I've got a res booked with National for 10 days from LAS. It's coming out to $270 for a Luxury with National. I can also get an intermediate for under $200 from Avis or Alamo.

For me it's a no brainer, but my girlfriend is cheap and doesn't want to spend the extra $70+gas for a "fuel hog" caddy.

If the Onstar is active in these cars, it's going to help me with the case. She's a nervous traveler. Since we're driving 1400 miles during the trip, I'll just scare her with stories of breakdowns in the desert where people were eaten by buzzards cause they didn't have Onstar.

I've heard that Avis sells airtime for its Onstar equipped vehicles. Does National do that? I'd probably be interested in doing that since the roaming charges will be high on our Canadian cellphones. That cost savings also helps my argument.

So how does the Onstar work with National? The Onstar's active out of the factory for a year. So can I make local calls for free or anything?

I've used the OnStar in the vehicles I rented from National in the past. However, I have OnStar in my personal vehicles and they always asked for my personal account number. You may be able to buy minutes to make OnStar calls.

The Onstar in most National vehicles is de-activated and placed into an "emergency button only" status. There is usually no phone number assigned to the vehicles yet, as the ownership of the GM vehicles that have OnStar is listed as Vanguard Car Rental. On very rare occasions, the OnStar buttom allows you to reach a live rep, who usually informs you that the vehicle is not set up for an active subscription.

The Onstar is active for Emergency only for most National vehicles. It's not active for Navigation. So if you have an accident you should be protected, but if in doubt ask a Manager at your rental location.

If you are worried about your Canadian roaming issues, perhaps you could buy a phone in the states that's the type sold at most discount stores like 7-11 or Target or Wal-Mart...that's a Pay-as-You-Go style phone. Buy the phone for cheap and loads the mins as you need.

Or if your phone allows you to buy a phone chip for other phone systems, do that.

Or borrow a phone from a friend that allows that.

I just did some checking...Onstar Always works for Accidents...it doesn't need to be activated for that.

Thanks. Sounds like I can't really count on calling from the car, so I ordered a pay as you go phone from Virgin. Free with $15 worth of minutes. I think that gives me 50 minutes or so. Thanks.