On Star Questions

[XLR ED]

I have never had the ON Star hooked up in my 2004 XLR. Is this year XLR equipped with hands free phone through the On Star? How many of you have On Star hooked up in your cars?

I see the contest that GM is running push the On Star button and enter to win a new car of your choice.

 

[XFireXLR]

I have never had the ON Star hooked up in my 2004 XLR. Is this year XLR equipped with hands free phone through the On Star? How many of you have On Star hooked up in your cars?

I see the contest that GM is running push the On Star button and enter to win a new car of your choice.

The hands free phone option is through the OnStar unit and not your personal cell phone. I use OnStar and think that is great you can purchase batches of minutes through OnStar, they are ''use them or lose them''.

 

[Crimson Pearl]

You may have an issue if your Onstar module has not ever been upgraded from analog to digital. You might want to try a test call.

If your module requires the upgrade, your dealer can do it. I don't believe that it is very expensive to do.

 

[Tiffany's Dad]

Have had my On Star hooked up since puchased my 2004 in early 2005. I buy 100 minutes at a time and seems to work great. I still use my cell phone but when it drops calls in dead zones I switch to the car phone. Been using it for 5 years with no problems. Had the Digital upgrade few years ago.

 

[XLR ED]

You may have an issue if your Onstar module has not ever been upgraded from analog to digital. You might want to try a test call.

If your module requires the upgrade, your dealer can do it. I don't believe that it is very expensive to do.

Have had my On Star hooked up since puchased my 2004 in early 2005. I buy 100 minutes at a time and seems to work great. I still use my cell phone but when it drops calls in dead zones I switch to the car phone. Been using it for 5 years with no problems. Had the Digital upgrade few years ago.

Thanks for the info. I also own a Corvette and on Corvette Forum some of the Vette owners have posted you can now buy unlimited minutes for $10.00 a month. That sound like a good deal.

 

[sschooley]

Phone minutes are a good thing but I am a HUGE on-star fan for other reasons. My wife had a stroke (yes a healthy female under 45) while we were driving down the interstate in our GM Yukon. Can not convey how scary it is to see such a thing progress from an unmovable arm to not able to talk to just there in the passenger seat. Pushed on-star, we were a couple exits from a hospital...they were on standby when we drove up. She was in a scanning tube at the hospital nearly as fast as I could get out of the car and give the keys to someone to clear the emergency ambulance intake. May have saved her life.

Every vehicle she is in has a fully paid on-star program (Lexus calls their's Lexus Link) or equivalent. I know it's money that may seem hard to justify but that one moment would be hard to relive if I had skimped over a couple hundred dollars. Even my college freshman's 05 CTS has on-star because you can never know. The on-star folks say that without a plan (safe & sound or directions & connections) they will have no vehicle location or emergency response to an air bag deployment or emergency request.

Any way I advocate spending the money to anyone who remotely has a potential for such help and to all others. It can be a lifesaver!

 

[Tiffany's Dad]

Very good point.

 

[XLR ED]

I went to the dealer today about upgrading from analog to digital. They called GM and there is no part number for the upgrade. I was told GM was doing the upgrade years ago for no charge but that program has ended.

What gets me is the fact the XLR was a new car and it should have had the digital Onstar right from the start.

 

[jackparker06V]

If you have Verizon as a service provider, you can have the OnStar car phone set up as an additional $10.00 a month phone on the Verizon account that will share minutes with your primary Verizon phone. This is due to agreements between OnStar and Verizon. I use Verizon just for this reason. Cell phone coverage will be the same as a Verizon phone and all ONStar capabilities are retained.
Hope this helps
Jack

 

[First Robin]

If you have Verizon as a service provider, you can have the OnStar car phone set up as an additional $10.00 a month phone on the Verizon account that will share minutes with your primary Verizon phone. This is due to agreements between OnStar and Verizon. I use Verizon just for this reason. Cell phone coverage will be the same as a Verizon phone and all ONStar capabilities are retained.
Hope this helps
Jack

I have been told the contract between Onstar and Verizon ended and was not renewed. That was the information supplied to me by Verizon.

 

[First Robin]

I went to the dealer today about upgrading from analog to digital. They called GM and there is no part number for the upgrade. I was told GM was doing the upgrade years ago for no charge but that program has ended.

What gets me is the fact the XLR was a new car and it should have had the digital Onstar right from the start.

Digital was not available, only analog when the XLR first came out. My 2003 DHS was analog until some of the states changed their laws to have both analog and digital service. When they finally installed digital in enough states I had my car phone switched to digital. Don't blame GM for that one.

 

[Cadiblk]

One thing that irritates me about Onstar is that if you do not use your minutes then they expire. I think that if I buy the minutes then I should be able to keep them if they are not used. This is the reason that I have not renewed my Onstar subscription.

 

[First Robin]

One thing that irritates me about Onstar is that if you do not use your minutes then they expire. I think that if I buy the minutes then I should be able to keep them if they are not used. This is the reason that I have not renewed my Onstar subscription.

I am subscribed to Onstar on both of my vehicles but I do not buy their minutes for the very reason you stated. If I didn't do a lot of long trips I would cancel both Onstar subscriptions. They won't take into consideration that a single person with two vehicles can only drive one at a time.

 

[jjsea55]

I'm sure y'all know this, but if you buy ANY minutes at your anniversary date the unused minutes will roll over. I generally purchase the 100 minute package each year and don't lose my unused minutes from the previous year(s). On-Star calling is handy for me in traffic or when my cellular signal is weak.

 

[First Robin]

I'm sure y'all know this, but if you buy ANY minutes at your anniversary date the unused minutes will roll over. I generally purchase the 100 minute package each year and don't lose my unused minutes from the previous year(s). On-Star calling is handy for me in traffic or when my cellular signal is weak.

Thanks, I did not know this, I wonder when the change was made, maybe they wised up from the time I purchased minutes a few years back. If you didn't use them you lost them.

 

[jamsto]

I have been told the contract between Onstar and Verizon ended and was not renewed. That was the information supplied to me by Verizon.

You are correct Robert. The contract ended. Effective 1/1/12 Verizon will no longer provide service to the phones we converted in our Cadillacs. At that point, I will just use my Verizon phone that shared the minutes with the Car. Onstar wants way to much to purchase their minutes. We are hoping that by the time the service ends, someone else will come in to offer service, or Onstar will offer some good promotion to purchase minutes.

 

[Lola's Mom]

You are correct Robert. The contract ended. Effective 1/1/12 Verizon will no longer provide service to the phones we converted in our Cadillacs. At that point, I will just use my Verizon phone that shared the minutes with the Car. Onstar wants way to much to purchase their minutes. We are hoping that by the time the service ends, someone else will come in to offer service, or Onstar will offer some good promotion to purchase minutes.

We quit purchasing our minutes from OnStar also .... so expensive and if we didn't use them it was a big fight to get them to reinstate them. I don't even know WHY I keep OnStar anymore ... my cell phone has a GPS -

 

[sschooley]

so expensive and if we didn't use them it was a big fight to get them to reinstate them. I don't even know WHY I keep OnStar :

In my experience the only difficulty in keeping your onstar phone minutes is to remember to purchase additional minutes before your yearly anniversary date when the prior year's unused minutes expire. I just 'saved" 30 unused minutes on the CTS my college student uses by purchasing another 100 minutes prior to the anniversary date which arises this coming Saturday. He now has 130 minutes available over the next year.
As to the other virtues of Onstar I am so sold on this feature because it can be life saving. (See my earlier post on this thread)
Been there and seen it work.....

Steve

 

[Lola's Mom]

In my experience the only difficulty in keeping your onstar phone minutes is to remember to purchase additional minutes before your yearly anniversary date when the prior year's unused minutes expire. I just 'saved" 30 unused minutes on the CTS my college student uses by purchasing another 100 minutes prior to the anniversary date which arises this coming Saturday. He now has 130 minutes available over the next year.
As to the other virtues of Onstar I am so sold on this feature because it can be life saving. (See my earlier post on this thread)
Been there and seen it work.....

Steve

My ... I knew there must have been a reason .... But, wow ... so sorry to hear about your wife - I hope she is doing well. You are right, that is very young - but I do understand - my nephew had a bleed at age 22 ... that was fatal. Young, healthy, LAPD .....
Wish I could have met you - I always enjoy your posts ... thx again for the reminder ... I won't ever mind making that pmt again.

 

[Crimson Pearl]

I had a 2002 Tahoe that I purchased new. It was equipped from the factory with analog OnStar. When they converted OnStar to digital, I found out that my Tahoe could not be upgraded to Digital. Although I had planned to purchase a new Tahoe in 2008, the loss of OnStar was an additional incentive for me to do so.

OnStar did tell me that since my 2002 could not be upgraded, they would be glad to give me an additional year of OnStar service at no charge if I purchased a new 2008 Tahoe.

My sister-in-law had a DTS that had analog OnStar (unsure of which year model) and she was able to upgrade it from analog to digital, and at a very small price, perhaps $25.00?

When I was negotiating the purchase of my XLR, the dealer and I were very close to agreement. Finally, I asked if the OnStar could be upgraded to Digital. They checked with the Service Department and found out that it could be. We settled on a price that included the update and the first year of service.

Although I don't drive the XLR very much, I feel more confident with the OnStar in the event of a crash or other emergency. I DEFINITELY feel better with the OnStar Service in my Tahoe, as much as I drive in it!