Nissan gets Sirius about offering free Travel Link access for three years
Who doesn't like free stuff, especially when it can improve your commute?
You don't need a 2017 model to use SiriusXM's services, but it might be a little silly to purchase a brand new car just for a free three-year subscription.
SiriusXM isn't just for yacht rock and Howard Stern. The satellite radio system also supplies automakers with traffic and other data, downloaded through the same antenna but treated differently than its music offerings. If you purchase a 2017 Nissan model, there's a good chance that you might get those non-radio services for free.
Nissan is offering free three-year subscriptions to SiriusXM Travel Link and SiriusXM Traffic with the purchase of select 2017 Nissan models, including the 2017 Pathfinder, which goes on sale this week. If your car comes with navigation, you'll get access to both services, but if you don't have nav, then you get Travel Link on its own.
Travel Link is meant to help you stay connected while you're on the road. It offers up local fuel prices, stock prices, movie listings, EV charger locations and sports scores. It also includes a pretty beefy weather component that gives you current conditions, forecasts and radar maps.
As for SiriusXM Traffic, the name is kind of self-explanatory. It will add color-coded traffic information to your navigation screen, so you can stare at a bright red line as you sit in traffic, wondering how your life made it to this point. It'll also give you information on road closures, construction and accidents, similar to what Google Maps gives you, albeit not on your nav screen.
After those three years are up, you can subscribe to both services for a fee. Otherwise, you can just go back to using Google Maps on your phone while it's jammed in the cupholder -- while certain new Nissans will come with Apple CarPlay, there's still no Android Auto connectivity. It's a bit more distracting, but hey, at least it's free.