bocastephen

Picked up newish (4k miles) Taurus Limited at YVR...XM worked fine under the trial.

aww3583

Picked up a '15 Chrysler 300 with around 4,000 miles.

No seat warmer.
No back-up camera.
No remote start.
No free XM.

I called in and asked for a free trial. They happily obliged and I had all 200+ channels in about 5 minutes.

Beckles

Just saw this thread for the first time ...

As reported in this thread last May, started by an incredibly handsome, articulate, intelligent, etc., etc., etc., Flyertalker, Avis started having the ability to activate XM Radio on a per rental basis at that time ... it appears that National (and I would assume by extension Enterprise and Alamo) are implementing a similar capability.

As I said in that thread, I don't fault both the car rental companies and XM/Sirius for doing this, but my problem with it is quite frankly the charges are ridiculous ... this should be $1 per day ... maybe $2 per day ... but the prices they are seeking are crazy.

I really wish, as some discuss in this thread, it was easy to just activate a rental car with an existing subscription ... I only have five active subscriptions (three lifetime XM, one lifetime Sirius, and a one-year trial on my new BMW), but I have to use a portable unit or stream in rental cars, even if they have their own receiver.

newfbc

Just take a look at what they charge for GPS rental... also crazy.

Ron.

aww3583

2016 Buick Lacrosse with 280 miles on the clock.

Nice white "SiriusXM" sticker on the rear window.

No active SiriusXM subscription.

Called XM and the phone agent said "this vehicle is not eligible to activate a free trial". I said "Thanks" and hung up.

I called back in and the next agent was able to activate a 30-day trial on that radio.

bocastephen

Heard from the manager at my local location - National and XM are turning off all trials fleetwide this week on all cars (Canada delayed until a little later) in preparation for the paid access program.

I suggest we post lower cost workarounds on the National Facebook page to show customers how to bypass this nonsense.

lsugolfer

Had a 2016 Traverse last week in DEN with 700 miles. Was wondering why the XM didn't work...now I know why!

dwbf11

Nope, that's just the generally short (3 day) GM trial. I had a Tahoe with 2 miles on it earlier this year and it wasn't working in that either.

Certainly disappointing if this is the direction they're taking. I'd even pay $1/day for the privilege. $6? That's how much I pay per month for my real car. No thanks.

lsugolfer

Gotcha. Thought GM was 3 months...carry on!

moulder3

I agree with the previous comments and don't think National has really thought through the long-term implications of disabling XM trial accounts for their entire fleet.

I'm a National Exec Elite who rents 2-4 times a month and has only stuck around with National for the last two years solely for XM. In my experience, Hertz is now often cheaper than National and has FAR more locations outside of airports so this is the sign for me to move my business. The crazy thing is that National is effectively removing a perk included in some of their cars--which cost them nothing--just to stick it to their customers and charge (an absurd amount) for XM, something very few people will pay for. Can you imagine them charging a fee to activate the use of a rental car's backup camera???

I don't even mind scouring the ES/EC aisle for a car with active XM (since the trial subscriptions are certainly not guaranteed), but National going out of its way to cancel all trials is absurd. I suppose moving to Hertz also means I'll never have to deal with the new TERRIBLE website. At some point these idiots are certain to kill legacy.nationalcar.com and that probably would've been the time I switched too.

Oh well, bye bye National. It's been a good 7 years. It's too bad you've made such terrible decisions (XM & new website) that disproportionately affect your most frequent customers this year. Next time, you might want to ask your most loyal customers before implementing major changes!

Norri

I agree completely with the previous poster.
I've been a frequent renter and have had a car almost constantly since Dec 2014 and almost all with XM sometimes after checking a few cars on the lot.
I returned a Hyundai Azera today which had the satellite service turned off yesterday.
This is not the first time the service has run out but if this is policy I think it's time to look around too, National isn't the only one out there.

Segments

On the upside, check your 1-2-Free page. Just saw SiriusXM is now a bonus opportunity for 300 points. At $6/day is cheaper than the GPS at $12/day (which only awards 250 points)

dtremit

I agree 100% for my own car, but since OEM built-in nav is hard to come by from rental companies (National removes the SD cards on most of the cars that have it), I strongly recommend grabbing one of these:

http://www.kenu.com/products/airframe

Best and most portable phone mount I have found. You can find a good place for it in pretty much any rental car, and it takes up almost no space when you're not using it. (The one thing I would suggest is getting the white one so it's harder to forget it in the car.)

piper28

Heh, my last rental someone had left their mount for a phone in it, we left it with the greeter stand, although I'm guessing they'll never be back to pick it up. It was a logitech + mount, which I guess uses magnets to hold the phone.

I have a Kenu that I picked up cheap from ebay, and I do agree that it's a pretty good mount. I really picked it up simply because I wanted something for the dtw to fll drive we were doing, and it was worth it just for that.

Personally I couldn't see switching rental places just for lack of sat radio. Ok, yeah, it was nice to have it, but I suspect most of the other companies are going to go the same way anyways, if they haven't already. And I've still never understood the infatuation that some people have with it, because I've always felt he quality was mediocre at best, and these days with a cell phone you have a lot of other alternatives easily.

aww3583

Talked to a station manager today after she tried to upsell me XM Radio which I politely declined.

She said she's only sold it once in the past week. She also said the move to make it a paid option has really ticked off many of her frequent Emerald Club renters.

She said it was not National's choice to end the free trials and rental car subscriptions. She said it was driven by XM. She countered that by saying $6/day is cheaper than Hertz and Avis. I can't comment on that because I've never rented from those two.

I walked out to my vehicle, called into XM, and had the 30-day trial refreshed in about 3 minutes. I have a feeling that loophole is going to close soon, but I'm going to use it every chance I get.