[EcoEric]

It has now been one week since I have received my 2012 Eco from a Chevy dealer in Michigan. One of the best things about buying the car from a dealer is that as a certified pre owned I got a warranty and 3 months on the XM radio and 3 month on the OnStar with the My Chevy app on my phone. I have to say it is pretty cool with all the features on it and I will miss it after the trial is up. I want to know how many of you still have a subscription and if so what are the monthly charges and packages you have.


Thanks,

Eco Eric

 

[aaron.terveen]

I dropped it. Kinda miss it though.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

 

[Ursa]

I never thought the OnStar was worth the $26 a month. If I lived in an area with terrible cellular coverage, I'd consider activating it again as the OnStar phone works very well.

XM...meh. I've subscribed to it off and on. Audio quality on many of the music channels is very disappointing, but it's nice to have for the sports coverage. Come renewal time, if you call 'em up and keep telling them that you're going to cancel, they will eventually offer you a much lower rate to keep you aboard.

 

[dhpnet]

I liked the turn by turn directions that you could send from your phone to the car, but I can do that with Google maps. I also like being able to see the car's status, gas level, etc from my phone. That should be available via bluetooth though. The OnStar basic plan allows me to unlock my car with my phone for free for 5 years. A nice feature, but I have never used it. The emails with car status are neat, but don't really tell me much that I don't already know, and I don't always get them.

OnStar is way to expensive in my opinion. I might have kept it if it was only $5 a month. But, for $40 a month, it's just not worth it. Dumped it.

The Chevrolet app also lets me set parking reminders, but there are a lot of apps that can do that.

 

[Eddy Cruze]

It is worth it if you use it. I hardly drive that much and although I'm on a $20 a month promo including everything, I've never called or used it in 2017. You tell me is it worth it?

 

[winks79]

Neither are worth it to me. I paid for Onstar on several of my vehicles over the years, only time I ever used it was a couple of times the wife locked the keys in the vehicle. If I ever need them to unlock any of my vehicles again, I will just pay the one time monthly fee over the phone with them, and then cancel. That would still be cheaper than a locksmith. XM, I like it, but as stated, not worth the money. Heck, they offered me XM for $5/month for 6 months, and I still did not renew. I almost considered it, as my commute to work is a 2 hour round trip, but I'd rather listen to my own music most of the time anyway, or have quiet time when I drive.

 

[NickD]

Problem I have is the the geosynchronous satellites are located above the equator. At 45*N latitude the are a bit over 20* above the horizon, not good in hilly tree lined Wisconsin, same with Direct or Dish TV, zero reception. Most of the time do not get XM or OnStar reception. If I moved to the equator, satellites would be directly overhead.

In 65 years of driving, never been stalled yet, do preventative maintenance on my own vehicles, but sure had my share of problems with car rentals. Last time was when we were in Italy a couple of years ago, but did have a cell phone. Before cell phones, had to walk to the nearest farm house or whatever. Cell phone reception is far better than Satellite.

Paying around 60 bucks per year for towing insurance, been doing this since OBD II in 1996, can do a darn thing of firmware crashes in flashram. When that kid hit me back in 95, was knocked unconscious, but was blocking traffic. Somebody else called 911, don't know who. But then OnStar would only call a towing company, you still have to pay for it.

OnStar was sending me the same information I could read off my dash, redundant. Never paid over 90 bucks for GPS with lifetime maps. Carry a spare one in my glove compartment. Insist on have a spare tire, can of spray is only good for a tiny nail hole.

Son living in Japan tells me they have free WiFi, how come we don't have this here. Other countries seem to have very cheap cell phone rates, we are getting robbed blind here. Then all kinds of extra taxes on it.

 

[Tomko]

I have been an XM subscriber for 15 years. I can't stand listening to commercials and am glad to pay whatever it costs not to.

I also pay for XM Nav Traffic that displays on my factory nav and automatically changes my routing to avoid construction, collisions, road closures and congestion.

I have been an onstar subscriber for nine years. I use it a lot. Especially for destination download to my factory nav. But have also used it for remote diagnostics when I've had a check engine light come up, remote door unlock, hands-free calling, emergency service, and wifi hotspot. I especially like the monthly emails I receive from onstar on the vehicle's health. I bought a block of four years of onstar service up front and saved by making that long-term commitment.

I also had my onstar hardware upgraded to 4G some years ago.

http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/25-gen1-service-issues/131274-gm-changing-my-2g-4g-onstar.html

 

[MP81]

I'll probably end up keeping whatever minimum plan I need to retain myvolt.com usage on my Volt, after whatever plan it comes with expires, since that gives me the download of all my driving/charging statistics.

 

[NickD]

G stands for generation, since they started with 1g, now up to 4g, 5g is coming soon, have a bag full of perfectly good cell phones that don't work anymore. When 5g comes out, more bucks out the door.

Same with computers, Windows 3.1 with an aftermarket internet program and Netscape worked perfectly fine, now Windows 10, have a stack of obsolete computers that don't work on the internet anymore.

Hands free calls uses that antenna on top of the vehicle, range greatly increased. Same with my remote garage door opener, had to be within 50 feet. One in the vehicle works over half a block away.

Have over 4,000 songs on a USB stick, they are all commercial free. Garmin 1450 7 years old still gets free map updates. Most up to date is google, can plug my smart phone into the radio and control it from there.

Each to his own on this subject, but with software, they got us where they want us.

 

[loveshackle]

Wife drives the Cruze daily. I dig the car locate feature on my OnStar app. I like not having to call her at work to determine if she's there or not (works two jobs alternate schedule from mine and both vary shifts a lot). Makes it really easy to meet up with her when she's out and about.

Earlier this week, I went to lunch at a nice place and wanted to see if she was free to meet me. Her phone wasn't answering (she doesn't have it on at work and forgets to turn it back on). Saw the car was on the highway headed toward my end of town, so I sent directions to the restaurant right to the car. We had a great rare lunch date we would have missed without OnStar. I'll probably pay to keep it up.

As for XM, I sold both XM & Sirius for years when they were competing entities. Haven't paid to subscribe since Bubba the Love Sponge left Howard 101. If I'm driving, my iPod full of recent podcasts is plugged in and that's what is playing. Nothing there for me worth paying for.

Just my .02...

 

[obermd]

I'll probably end up keeping whatever minimum plan I need to retain myvolt.com usage on my Volt, after whatever plan it comes with expires, since that gives me the download of all my driving/charging statistics.

I'm in the same situation. Unless you're going to use features like remote start I'm not sure it's worth while. I have roadside assistance from USAA.

 

[MP81]

I'm in the same situation. Unless you're going to use features like remote start I'm not sure it's worth while. I have roadside assistance from USAA.

Preconditioning is a must in the mornings below 60 degrees, especially once you get into winter. Gotta get the batteries up to operating temp to be more efficient. And also warms the interior up. Does both using mostly home power.

 

[Blasirl]

Welcome Aboard!:welcome:

Neither are worth it in my opinion, but then again, I do not have a cell phone, only basic cable and I still use snail mail.

 

[neile300c]

I love Sirius, but I don't like paying for it, the $30 for 6 months is a decent deal though, probably close to what its worth to me

OnStar is decent, but I won't pay for it. The only thing I do like about it, is that the car can be located. I am type 1 diabetic, and one time I wound up stopped in the middle of the highway at 10 pm in a town 30 miles north of my home, luckily did not get in an accident, but it would be nice to have onstar for that, but I don't plan on that happening again.

 

[Tpstr]

Onstar app is very handy to monitor whereabouts of college age son. �� The turn-by-turn thing is nice, but no better than Google Maps. Haven't locked the keys in the car (yet). Haven't had car stolen (yet). Beyond that, there's not much need to me.

I let Sirius/XM expire. Just nothing I wanted on it. Got MLB.TV app to give me same Cubs radio broadcast.

 

[NickD]

Vehicles are very complicated today, when a signal has to pass through a million transistors micron size to fire a spark plug or a fuel injector. Knowing this stuff doesn't help you, not a darn thing you can do about it. So definitely carry towing insurance, has up to 200 miles of towing that is also covered, and the rates are far cheaper than OnStar.

All OnStar does is to locate a towing company, still have to pay out of pocket for it.

When driving alone after raising ten kids can really appreciate quiet, only chance one gets to screw their head back on. Besides this have to really concentrate on the road, idiots all over the place, a constant 360 degree view is required, really don't need any distractions. Not only this, but road construction and a series of potholes to watch out for. Already prepared to say, officer, I am not drunk weaving all over the place, trying to avoid pot holes.

When riding with my wife, really the only chance we get is to talk, radio stays off. In my flying days, really had to pay close attention, weather, constant changing of mixture, navigation, switching fuel tanks, etc., no time to be listening to anything if you wanted to stay alive. Super high cost of liability insurance sure ended this.

Many of our roads don't even have a shoulder, even with a flat tire would call a towing company, could get killed by some idiot that is in a hurry.

 

[IndyDiesel]

I don't like paying for onstar, my iPhone works well for navigation and use that all the time. My parents are around 80 and drive a 17 suburban and they always keep onstar for the emergency capabilities due to some potential serious health issues, so everyone can use onstar for different purposes.