General Motors has extended the period of its complimentary OnStar Basic plan to five years on new Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac vehicles purchased in China. The change went into effect on January 1, 2017 and represents a substantial increase from the one year provided previously.
The free OnStar Basic plan offers three primary features to customers:
- Remote key fob functionality (such as door lock/unlock and remote engine start) using the myBrand apps (such as myChevrolet, myCadillac, myBuick) or the OnStar RemoteLink App
- OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics (OVD) service that regularly sends a summer of the vehicle’s health to the owner, and
- Dealer Maintenance Notification (DMN) service that sends dealers a notification when a vehicle associated with their dealership requires service
In the United States, GM has been bundling the OnStar Basic Plan with 2015 model year and newer vehicles equipped with OnStar. As such, the move to offer the Basic Plan for five years with every new vehicle purchase in China appears to be an effort to bring parity to the plan in the U.S. and in China.
Comment
GM should include OnStar door unlocks, sos, and auto crash response free or for a greatly reduced price for the balance of powertrain warranty as standard equipment on all its vehicles. OnStar is a great service, and including it would be a great leg up on the competition that offers far inferior services-it could be made part of a drivers safety package ensuring that if you buy a GM vehicle, you and your loved ones are covered for any emergency. I would much rather have it than Forward Collision Alert or Lane Departure warning.