ones over and over
 
 
I either listen to broadcast radio, or more likely a 16 GB USB flash drive with currently 253 songs (less than 25% capacity used) of wildly eclectic range that I downloaded off YouTube and elsewhere as .mp3s.

Both sisters have Sirius.  The nephew may have kept it after the intro with his new truck.  Mom has OnStar.
 
The navigation will still work but some functionality will be lost, such as the gas prices and traffic updates. At least that is what happen when i had my 2010 SHO. We currently have the all access in our Flex. We actually use it more in the house on the app than we do in the car.
 
I love satrad, but I prefer the XM system. I think it has a better variety of channels, and better sound quality on the music channels. There are some radios that can receive both systems.
 
Strangely about 3 months after my trial expired, my Sirius has started working again. I hit the wrong button earlier this week and noticed one of the stations working, tried a few others and they did too. The Travel Link does not appear to be working because I couldn't get it to display the weather or a radar map. But I have noticed time to time slow traffic icons showing up on the map like it's getting the info somehow.
 
Sirius.... almost impossible to stop

 

<span style="font-family: 'courier new', courier;">I never liked Sirius practices.  They force you to give them a credit card to set up the trial and then hound you every time it expires to sign up for more.  You can continue to negotiate better rates each time but just try to get them to stop billing your card if you decide to cancel.  They expect you to cancel before the time expires and if you don't they don't bother to remind you they just convert you over and start charging these crazy amounts.  Before you know it you're a couple of months into service that they force you to pay.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: 'courier new', courier;">We just bought a new car and got 3 years of Sirius among some other things like nav updates, etc.  We'll use it until then because it was already turned on for us but I won't continue after that.  There are so many options these days that it's not worth the trouble.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: 'courier new', courier;">NAVs are different.  If your car has a HDD or SDCARD NAV system it will likely continue to work but will get out of date.  Some cars have internet connections and will do updates automatically and some work like Google maps.  What's becoming very popular is Apple and Android Car Play.  I am personally not a fan of these options but many new cars include it now as standard equipment.  I travel a lot and many rentals have Apple Car Play but if you put the phone down in the console it will occasionally just stop working and before you know it you're lost.  If you put it on the dashboard it gets hot and the phone shuts down saying its too hot.  I can't find my way out of a paper bag so I need something that works as I have found myself horribly lost on more than one occasion.</span>
 
We've tried it off and on over the past few years, but with Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, itunes, etc., we've always cancelled it after the free period. It does get very repetitious after a while, and even with all the channels, I was still changing stations constantly trying to find something I wanted to listen to.
 
I let the trial expire on my Ford; the playlists on the Sirius stations are far too short, as mentioned above I had to do a ton of station hopping. I've also noticed across several cars new and older that the audio quality is just bad when compared to FM.

I use Apple CarPlay extensively since it integrates with my preferred music and maps options, Spotify and Waze, and have not had any issues with the device overheating. In fact it is one of the things that makes renting a car much easier now IMO since you don't have to learn how to operate that make's entertainment system, you plug in and go and it's just like being in my own car.
 
I’ve had it for years. It’s good if you do a lot of driving in sparse signal areas or like to listen to singular shows throughout multiple states without interruption.

It is very hard to cancel, switch to a prepaid visa mid billing cycle. Towards the end of the cycle call them and tell them you want to cancel, after enough haggling they’ll reduce the rate drastically because they don’t want the subscriber head count to go down.

If you don’t mind playing that game you can have it for $50 a year or so.
 

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