2008 Cadillac CTS: Detroit to Los Angeles Part IV

Amazing how people who've never really used OnStar manage to formulate such strong opinions against its usefullness.

$2000 for an in-car nav system.
$299 for a year of OnStar with directions.
$150 for a TomTom/Garmin
$0.10 to print out a sheet of directions from Google maps.

I don't understand why anyone would ever go with the in-car nav, or the OnStar.

chavis10,
Can't blame anyone but GM. OnStar has _no_ advertising. It's nonexistent on the Cadillac web site. It's like an undocumented feature. Who knows what it does?

whats so funny is that after years of the auto media bashing onstar and talking up factory nav systems Toyota and Ford are moving to compete with the system. Toyota is launching a full fledged Onstar competitor this year even though we have been told for the last few years that the service is redundant and pointless. Did anyone send that Memo to Toyota?

"I don't understand why anyone would ever go with the in-car nav, or the OnStar."

You might have an understanding if you knew it did more than turn by turn nav. Furhermore unlike a portable nav you can get directions to virtually any place even if you dont know the address. My portable nav has some restaurants and retail locations stored, but not many. Onstar has up to date info and can route you to any place if you have the name and general area.

On-star has some features that might be nice, like the phone (if I didn't have a cell with bluetooth) and the vehicle diagnostics. That being said, I'd rather have a screen for nav...or just a map.

But in the end, I don't think I find enough value in the On-star services to make me want to pay for them.

bilt,

anyone who vists a GM product website can figure out what onstar does. If you arent looking you probably wont know. Give me a break.

I was skeptical about the value of OnStar too, until I used it. It really is a great system, and it does a LOT. The new vehicle recovery feature is nice too - it'll shut a theif down, and tell you and the cops exactly where your car is.

Vehicle recovery aside, I am against navigation systems in general. They cost quite a bit, cause you to blindly follow directions, and distract you (ok, maybe not so much in this case since its displayed under the speedometer...). Plus, think of all of the interesting things you'll miss out on if you insist on always following the directions some electronic brain gave you. If you live in an area whose streets are based on a grid, just wing it every once in a while and you'll be glad you did. Thats how I discovered the best tacos in all of LA (El Chato -- Olympic and La Brea).

I suppose a good exception to my rule is if you live in an area whose streets are based on cow paths, filled with one-ways and riddled with construction year round and designed by sadomasochists -- GPS is a survival tool in that case.

Does the navigation unit on this car have a (subscription free) turn by turn feature or are you forced to use OnStar for that?

@jaguar36
Convenience, convenience, convenience.

seriously, what does it cost to use the "send to onstar" tab? if you can still do this with your account inactive because you stopped paying the bill, then cool. if not, then boo!

I think the value of Onstar is that you can get the same service you get in a Cadillac with that in a Cobalt. Onstar integrates a phone, driving directions, "help-me-I'm-lost" feature, crash notification, reservation making, and notices that your videos are overdue at Blockbuster. Beat that $2000 nav system!

Then again, you do have to pay subscription fees to access all that, and an owner has to weigh the cost/benefits of each system. If you order up Onstar with your GM vehicle, you get the basic service of Onstar free for a year.

But hey, in the Cadillac, you get the best of both!

I much prefer an actual map, either digital or pre-printed. I like to have some visual sense of what I'm doing before I ever leave my driveway.

edubya,
navis don't have to give you directions. you can just use them as a map and scroll around the map.
They also can find restaurants or whatever in a general area. 1487 must have an old model.

my model is from 2007 so I guess its old. My point was that it has a VERY incomplete listing of restaurants and retail outlets. I know just from looking at what it has in areas around my house. Also, using my nav to scroll around and "look" at a surrounding areas is a pain and is much worse than looking at a street atlas. Bottom line is that Onstar lacks a representation of a map but is more capable than a portable nav. Also you can download directions from Mapuest to your car. It must have some merit since Ford and Toyota are going to offer similar services in their vehicles.

Didn't Audi or Acura offer OnStar with their vehicles for a while?

Ed looks determined to get to the destination, with or without OnStar's help!

Chavis: Affirmative to both. Lexus, too. There was a good post on the future of OnStar in Autoblog the other day:

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/26/onstar-for-everyone-gm-offering-service-to-other-automakers/

When I went to Tampa for Howl-O-Scream around Halloween, I used my iPod touch for directions to the Tampa mall. It might need internet access, but it got me there. I think a cheap Garmin would be nice to have, but I just can't see paying so much for an in-car system.

That sounds pretty sweet. I also like the display.

In that pic the driver looks like Hal Sparks.

Mapquest Sott?? What is this, 1997?? No wonder you found 'Value' in Onstar.

Toyota has G-BOOK, Nissan has CARWINGS, and Honda has internavi Premium Club.
They all offer advanced communications/support thingamajigs in Japan.
The only reason they don't offer it here is probably because they don't have a network set up yet.

The Toyota one is G-BOOK mX Pro.
Sorry I didn't type enough meaningless letters to be cool.

I'll stick to my Garmin Nuvi...

My biggest pet peeve about nav systems that I've found is they don't actually function as a map. They show streets, but unless it's a freeway, the nav in the 2008 civic doesn't display the name of the street. It also only shows most streets if you zoom in to a one mile radius, and they disappear as soon as you try to zoom out to see any farther. Finally, if there's a certain street I want to take, it's not easy to get the nav to route me along that street. If the Onstar system can do any of those, I'd probably spring for it. Or get a map.

The driver looks kinda cute...

Doesn't your nav system have a way of searching for hotels in the are or of selecting a particular hotel/restaurant/ amusment etc. by name? My Infiniti sure does and its always gottem me to my destination. I'm surprised you had to lookup a hotel on mapquest and then ask for outside assistance from Onstar for directions. Seems like extra unecessary steps to me.

adantium, of course the CTS nav sytem has a POI database for hotels, etc. But if you've already booked reservations, planned a route, etc. on your computer, why go out and sit in the car and feed in locations instead of just having them sent to the car for you? Another advantage is that you don't have to worry about the POI database in your car being out of date. A third, substantial advantage of OnStar turn-by-turn navigation in general is that you don't ever have to pull over to fiddle with the nav system, you just push the OnStar button and let the OnStar advisor figure out the location of your destination for you (yes, you talk to a real person every time). I've found myself using the OnStar turn-by-turn system out of convenience even when the screen-based system was available.

I forgot how you cant do certain things in many nav systems when you are in drive. That is just stupid since you may have a passenger on board.

OnStar has so many valuable features. My grandpa's '08 Chevy HHR has it, and it comes in handy a lot. There are several things it can do. It sends a monthly email that tells the oil life, tire pressure, diagnostics of the safety systems & drivetrain. He can use the handsfree calling (he doesn't own a cell phone) while driving. It has given us directions to obscure places in remote locations and had the place bang on every time. Also, probably the most important thing, it can call for you in case of a crash or emergency. He is a 72 year-old man with a heart condition, and it makes me feel much better knowing that everywhere he goes he has that little button on the mirror in case anything happens. Yeah, there may be better things out there, and it's a little pricey, but I consider the peace of mind well worth it.

1487, the CTS locks out certain features (like being able to enter an address manually, though you still can select addresses you already have stored in your address book) above a couple of MPH. I agree, this is stupid (at least to not have a setting to change the behavior) because the system is still plenty operable by a passenger. Maybe they could update it so it doesn't have a lock-out if the car senses a person in the passenger seat (since it has a sensor there for purposes of airbag deployment anyway). Regardless, the OnStar nav is still far handier while driving.

I guess if you are a special needs driver OnStar may have some value. Ok, yes, there is a one in a million chance my car may get stolen and the fuzz can track it down. Yes, I may lock my car keys inside on the beach as the tide is coming in (assuming my cell phone is not also locked in the car)...

Since I have a cell phone like 99.9% of the rest of the population, in anything other than a horrific accident where I'm incapacitated, I can call for assistance myself with little fuss. My Garmin Nuvi can pull up directions and more importantly react to changes in my planned route better than the OnStar nav function. I don't need my hand held with an email telling me my tire pressure...like anyone who is responsible enough to drive a car should, I check my tire pressures periodically, check my own oil, etc. Peace of mind? Eh, maybe, but I'm not that much of a nervous wreck driving around thinking of the thousand awful things that might happen to me or my car to need the salve of OnStar to ease my paranoid brain. Reservation making? I can count the number of reservations I need to make while driving that I couldn't do just as conveniently some other time, per year, on one hand and have fingers left over--guess I'm not big-time enough. The handsfree phone feature sounds useful, and that's about it 99.9% of the time, I think.

I used to sell Volkswagens, and VW offered OnStar for a couple years back with the MK4 Jetta. We really tried to promote it to clients, and it was met, at best, with a resounding yawn. The vast majority of potential customers would ask if we could find the exact same car in stock MINUS the OnStar so they could save the expense. After we beat our heads against the wall trying diligently to sell it for a while (we were actually excited when it became available, thinking it would be a hot feature), we started ordering cars from the factory without it since the lot vehicles that were OnStar equipped had mold growing on them. Yes, you would, on occasion, get that one-percenter who was sure that an asteroid was going to crash into their car tomorrow and thieves were going to steal the debris (and OnStar could track the whereabouts of the remains), but they were few and far between. A lot of people asked if we could remove the system and credit the cost back.

brick,

great way to oversimplify the capabilities. One reason why GM models have it free for a year is so people can test out the capabilities. It does a little more that track a stolen car or unlock doors. I have no idea why anyone would want a car without Onstar if its free for a year. After that you dont have to pay anything. The system also sends you monthly reports with diagnostic info like tire pressure, miles driven, oil life history, etc. I didnt renew it simply because I dont drive that much. If I was on the road more each day I would've considered it.