Avis offering Sirius XM for nearly every car

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Avis Rent A Car announced the rollout of Avis Blast, which will make portable XM Satellite Radio receivers available at more than 70 Avis locations. But if you want the 170+ channels from Sirius XM, there is a significant charge.


Avis is offering the XM onyX portable receiver, which plugs into a vehicle’s auxiliary audio input plug (commonly used for MP3 players), so satellite radio is available for almost any class of vehicle that Avis rents. The fee for the service is $4.99 per day or $20.00 per week.

“Avis Blast makes the finest in-car entertainment from Sirius XM satellite radio available in every car class, from compact to specialty vehicles,” said Michael Caron, vice president of product and program development for Avis Budget Group, parent company of Avis. “The satellite radio service gives travelers the best in audio entertainment and is a great way to get the latest traffic and weather conditions and listen to music, news or their favorite team play, no matter where they are. Like our guaranteed smoke-free rental fleet, it’s another way that ‘We try harder,’ to make travel more enjoyable – more of a ‘blast’,” he added.

Avis Blast is being offered at major airports and select Avis off-airport locations, including: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boise, Boston, Chicago, Colorado Springs, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, OR, Salt Lake City, Seattle, St. Louis and Washington, DC.

Avis Blast offers renters the “XM Everything” package, which is XM plus the Best of Sirius, including commercial-free music in every genre, featuring a broad array of 24/7 artist-branded music channels such as The Grateful Dead Channel, Eminem’s Shade 45, Jimmy Buffett’s Radio Margaritaville, “Little Steven” Van Zandt’s Underground Garage and Outlaw Country channels, B.B. King’s Bluesville, Willie Nelson’s Willie’s Place, Elvis Radio and Siriusly Sinatra; every Major League Baseball game, play-by-play from the NHL and NBA, PGA TOUR events, auto racing, college sports and more; the biggest names in entertainment, including Oprah Winfrey, Rosie O’Donnell, Barbara Walters, Jamie Foxx, Bob Edwards, and Opie & Anthony; news from Fox News, CNN, CNBC and the BBC; comedy and kids’ programming, plus traffic and weather information.

RBR-TVBR observation: Unless this charge is going on a corporate expense account, it would be way cheaper for a satellite radio aficionado to buy an XM onyX (for under 50 bucks at some online shops) to take with them on travels and subscribe to XM Everything for $16.99 a month.