GM has drastically reduced the complimentary trial period of all OnStar services to a single month, GM Authority has learned. The core OnStar plan, as well as OnStar Connected Services, now have trials lasting just 30 days. By comparison, the OnStar trial was either three months or six months long in the recent past.
| OnStar Safety & Security Plan | OnStar Connected Services |
|---|---|
| Automatic Crash Response | Remote Vehicle Access (myBrand apps) |
| Emergency Services | OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics |
| Roadside Assistance | Dealer Maintenance Notification |
| Smart Driver | |
| Marketplace (app shop) |
myChevrolet app enables remote access functionality
OnStar Safety & Security coverage is the core OnStar plan that includes features like Automatic Crash Response, Emergency Services, and Roadside Assistance. Meanwhile, OnStar Connected Services includes remote vehicle access via the myBrand apps (myChevrolet, myBuick, myCadillac, and myGMC) for features such as remote vehicle start and door lock/unlock, along with OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics (OVD), Dealer Maintenance Notification (DMN), Marketplace, and Smart Driver functionality. Trial periods for both services have now been reduced to a single month. The Wi-Fi Hotspot is treated as a separate trial and subscription, and continues to include a trial of 30 days or 3 gigabytes, whichever comes first.
| Service | 2016 Model Year Trial Length | 2019 Model Year Trial Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary OnStar plan: | 6 months | 1 month | |
| Remote vehicle access: | 5 years | 1 month | |
| Vehicle Diagnostics | 5 years | 1 month | |
| Dealer Maintenance Notification | 5 years | 10 years | |
| Chevrolet Smart Driver | 5 years | 10 years | |
| Marketplace | 5 years | 10 years | |
| 4G LTE | 30 days / 3GB | 30 days / 3GB |
The reduction of the core OnStar trial period from the initial six months to three months, and now to just one month significantly shortens the amount of time new GM vehicles owners have to familiarize themselves with the OnStar services. The change in connected services is even more significant. That’s because, GM introduced the OnStar Basic Plan as a free plan for 2015 model year and newer vehicles, which lasted for five years. The Basic Plan included the aforementioned remote access functionality via the myBrand smartphone apps (at the time rolled into the OnStar RemoteLink app), along with OVD and DMN. Now, that plan is no more, meaning that free remote access functionality via the myBrand mobile apps is reduced from five years to a measly 30 days.
As of this writing, OnStar offers several plans ranging from $14.99 per month to $59.99 per month.
The GM Authority Take
The decision to reduce the OnStar trial period appears to be a cost-cutting measure by GM, and it’s not something that we’re in favor of.
That’s because becoming familiar with a new vehicle takes time, and becoming familiar with a vehicle’s in-depth features – such as those offered by OnStar – takes even longer. That’s not to say that OnStar is difficult to use… but 30 days isn’t enough time to develop behaviors that would allow one to know whether or not it’s a service worth paying for.
Do you agree? Tell us what you think of GM’s decision in the comment.
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- OnStar 4G LTE And Wi-Fi Hotspot
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- OnStar Commercial Link
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- OnStar Dealer Maintenance Notification
- OnStar Emergency Services
- OnStar Family Link
- OnStar Go Cognitive Mobility Platform
- OnStar Hands-Free Calling
- OnStar Location Manager
- OnStar Proactive Alerts
- OnStar Remote Door Unlock
- OnStar Remote Horn & Lights
- OnStar Remote Ignition Block
- OnStar Remote Start
- OnStar RemoteLink App
- OnStar Roadside Assistance
- OnStar Smart Driver
- OnStar Stolen Vehicle Assistance
- OnStar Stolen Vehicle Slowdown
- OnStar Theft Alarm Notification
- OnStar Turn-By-Turn Navigation
- OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics
Comments
All about the money, Mary may have been an engineer, but she’s a bean counter now, full blooded. Long as she get hers, no one else to worry about. Sad.
With GM’s current situation, they need to give it a full year!
Oh, boy. This is not good. When I was at the Buick, GMC, Cadillac and Honda store for all those years, I went through the time of no Onstar to the beginnings and can recall my 2007 Buick had it for 6 months. I think (don’t hold me to this however) that Cadillac had it free for the first year. In this article above, I didn’t notice it said anything different for Cadillac vs. the other GM brands. Volvo (store I’m at now) has a similar “On Call” system good for the 4/50 warranty, but it’s not nearly as good as Onstar! Mazda doesn’t offer anything. I think GM is making a huge mistake on this and would be better increasing the cost of each GM car by $100 but offer it free for 6 months on Chevy, GMC and Buick and for the full year on Cadillac.
Not only do I have experience with Onstar from a selling point, but also from a police officer point of view. Onstar is a fantastic service and it’s so under-sold! From a sales perspective, I’ve worked around way too many sales people who had zero clue about Onstar. But if these sales people and customers in general could see what I’ve seen (as a police officer), they would be sold on it an would then use that as a benefit with customers! Onstar is part of the main reason I still drive a GM car even when I don’t sell them now.
Dan, this is just one more mistake that GM has made. Taking off the market the Volt, a car which for 9 years had no competition and which displayed stellar engineering expertise and reliability, a car truly in a class by itself (Erick Belmer, a.k.a. “Sparkie”, drove his 2012 for 477,625 miles), and has nothing to replace it, it boggles the mind. One has to ask the question, has Mary Barra lost her grip?
Mary Barra proves over and over she’s in her position because having a female CEO is politically expedient, and was probably a condition of the bailout.
She is, in fact, inept.
Wow, what a very sexist statement to make!
I like reading all the backwards and forwards of different views, but you really have hit a low point!
She is obviously doing a great job if all you can attack her for is being female AND only getting the job because of anything other than her ability!
If OnStar vanished it would be fine with me. I never even used the trial on my last three vehicles.
I don’t know anyone that even subscribes.
You really should try using the navigation service if you get a chance. You get to talk to a real person (unfortunately) who will have trouble understanding you, and you will reciprocate. Once they get the navigation up and running, you might even be directed to correct road.
Probably not in the correct city though.
This is based on actual experience, and no, I’m not exaggerating.
For me, the problem with OnStar is that it is probably worth about $5/mo, but costs much more.
Even if the person understood you, who would want to talk to a real person?
And if you deviate from the route, it will wait for you to return to that path, OR you can talk to a person again.
It WAS a great service at one time, but, their level of service has declined greatly; this is especially true of getting directions. On too many occasions, I had to repeat, and then spell, addresses that were just not that complicated. “123, Mercantile Square, Anytown State” got the audible equivalent of deer in the headlights.
Some praise is still due, however. In fall of 2016 I traveled extensively in Ontario and on east into the Maritimes. The services there were outstanding; just like they were here. They also handle traffic-related things, like reporting an erratic driver to the local officials.
@scott3:
You say that you didn’t use in on the last three vehicles. That simply means that you never had the proper tutorial from your sales person or they just avoided it totally. But instead of from a “sales” view, allow me to give a couple of real features that alone are worth it from a “police” view:
1. Stolen vehicle locate and shut down.
2. Remote unlock of door for emergency or keys locked in car (yes, somehow people can still do that).
3. Emergency notification in case of an accident. Very very helpful in remote/rural areas.
4. Teen driver features.
I have children, thus I have Onstar.
I’ve owned several cars with OnStar over the years, harking back to 2007. Back then, and up through about 2015, they were very useful and helpful. Then, several things started happening.
The prices skyrocketed as the services sank like a torpedoed ship.
Wait times went from virtually nothing to “Your call is very important to us…” virtually every time I pressed the button.
Operators went from uniformly excellent and helpful to indifference, or inability to understand basic requests about half the time.
GM removed the ability to store phone numbers in the OnStar-provided telephone service, starting with the 2018 model year. For those of you who say “just use your mobile”, I kept minutes on my OnStar phone specifically for when I was in an area my carrier didn’t cover.
The only OnStar I use now is in my Pontiac. It has emergency response and I have some time on the built-in phone (which stores numbers!).
I’m considering the purchase of a Tahoe or Yukon in the next few months, and when we go through the new-car setup, I will just tell the operator to not bother, or to just set up the emergency services.
Onstar is a dinosaur. Sadly, its time has passed
Penny wise and pound foolish. What does this service really cost GM for this short period !
Continue to loose market share because of these small, but important features that need
time to experience. Cuts, cuts, cuts. Will not matter without enough customers
After reading this article I wonder if I still want to renew next month? The past year I used it once to call in a pizza from a WalMart parking lot!
Many new car owners may in a months time not really drive the car that much so this one month thing, is going to back fire!
Yes, I would love to see Mary gone!! I can only guess how greedy she will be in pricing the new C8 midengined Corvette?
Our take rate on Onstar has dwindled to virtually nothing. Now customers are upset because they lost their Remote Link app for remote start and door unlock. So now they activate it in November and disconnect it in April so they can have their Remote Link app in he winter.
Onstar needs to go to a Al a Carte or per drink pricing structure giving customers basic remote link and emergency services for a $7-9 / mo cost and charge for additional services such as crash notification, door unlock etc at a higher rate of $25 – $50 per incident.
With the services offered by portable navigation devices and automobile clubs, On-Star is just one of many that can provide the same essential services. Offer a year for all services and quit being penny pinchers. Your customers deserve it and so does your market share sales.
Very, very few people buy a GM car because OnStar is available and probably 90% do not know what OnStar is. People are looking for mileage, horse power, room, comfort, style, price, size, warranty, etc., way before they ever think of OnStar.
So here’s the deal… Yes the basic trial time has been reduced to 30 days, which used to be 90, which used to be 180 and so on. It actually happened back in April or May of 2018, and yes it sucks that the bean counters are in fact winning. During the OnStar welcome call which all of us sales people have to do when we deliver a car, so we can get our reduced SFE qualifiers met. the customer has the OPTION, yes I said option to place a credit card on file with OnStar extending the trial to 90 days, which will not be billed for 90 days. You can cancel anytime you just lose whatever time you had remaining on the trial. I always tell my customers to set a reminder in their phones via Siri or Google to cancel a week out from the date that OnStar gives them during that call when they will start billing them the $34.99 that the “trial plan” will cost after the trial ends. I have done it myself and it’s pretty simple by just pressing the “blue button” and telling the advisor that comes on that you would like to unenroll. They will try and offer a few different deals to you, like keeping the remote access plan (MyBrand App) for $14.99 per month, but if you want out you can end it right there. Let me conclude by saying that as a salesman I can tell you from personal experience that the OnStar welcome call is and arduous task that we all cringe at having to perform. Especially when we get pushed to one of the offshore call centers where lets just say there might be a slight communication issue via the english language barrier on the other end of the line. GM is tying our hands by making this an SFE bonus requirement ie: mandatory we just have to grit our teeth and deal with it.
I feel your pain and hear you on this. From my similar experience, the reason GM did this was because sales people didn’t care or want to do Onstar. Thus GM tied it into other things in order to get the sales people to do it. Not fun, but that’s life in auto sales. Let’s face it, sales people are lazy for the most part. Don’t get mad at me for saying that, as I’ve been and still am in car sales. This is a fact and sales people will always take the path of least resistance. A huge part of that is the fault of the dealerships (terrible pay, etc), but that’s a whole different story.
But back to Onstar: GM may be killing it for no good reason, but I really feel that the root of all this is lack of proper training for sales. Lack of interest from sales. Lack of sales demonstrating the feature and thus customers having no real clue about it, and on and on. And just like satellite radio, Onstar is negotiable after the initial subscription ends. I’ve kept mine going, but only pay $9.95 per month for the basic safety features and to have my app work on my phone. For what I pay, it’s a fantastic deal, but I had to fight for it.
OnStar is a terrible product. Trying to steal AAA’s product doesn’t work unless OnStar were to offer such coverage to all cars in the family, no matter the make.
What would make more sense is offering extended car warranty for a compelling price… and then throwing in the OnStar safety stuff and smartphone tricks.
My new Silverado is still operating on the 90 day extension and is my third vehicle with this feature. I have only used it during “tests” when each vehicle was first purchased but can appreciate the help the system can provide, especially following an accident, any emergency, or even a door unlock. For me however, the monthly cost doesn’t sit high enough on our family budget priorities to warrant keeping it or the SMX radio. I would consider it though if the monthly cost was less with pay-as-you-need options as Stewart suggested or even the more attractive $9.95 that Dan was able to get. But, customers shouldn’t have to fight to get something that they don’t really need to start with.
What is going on at GM lately . You want a 6 cyl. engine instead of the 4-banger, pay xtra , want safety features that r standard in most vehicles , pay xtra , discounts for non-GM vehicle owners forgetting the GM owners , smaller warranty’s and maintanence for only one visit now . Keep it up GM and your really going to loose your loyal customer base .
I wonder if the Canadian warranty and maintenance terms have been reduced? In autumn of 2016 I was in Nova Scotia and needed a service.
The Chevy dealer I went to wasn’t sure if my American oil changes (a generous two included) were valid there, so they did it for no charge “as a courtesy”.
The service writer looked at me, winked, and said if I were living there, I would have complete maintenance for 100,000km included. (about 62,000 miles).
And this is the part i just don’t think GM understands. Most other automakers are including safety tech like blind spot monitor, lane keep assist, crash avoidance, etc. standard even with smaller vehicles… And GM is only just now getting around to even offering it on some of their top selling ones?! Usually at a not-insignificant extra cost.
I work at a Chevy dealer. We have a used 2018 Toyota Tacoma on our lot. The only option it even has is an automatic transmission, yet it has more safety tech than a new $35,000 Colorado LT. What’s up with that?
I can kinda see paying for Onstar. They have advisors, etc. to pay for. But $15 a month for an app!!! I have many, many apps (some free and some paid), but $15 a month to use an app is ridiculous. I feel I’m been monopolize. Maybe someone will come up with an app that is free or at least reasonably priced (one time fee).
I believe that GM should return to the time when adding the OnStar hardware and software to a vehicle was an OPTION. Yes I understand that using the service on a vehicle equipped with OnStar is optional. I do not want to be forced into having telematics hardware and software installed on my vehicle. Telematics does not need my OK or acceptance to function and record various pieces of information NOT required by Federal law. Those specific items are collected and stored by law on a different system on the vehicle.
Am (was) a devoted Corvette owner since 1963, but no more. My new car warranty is about to expire on my C7, transmission still not right. They avoid repairs by saying ‘no error codes’ or ‘could not duplicate’ or ‘GM will not pay’ even though I demonstrated the issue. They are banking on customer loyalty, but like me, many are disappointed with the excuses, run-around, lack of concern,, and now greed for the almighty dollar. A tragic end to fun times. Bye Bye GM.
GM just keeps going down a really bad path lately. I hope it will survive well into the Future but with recent moves who knows.
When companies are run by engineers and bean counters they never emerge on top. History has proven this time and again.
Until GM gets balance back into there management, they will continue to struggle with products and customers.
here we go again Mary and her bean counters . wait until the end of the year Mary and her cronies will get a niece raise . I hope they all get a pink slip instead . I really want to know if they read all these negative comments if they don’t they should
I won’t pee on anyone’s parade but I can say with my Jeep Grand Cherokee I got one year of XMradio for free. After having it for that period, I subscribed and paid the bucks. 3 month isn’t enough even though that came with my C7 ZR1. I think I like it but can’t be sure, including the Hotspot feature. I need more time!!!! I likely opt out, but that’s not my loss – its their’s!