Does your Cayman have this on top???

See attached photo. I saw this at a local dealer today and I realized it is the first time I've seen a Cayman equipped with XM from the factory. My gosh that's one ugly lump (IMHO) on the top of a sleek car. I would have thought that Porsche could have put the antenna under the plastic like the GPS antenna for the Nav or at least used something sleeker and attached it to the top portion of the hatch or integrated it with a hatch eyebrow or something better than this...

Somewhat, YUK. Thats a lazy and cost down approach.

Yep, that's the XM antenna. At least it is not one of those "shark fins" that show up on every other make/model of car. Reception is surprising - I can often listen while the car is inside the garage, surrounded by lots of metal.

You think that is bad ..... Have you seen where the XM aerial sits on a 997.2 Targa ???

no, where?

I had aftermarket XM on my 07 Boxster with the ant under the cowl and reception was spotty in some areas. The 09 has factory XM and the reception has few dead spots and they are smaller.

Yep, pretty ugly IMO. Also, I'd like to know how much money Porsche was given up front to put XM on many of their cars this year as the ratio of cars equipped seems very high IMO.

Agree that this is a bit of an eye sore on an otherwise beautiful car. I like XM and all but not at the price of screwing up the asthetics of a Porsche.

Which grey is that Cayman?

I did warn you Ken; It's terrible don't you think!! I don't mind the 'wart' on the cab cover so much but on the window frame!!! Interestingly I don't understand why Porsche felt the need to place and external XM aerial on the car. I fitted a Cayenne unit to my car (Porsche withdrew the 997 version a week after launch ... citing bad reception complaints), now my XM aerial sits right next to the PCM GPS one under the plastic cowl under the front window. I never had any issues with poor reception ..... well not until I moved to the UK ..... XM do not currently support Europe .... hopefully one day

Sounds like a situaiton where Porsche ought to have 2 line items in the order guide: 1) External XM antenna - $X 2) Internal XM antenna - $Y and let the owner or dealership choose.... also have conversion kits for each, would be yet another money maker and solve the problem. Oh the grey in that picture I posted originally is Meteor Grey

I've gotten used to the "fin" on my 09 and the reception is excellent. And I couldn't do without Howard Stern on those long commutes to and from work.

I have three cars with XM an dantenna under the cowl. Reception is spotty. I can lose reception next to a semi truck on the highway, overhanging trees and going under bridges.

I don't have it, but I do miss my XM radio.

The problem is the windshield cowl mount has its view of the sky blocked from several angles, leading to dropouts. If your area is well served with XM FM translators, it's not as big a deal, otherwise it certainly can be. The last thing Porsche wants is lots of service visits because "XM drops out all the time."

Actually, with my Sirius antenna mounted on the windshield cowl I have had maybe 1 or 2 dropouts that lasted all of 3 seconds each in the last month. Hardly significant, and that's with Sirius service, which has fewer terrestrial repeaters than XM does. In fact, I can verify that the area I live (and drive) in is barely covered by a single, solitary terrestrial repeater. Having the satrad antenna on the roof vs. the cowl is a non-issue in terms of reception.

My xm antenna sits on the dash snugged up next to the windshield. Its reception is about as good as my other car with an external antenna. I know that is not supposed to be the case - but it works fine. mike

I took my XM out about 3 months ago... Could never get stable reception under the cowl or on the dash (I'm in Orlando). Do I miss it? A bit. Enough to get a wart on the top of my S? No chance.

Must be trying to compete with AWACS aircraft or maybe marine navigational aides. Why is it the auto manufacturers are competing to see who can come up with the fugliest roof antenna? I would have thought it could have been under the rear hatch glass or in the spoiler etc. Someplace it wouldn't get shadowed and not leave you wanting to get your car to a dermatologist. As to terrestrial repeaters I'd be surprised if they're any different now that XM and Sirius have merged. Unless the frequency is different enough that they can't transmit Sirius too. Don't know though. Repeaters was the deciding factor in which system to get for me.

That's really odd. Maybe you had a bad antenna. My antenna is dash mounted. I live in the mountains of NC where I get an occasional dropout due to the terrain but never have any problems elsewhere. In North Georgia or the Atlanta area, I never get dropouts - except at one spot next to the IBM tower in downtown Atlanta. I would think Orlando would have great reception. mike