GM OnStar ... Worth Subscribing?

[Davis]

I have had onstar since 2004 on several different vehicles and dont regret any time of it. I do not use all the fancy I phone services some have mentioned but have used the hands free calling when cell phones do not work as mentioned. Most importantly a few years ago we were parking in a campsite and the DW was helping me park and I got out to check something and closed the door and my rat terrier hit the lock button and locked my two little kids and him in the vehicle. I called onstar and within a minute my Yukon xl was unlocked. Well worth the money!!!!!

XM on the other hand I have had bad experiences with so cant recommend that one.

[TinTin]

The Big Three are working hard to sell vehicles, with big rebates, zero percent financing, free oil changes, you name it. I have to wonder why GM doesn't throw free OnStar into the mix...

[DKB_SATX]

Originally Posted by TinTin

The Big Three are working hard to sell vehicles, with big rebates, zero percent financing, free oil changes, you name it. I have to wonder why GM doesn't throw free OnStar into the mix...

GMC in the US gives 6 month of Onstar with a new vehicle, and Cadillac gives 1 year free.

[Foiled Again]

You know how the commercial shows the man who has been in a wreck and the Onstar operator calling him and sending help?

Well... didn't work that way for ME. I wrecked on I-64 last June: BIG interstate, less than 12 miles from a large town, and NO CALL. The police, the rescue squad and 5 to 10 helpful strangers arrived promptly. On Star - NEVER. AND they kept billing me long after the truck was scrapped. I finally got the last two months refunded. Had the Silverado 2008 for 5 years @ $20 per month and it didn't work in a wreck. $1250 flushed down toilet.

Perhaps the truck's battery was damaged, or one of the cables popped off during a wreck, but for a safety system this one isn't at all bulletproof or redundant.

Go camping with a couple of friends if possible. If alone, have a regular check-in call schedule. If you don't call, let your buddy call you - and if no response - call the mounties!

Paula

[TinTin]

Originally Posted by DKB_SATX

GMC in the US gives 6 month of Onstar with a new vehicle, and Cadillac gives 1 year free.

Six months free here in Canada on trucks. Not sure about SUVs and cars.

[TinTin]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

You know how the commercial shows the man who has been in a wreck and the Onstar operator calling him and sending help?

Well... didn't work that way for ME. I wrecked on I-64 last June: BIG interstate, less than 12 miles from a large town, and NO CALL. The police, the rescue squad and 5 to 10 helpful strangers arrived promptly. On Star - NEVER. AND they kept billing me long after the truck was scrapped. I finally got the last two months refunded. Had the Silverado 2008 for 5 years @ $20 per month and it didn't work in a wreck. $1250 flushed down toilet.

Perhaps the truck's battery was damaged, or one of the cables popped off during a wreck, but for a safety system this one isn't at all bulletproof or redundant.

Go camping with a couple of friends if possible. If alone, have a regular check-in call schedule. If you don't call, let your buddy call you - and if no response - call the mounties!

Paula

Paula:

As one of the main advertised OnStar features (check-in and 911 call when the airbags deploy), you'd certainly think that they'd design the system to be failsafe regardless of the damage to the vehicle!! Valuable information!

[dznf0g]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

You know how the commercial shows the man who has been in a wreck and the Onstar operator calling him and sending help?

Well... didn't work that way for ME. I wrecked on I-64 last June: BIG interstate, less than 12 miles from a large town, and NO CALL. The police, the rescue squad and 5 to 10 helpful strangers arrived promptly. On Star - NEVER. AND they kept billing me long after the truck was scrapped. I finally got the last two months refunded. Had the Silverado 2008 for 5 years @ $20 per month and it didn't work in a wreck. $1250 flushed down toilet.

Perhaps the truck's battery was damaged, or one of the cables popped off during a wreck, but for a safety system this one isn't at all bulletproof or redundant.

Go camping with a couple of friends if possible. If alone, have a regular check-in call schedule. If you don't call, let your buddy call you - and if no response - call the mounties!

Paula

Paula, this is most disturbing to me. If you'd like to PM me and give me some detailed info, I wouldn't mind checking into it. It is entirely possible that the air bag deployment info was received (satellite) and services were dispatched, but voice capability was knocked out (Cellular). They automatically send services if no voice communication is achieved, whether by a mechanical damage or an unresponsive occupant.

There is an energy reserve module that allows for airbag deployment and Onstar signal transmission is the battery is knocked offline in the impact. As I recall, this was a rollover event....was the roof antenna damaged?

[Foiled Again]

The trailer rolled, the truck didn't - it went head first into the embankment. I double checked pictures we took of the wrecked vehicles after the accident. The roof was undamaged. There was quite a bit of damage on the driver's side of the car. Oddly - the airbag DID NOT deploy at all, but if there were any sensors working in that truck at all, they should have measured a wreck seeing as how the frame was bent, and a couple of engine mounts broke. The front end was badly skewed.

When I called OnStar to try and get a refund they had no record of the accident and claimed they couldn't locate the truck - period. Of course they couldn't, but the time I called it had probably been crushed.

Paula

[Luigi123]

Routing is better than GPS, outbound cas when cellular is poor works for me I buy 300 minutes a year for just in case. Plus I like the diagnostic on the car while driving.

[dznf0g]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

The trailer rolled, the truck didn't - it went head first into the embankment. I double checked pictures we took of the wrecked vehicles after the accident. The roof was undamaged. There was quite a bit of damage on the driver's side of the car. Oddly - the airbag DID NOT deploy at all, but if there were any sensors working in that truck at all, they should have measured a wreck seeing as how the frame was bent, and a couple of engine mounts broke. The front end was badly skewed.

When I called OnStar to try and get a refund they had no record of the accident and claimed they couldn't locate the truck - period. Of course they couldn't, but the time I called it had probably been crushed.

Paula

Hi Paula,

I don't recall the year of your old truck, and it is fruitless to try and discuss anything specific about your incident without being on scene, but on units prior to the advent of stability control WITH rollover mitigation and trailer sway control, the system was not sophisticated enough to sense non-air bag deployment accidents.
In the older ones (IIRC it is pre-2011 for the trucks) there has to be a deceleration rate great enough to deploy an air bag to trigger an Onstar notification.

This probably isn't the thread to discuss that, but if your air bags did not deploy, there would not be any Onstar intervention.