My free 3-month trial period is over at the end of next month, and - naturally - OnStar sent me all of the information I need in the mail to renew. I don't really have an interest in their services, especially at the prices they charge!

Guidance Plan = $359.89/year
Security Plan = $249.90/year
Protection Plan = $199.90/year

Really? $360/year for navigation? Come on, man!

I was about to throw everything in the trash (and will soon), but before I do, I wanted to see if any of you actually use this service, and if so, which one, and why?

 

I threw away all the OnStar literature when I got the car and only half paid attention to the salesman when he explained it to me. No interest at all in OnStar.

 

Nope I want nothing to do with Onstar. Total waste as far as I'm concerned.

 

Personally, I didn't use it that much during the free period and while I do drive mine daily to work in the Spring, Summer and Fall when it's not raining, it still sits quite a bit. Too much money, as far as I'm concerned for what it does even if I drove mine every day year round.

The one thing that's nice and still works without a subscription to OnStar, is for the first 5 years (I believe), you can use the app to send destinations to the Nav (if you have Nav). When that runs out, I'll probably live without it and use my iPhone to navigate.

 

waste of money

 

Especially considering Android Auto does this for free - and WAAAAYYYY better.

(Not sure about the security plan or protection plan)

 

I used it to track my 18 GS from the factory to my dealer on my smartphone app. I have always let the free trials expire.

 

I want it gone... NO need for it at all.

 

I activate it for a 30 day period when taking a long road trips. Small cost for peace of mind other than that it’s inactive.

 

I use it off and on to make calls when I forget my phone and have called them for information.

 

I have the protection plan on all 3 of my vehicles. I have it tied into my State Farm insurance to get a little discount on my insurance. The people wearing aluminum foil hats can rest easy the only thing State Farm sees is the car mileage, nothing else.

The best part about OnStar is the automatic crash response which really is more of an insurance policy Vs a service. However, OnStar does other things as well. When I was towing the Vette to VIR I had a flat on my Tahoe, luckily I was in a rest area when it decided to deflate, My spare tire got caught up in its release mechanism and was stuck half way down and I couldn't release it from the carrier and it wouldn't go back up so was swinging from the bottom of the truck. I pushed the button and OnStar sent somebody to help. The guy helped me get to a location where I could purchase a tire and get the spare tire tied back up where it is supposed to be carried. There was no charge.

The other thing is OnStar has longer distance cell service and there are plenty of places in the US where a hand held cell phone sees a No Service indicator on the screen while you can talk to anybody you want through the OnStar cell phone.

Plus there is the ability to diagnose the car when the dash lights come on. For $168 per year per car it isn't too bad of an insurance policy and I always hope I never get to use it.

The thing is if I wanted to upgrade to the Guidance Plan for a month I could. However, I have a Garmin, two cell phones and 2 cars with built in navigation and I rarely use any of them.

Bill

 

I have a '15 so maybe it is different. On the '15, Onstar came with 5 years of "basic". Up until a few months ago, it had two useful features. They used to let you send destinations to the on-board Nav through the app, and this was most useful to me as the crapulant GM nav interface could NEVER find any destination I have ever tried while sitting in the car. That feature stopped working a couple months ago, so now I don't the the crapulant GM Nav anymore and just stick with Waze.

The other feature is the remote start through the app. This was MOST useful in the Florida Inferno that I could remote start the car and by the time I walked up to it it was not baking me like an oven. That and the other fob functions like lock and unlock doors are the only part of the crapulant Onstar app the works now.

When the 5 years is up, I doubt I will pay for the basic plan - just plan too expensive.

 

No need / Never used it

 

Color me a paranoid tinfoil hat wearing nutcase but have you reviewed the tracking data on your OnStar account, complete with bread crumb tracking and whether Mother OnStar thinks you were accelerating or braking too hard? If nothing else in the "information age", we have learned that if data is available, it can be misused or quietly rolled in to the multipage legalese EULA that most consumers don't read. If data isn't available, it cannot be misused.
Once the trial period is over, I plan to dump OnStar. Researching Lojack for stolen vehicle recovery.

 

Don’t know where you came up with that information but it is not correct. The owner of my State Farm office told me about the device and the associated discount then she said, I would not recommend you get one for your Corvette because you don’t really want us to see how you drive it.

The State Farm tracking device plugs in the OBD II data port. The device collects things like miles per gallon, your speed, acceleration, sudden stops, and other details about your driving habits. This information is automatically sent to the In-Drive service via a cellular connection to calculate your discount.

Here is a reference article.

https://technicallywell.com/state-fa...nd-save-review

 

Looks like my desire to drop it after the free period is over is correct. Lots of support here for "no OnStar."

However, keep the opinions coming!

 

I use it all the time!



They will send directions to your car, make reservations for hotels, restaurants, etc. I enjoy having it onboard.

 

Nope, Don't use it. I let the initial subscription expire on all of the GM cars/trucks that I have owned

 

Using OnStar for navigation seems incredibly silly to me. So you call up OnStar, tell them the address, and they download directions? Can't you type in the same directions yourself? Now security and crashes seems like an okay deal to me.

 

Well this is a worst case scenario but I used OnStar on a truck I have when we were on vacation. Truck started running rough and I was trying to find a place to pull over to see what was wrong with it and ended up in a bad part of town before finding a place to stop. Truck would not start back. Wife tried to find a wrecker service on cell phone and we were getting nowhere especially trying to tell them where we were at. She finally said lets try OnStar. Well they had a wrecker to our location within 20 minutes along with a cab to take us to a rental agency. Wrecker took the truck to the nearest Chevy dealer. Didn't have to try to tell either one where we were at. Have I used it after that which was about 7 years ago? Nope but I still keep the basic plan just in case.