Well, I had XM radio subscription on my other vehicle and its annoying I don't have it on my G35 coupe (which until today I've found out I already have the tuner and antenna factory installed), but whatever.

When I first purchased my 03 coupe back in February, I hit the SAT button and it would say "no SAT", so my assumption was there's no factory wired antenna and tuner, and I never bother to research or rip the trunk open to check. But for future reference, on 03 coupe, if the VIN # ending with 210827 and higher, they are pre-wired with satellite tuner and antenna.
And all 04+ models are pre-wired for satellite radio.

Anyhow, my brother was being nice and he bought me an extra antenna kit for my XM express, so after a few beers we had it done. I think we did a pretty good job on hiding all the wires. The only part that's tacky IMO is the part where it tapes onto the FM radio antenna stripe on the rear windshield. Anything else are under carpet, seat, and panels.

We started by taking the backseat out


The fold down part of the seat was held up by two 12mm bolts, and remember to disconnect the release cable. Bottom part of the rear seat was held by clip, you just yank it right out.

Please don't mind those white powder, I swear they are washing detergent; at least my car smells fresh


Since I don't have NAV on my coupe, so that empty spot is perfect for the install. We drilled a hole on the backside of that space, the antenna and power wires are fed thru that hole. Everything else was hidden behind the dash and center console.


What do you think? not too bad right?


When its un-dock, it looks like this


Close the lid and whola...


The magnetic antenna wire was tuck underneath the mat


That's the part that I don't like, where the XM signal feed back to the FM antenna stripe. We did our best to hide the rest of the wires


All the excess wires are placed under the backseat


All in all I'm very satisfied. Although I felt stupid we went thru all this hassle to install something the car already had, but the overall display (Full station, Artist, Song title), and ease of operation out from XM express is better than the factory LED message stripe.

 

I like the stealth look on the unit so good job.

Pretty tight quarters in the backseat eh??? lol

Here's an idea, what about mounting a Terk Microantenna on top of the trunk hood or on the roof? They're pretty small and inconspicuous and then you won't have antenna unit velcroed to the back window. Just a thought.....

One more thing, you gotta get rid of that tape player....

doc

 

For the cars that are prewired for a satellite tuner, the wiring is there but not necessarily the tuner too. If your car also had the XM tuner installed, there wouldn't be a NO SAT message.

The location that you mounted your receiver is a good idea.