OnBoard with OnStar
I’m not a car guy. I look at automobiles as transportation. Get me here, get me there, give me good mileage, some comfort and that’s about all I ask.
So when I leased a new Buick Lucerne, it wasn’t out of brand loyalty.
I got a good deal and the car was reasonably well-appointed, quiet, didn’t look hideous and gets me 22 m.p.h. — a lot better than the 13 I got on the Ford F-150 I turned in.
But one month into the experience, I can tell you right now that my next car will be from General Motors.
I’ll buy from GM because of OnStar.
The latest generation of OnStar — GM’s onboard safety and communications system — is far and away the most convenient, useful option I’ve ever had on a vehicle.
I’ve tried OnStar several times and walked away unimpressed.
No longer. One new feature has so won my loyalty that I can’t imagine giving it up. It’s the new turn-by-turn navigation service that GM just launched as standard in most Buicks and Cadillacs and will offer as a $100 option on other models later this year.
OnStar, including the new navigation system, is free for my first year. Afterward, with the turn-by-turn feature, it will cost $299 a year. I’ll take it.
I’ve used it probably a dozen times. Push the blue OnStar button, a live representative comes through my entertainment system speaker, greets me by name and asks how he or she can help.
I tell them I want directions, give them an address and, in seconds, they upload a route to the car radio, which then displays roads, directional arrows, mileage to the next turn and uses a computer voice to give me turn-by-turn instructions.
My first trip was on a hurried Saturday morning. I was scheduled as a speaker at a conference center in northern Oakland County and had left my house late. OnStar got me to the facility — located off a remote road.
Since then it has flawlessly directed me to offices, the homes of friends, restaurants and meeting places the whereabouts of which I had no clue.
Only once, when it had me get off westbound I-94 on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn did it goof. It told me to go straight from the exit. But the Michigan exit from I-94 has recently been reengineered. I actually had to turn right to go westbound. OnStar was clearly referencing an out-of-date map.
But it was so minor a miss that I’m not going to hold it against that nice computer voice.
And here’s another neat OnStar feature: vehicle diagnostics.
It will e-mail a free checkup report on fluid levels, tire pressure, brake condition and maintenance needs. You can also push the blue button to request a diagnostics check.
All those safety features of OnStar that we’ve heard those incessant radio advertisements extol — emergency services notification, operator checks when the air bag deploys, opening the car door if you lock the keys inside — are also great security reasons to justify that second-year renewal fee.
My one complaint with OnStar has to do with the telephone built into its control panel.
I like it. It’s truly hands-free. I’d use it all the time if GM weren’t so greedy.
You can program the OnStar phone to dial by saying a phone number and afterward, if you want to have it stored, just name it “home” and then, next time, just say “call home.” It does.
I love it.
But I can’t afford it.
Existing Verizon Wireless customers can add the OnStar phone onto another account they have and work against the minutes for the package they already pay. But those with other carriers are out of luck.
OnStar charges premium prices to get phone minutes for the car. They give you 30 free minutes to try it and offer 100 minutes for a onetime fee of $14.95 that’s good for one year. But if you plan to use the onboard phone a lot, you have to prepay a package from $13.99 for 30 minutes (about 46 cents a minute) to $299.99 for 1,000 minutes (about 30 cents a minute).
That’s highway robbery.
But the other features and especially the turn-by-turn navigation system, using global positioning satellites and seamlessly integrated with the vehicle entertainment system, make for highway peace of mind.
I’m seriously onboard with OnStar.
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