OnStar Question

I never used my Onstar past the 3 free months. I hav Nav and do use it occasionally, but my 2015 doesn't have Android Auto.

I have never updated my GM Nav so I can see in the future where I would use my phone more for navigation anyway.

The NAV was in the truck I wanted off the lot. I would not have otherwise paid for it.

The maps for the navigation (at least on our 2012 Tahoe) come on DVD you have to purchase for $200. Your new vehicle will have outdated maps in a year or 2 if you are in a growth area or travel to an area that is growing (and adding roads or changing roads)...

Onstar for GM break down :);):D

RAllison wrote:
Just purchased a 2019 Chevy 2500HD and a 3 mo. free subsciption to OnStar came with it. For you that continue to use it, how well do you like the navigation system? We will try and use it some, but no long distance traveling until next year. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Rich

nav and onstar are basically seperate features. AFAIK Nav is independent of Onstar. And the nav works when Onstar is in an area that is out of ATT service. (Onstar relies on ATT it is NOT a sat phone!)

Now one thing we like about the nav system is it often gives very detailed turn by turn direction. Like, in 1 block make the first left turn after the McDonalds on the left. And will give you more detail than my garmin. And the turns can be shown on the instrument cluster with turn direction and name of street.

Downside is that updates cost and even then aren't as current as cell nav systems.

If you have onstar you can have onstar download directions to you make hotel reservations, get trafic updates etc. For example from San Diego we wanted to follow highway 1 as much as possible all the way to cresent city with several overnight stops along the way. Onstar person easily downloaded that route to our truck. Most Nav systems for this would mean manual routing since they usually have fastest route, minumum freeway etc.etc. but not a "follow this highway only".

And on a few occasions when we encountered road closure due to accidents onstar was able to easily route us around them on a trailer friendly route when we said we were pulling a 35ft trailer.

On another occasion we encountered a big backup at St.Regis Mt. Called onstar. They said road closed at Idaho sumit due to accident. (that was a 30 mile long no moving traffic!) They gave us an estimate of when the road would open and when we called at that time they told us the road was open and the back was down to about 5 miles and clearing. Much better than sitting on the highway for 2 hours not moving!

Is Onstar worth it? for us yes, but depends on what you want.

Note: Again Onstar relies on ATT service. there ARE places you will not be able to contact Onstar, been down that route..

Try using everything you can on Onstar and Nav for 3 months and then decide if the cost is worth it for you.

I do not have an Onstar subscription and the nav system in my Chevrolet still works. It is a standalone nav like Garmin etc. If you have a map display that's what you have.

There's also the turn by turn voice only system using Onstar.

GM doesn't explain any of that very well, because they'd like you to believe your vehicle won't function without a subscription. No doubt the day is coming when they'll make that come true.

When our Saturn was on hospice at 200k, used the onstar to download fault codes a couple times a week. I like that feature. Used it once on the truck when a coil went bad, there was a NAPA at the next stop, 15 min later back on the road. On the fly diagnostics is the cats meow.

We like our Garmin better than our 2018 chev navigation.

chevman

My wife has actually been using the in vehicle navigation on her Suburban more so in/around town than her smart phone. On our Suburban, while not as quick to update for traffic, it has rerouted us due to traffic congestion/issues. For long distance trips I do like to use something like Waze as I can look ahead for traffic issues along with being warned of objects in the road or pot holes. We actually often run the in vehicle nav and a smart phone on road trips.

We do seem to have an issue if using a smart phone for navigation and listening to the radio after giving instructions the radio will not come back on. If we are streaming music this isn’t an issue and it isn’t an issue with the in vehicle nav. Other than the vehicle nav becomes a nuisance to the young kids when it talks over their movies!

A few things I do like about having OnStar...the other day I met up with the wife and she was then heading to a different location than I was, somewhere she hadn’t been before (we have only lived in our area nine months). I looked the place up on my phone and hit the send to vehicle button. Within seconds her truck nav was providing directions. I also really like the remote access features through the app. It’s nice to be able to come out to a heated or cooled vehicle when you have an infant with you. We have also had an instance where we were behind a drunk driver late at night but had no cell service. Our OnStar still worked to be able to notify the authorities.

Even if you don't get a subscription you still get some basic services. Such as, if you're in an accident and dying you can press the button and get help. I think it falls into the "all mobile phones must be able to dial 9-1-1" law or something.

Everything else, my phone can do better, and best yet I'm already paying for it. Onstar is an extra bill every month that I really didn't want.

We used it with our 2015. We had to make sure we parked our car on a street, not in the hotel parking lots as it seemed to get confused in the parking lot. I found while it understood my wife's voice, it had trouble understanding my voice, even when I spoke a slowly and clearly as I could.
I prefer maps and a compass and we can usually find our way fairly quickly. But then I'm an old guy. If we were doing a lot of travelling in foreign (to us) areas I would get a separate GPS direction system.