Sometime in the future I may put an aftermarket head unit in my car, but I'm hooked on the XM. Anybody know if the stock XM antenna will work with an aftermarket head unit? Being that the same one is used on other GM cars as well, I'm sure some of you guys would know. Thanks in advance!

 

I don’t have the Cobalt yet, but I’m pretty sure it will work. Maybe someone that got the car can confirm this.

 

thats what I'm wondering. Its probally like the other GM vehicles. The attena should ( I dont know ) be like any other XM attena plug, but you have to buy another XM reciever, cause I believe the factory one is built in the stereo.

 

Yep, on down the line I'm planning on putting a new receiver in and as long as it's got XM & MP3 playback I'll be happy. But I was just looking at a Panasonic receiver with XM on Crutchfield.com and saw this in the install details:

Installation Details for your 2005 Cobalt

If your vehicle has the OnStar system, the voice prompts will be lost if the factory radio is replaced.

If the vehicle has factory XM it will be lost if factory radio is replaced.

^^That part has me worried. I may call Crutchfield tomorrow and talk to one of their reps to see if the factory XM antenna is indeed incompatible with other XM receivers.

EDIT: A-ha! After much Googling I found a discussion thread about this very topic. Strangely enough, it involves someone wanting to put a GM XM antenna on a Jetta. YellowVette says that he/she is using the XM antenna on their Silverado for a Roady2. Sounds like we may be in luck!

http://www.xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?p=331555

 

The antenna should be compatible with any future head units. All XM antennas has two wires (1 green and 1 yellow) I believe the Balt is going to be equipped with the new standardizrd XM reciever module (its about 5" square black with XM emblem on it) If this is the case all you would have to do is buy the correct digi converter for the new head unit and hook it up and your off and running. To bad Alpine dicontinued their full digi XM reciever


here is the reciever module:



more info

 

when my friend got his XM radio it was totally differnt from the one I had. I had a bigger reciever that had the connections for antenna and then to the headunit. But now the new one I believe have 2 smaller boxes, one that hooks up the xm antenna that runs to another reciever that runs to the head unit. I do belive anyway. Techonolgy has changed over the 4 yrs that I've had XM. The antenna is totally different from the new ones.