So, last week mid-way through the week my 2010 Ford Taurus's Sirius stopped working, and all channels said, "unauthorized channel". Went and picked up a car tonight, and my 2011 Hyundai Sonata's XM Radio all says, "unauthorized channel".

Went inside and asked the rental agent what the deal is, and she said starting last week, AVIS deactivated all of their Sirius/XM radios in their car, and they were starting to rent portable units, similar to the Garmin Where2 units that they rent for GPS. She said that none of their cars in the future would have free "in-dash" satellite radio and if I wanted it, it was an extra $5 a day... but my location (Syracuse) didnt get the portable radios yet.

So I come home, and google this, and low-and-behold, I come across this link for a new service called AVIS Blast:

http://www.rbr.com/radio/26217.html and
http://www.avis.com/xmblast

Looks like the rental agent is right... $5 a day, or $20 for the week, and no more free satellite radio...