said by gizmopt2002 :

Honestly, I don't like OnStar. The bare minimum plan $24.95 a month plus taxes is good for what I would only use, which is stolen vehicle assistance, but I would much rather get LoJack as that is better. The other things are just kinda pointless to me. Do they not provide assistance if you don' pay, and do you have to actually get OnStar if your vehicle has it?"

OK. So OnStar doesn't work for you. Speaking as a person whose life was saved by the fine folks at OnStar, I'd like to address a few comments made by a less-than-informed poster.

Let me preface all of this by saying that I have a 2005 Acura RL that is not affected by the analog-to-digital switch.

Next, you're assuming that everyone has a cell phone. I should remind you that there are nearly 150 million Americans who /don't/ own a cell phone.

OnStar is much, much more than stolen vehicle assistance. I, too, have LoJack. But even LoJack has a bi-annual $79 checkup (read: battery change). Additionally, LoJack, according to their literature, can only be picked up by police departments or a limited number of highway patrol centers. Did I happen to mention that, again, according to their literature, there are only a little less than 300 towns/cities in the nation that can take advantage of LoJack? Compare that to the nationwide coverage of OnStar. Who's going to find your car first, even if it has been chop shopped? So, you see, LoJack is arguably /not/ better than OnStar.

Addressing your other two points in the first paragraph, no, you don't get OnStar service if you don't pay. No, you don't have to get OnStar if your vehicle comes with it. Your OnStar /will/ be able to call 9-1-1 like any other cell phone provider can, even if you don't have service. It's the law.

Diagnostics: Wow an e-mail telling me the status of when it needs an oil change and such. Pointless, I do my own maintenance and usually can find a problem if there even was one.

I have to agree with you on this one. Even though I don't have this service available to me (not available on non-GM cars), I've always thought it was a little weird. Thankfully, Acura has a similar service built into the RL. Oh, and it's free. But, again, just because you do your own service doesn't mean that the rest of the nation does.

Air bag deployment: Convince, only if I couldn't move my arm a little bit to get my cell phone. If I couldn't get it chances are my voice will be too faint, or I would be unconscious in which it would be fine but 99% of the time there are people here that help people who get into accidents and call 911. Plus what if you air bags don;t go off? No call?

So I'm to understand that you're going to have the where-with-all to pick up your cell phone to dial 9-1-1 after your airbags have deployed. Yeah, I did, too. Little did I know that I'd be too stunned from the flash burn of the airbags -- and too injured from my accident -- to remember to grab the cell phone that was a foot away from me. Assuming you have two-stage airbags in your vehicle, the first stage deploys at 40 mph, and the second stage is activated at 55 mph. Believe it or not, you can get pretty injured off of a 40 mph impact. I guess I must be one of the stupid ones, huh? Also, OnStar's accident alert doesn't only work when the airbags deploy. Although I'm not sure exactly how much of an impact you have to have, the system does trigger in an accident.

In my particular case, the idiot that hit me had knocked me into a ditch and took off. On top of this, NO ONE stopped to see that I was OK. In a matter of seconds, an OnStar operator came on to tell me that they sensed a serious impact on my car, deployed emergency personnel, and asked if I was OK. The operator stayed with me on the system whilst waiting for a first responder, which came in about 7 minutes. A couple of days later, the same operator called my house to see how I was doing.

Crisis Assist: Seriously? Pick up the phone and call somebody.

Again, you're assuming that everyone owns a cell phone. More seriously, a crisis, as defined by Webster's dictionary, is "a dramatic or emotional upheaval in a person's life; a condition of instability or danger." In a true crisis, you might not have the sense to pick up your phone and dial a 7- or 10-digit number. Granted, you might also not remember to hit the OnStar panic button, either.

Remote Door Unlock: Most cars today won't lock unless the drivers side door is closed, so if you manged to lock your key's in the car, I'm sorry but thats stupid, and if I ever did that I would be asking my self how stupid could I be.

Remote door unlock (or lock, which you didn't mention) proves useful when, you know, your keys have been lost or stolen. This feature also includes the ability to kill the engine. In fairness, though, most cars these days have alarm/safety systems that already include a kill-engine feature. Also, you're right in that many new cars won't allow you to lock your doors if it detects that the fob is inside the vehicle. Most don't have this feature.

Hands Free Calling: Another add on plan (more money). Again, why don't you have a cell phone?

You've never ever forgotten your cell phone, huh? Never. For the bare minimum, 30 minutes costs $19.95. If you have Verizon, minutes can be included as part of your plan.

Roadside Assistance: Cell phone, plus I already have a roadside assistance cheap through GMAC. Also my cell phone provider offers a roadside assistance add-on.

Add-ons... cost money, too (*gasp*). Oh, and even /you/ had to pay for roadside assistance with GMAC. Either way, you pay. Fortunately, for me, my car came with lifetime roadside assistance.

Accident Assist: call police, and call somebody.

I think I covered this one already. But again, you've been in an accident. It could be major. You could be stunned. You could've forgotten your cell phone, or, your cell phone could've been launched out of your car.

Remote Horn & Lights: If you can't find your car, why didn't you remember or at least write down where you parked.

Some of the the other stuff can be had through a GPS. Honestly, it is just a bloated add-on. I would gladly pay $5 because of the stolen vehicle, and the airbag deployment but thats it. Plus if your battery is drained, then OnStar wouldn't work would it?

Yes, OnStar still works. According to OnStar, the system needs the vehicle electrical system as a backup and to recharge the onboard battery for OnStar. The OnStar system uses a stronger wattage system than traditional cell phones, which means that it can pickup service and signals more readily than your cell phone can. I can't really say for sure about the GPS signal part. In my Acura Satellite Navigation system, and with my XM radio, I have driven through the entirety of many tunnels here and have not lost the signal. I am /not/ saying, however, that this could never happen.

*OnStar services require vehicle electrical system (including battery), wireless service and GPS satellite signals to be available and operating for features to function properly.

Parking garages, might be out of luck. Their new digital service? Les coverage, plus they aren't as good you think they are, just because the whole state is colored doesn't mean you could coverage everywhere. Just like with nearly any coverage map, it says you have coverage throughout that highway you're going on, but your calls keep getting dropped.

In fairness, the sole reliance on the digital system does concern me a little. This is especially true on the West Coast where it's less-densely populated. I'm sure, however, that this would unlikely be a problem east of the Mississippi.

said by gizmopt2002 :

Most cars today won't lock unless the drivers side door is closed, so if you manged to lock your key's in the car, I'm sorry but thats stupid, and if I ever did that I would be asking my self how stupid could I be.