Crutchfield had a listing for installation notes if I went to a Kenwood 7100 and it said you'll lose your factory XM capability if you replace your factory radio. I searched their site of the component needed to bring their radio up to XM but never found it. Also was never able to find out if the steering wheel controls could be still used. Anyone out here doing this or has already?

Thanks...

 

I am FAR from being any authority on this but I beleive I have read in past posts that if you replace the factory radio head with a non GM radio head that you will lose not only the factory installed "XM Ready" capability but you will also lose the steering wheel radio controls. Hopefully someone else with the expertise will respond. Good luck.

 

yes if you replace the OEM radio you will lose both XM and the steering wheel controls. However you can easily keep the steering wheel controls if you purchase a pac steering wheel adapter
(www.pac-audio.com).If you want XM then you will have to purchase an XM direct link to go with your new radio however you can mount it the same spot as the OEM XM (behind the glove box) and also use the OEM XM antenna instead of the aftermarket XM antenna. I personally went with the Pionner AVIC-Z1 and Pioneer's nav traffic unit which isGEXP10XMT.