OnStar - anyone uses it nowdays?
 

Just wanted to see if you have a GPS and a smart phone would you ever need OnStar?? I mean other than the hands free calling which u could do with a phone speaker what else does it offer?

Even the stolen vehicle location? I could subscribe at the time and get it , can't O??

I just had my OnStar activated over Christmas. They gave me 3 free months OnStar trial & 300 minutes of calls for $9. Thought it was worth trying. So far, I only use the hands free calling since I have the Nav system.
Regarding activating once it's stolen, (I admit, I had the same thoughts), you must activate it for the first time inside your Hummer for it to link to your system.

Did they mention a monthly cost?

screw onstar
 

so you dont mind PAYING? to have someone track your every movement huh,and sell reports of your activities to any/all who will pay,police,insurance,the feds.

soon we might get gps provided speeding tickets,computer generated,automatically emailed to you!!.or better yet,the "fee" simply deducted from whatever bank account you have. oh copy to the insurance co too.
if you park near that porn shop to go to church they might just get the wrong idea.

The emergency functions are potentially valuable, but that is something you have to judge for yourself. The power of the cell phone via OnStar has come in handy when we were outside of coverage for all the portable cell phones in our group. Monthly reports of vehicle diagnostics, maybe or maybe not that useful.

The privacy issues are massively overblown IMHO unless you are very paranoid.

On the issue of costs, OnStar will give you a large discount if you only ask. I have been paying about $12 per month.

I have it at the moment, also 100 minutes of calling. Doesn't cost me much, as Bflank mentioned you can get it discounted fairly easily.

I get the monthly Diagnostics report. My wife has used it a time or two to check DIC messages or warning lights.

It's only on the Hummer, not the Vette or the Mercedes. Not even 1/10 as bad as an Eazypass tag.

Nope--I don't use it.
I would recommend calling them though, more than likely they will provide a standard 3 month free trial membership. I wouldn't take any additional phone minutes as I won't give my credit card number to any of those companies---it just opens the door for them to continue your subscription past the free period without notifying you. Not sure if On Star is bad about doing this, but Sirius has screwed me that way for the last time.
BTW--call Sirius/XM and see if you can get a free 3 months from them too, I did it this past year for both On-Star and Sirius, got 3 months free for the big road trip I took and then just let them turn 'em back off. I didn't have to give either of the companies any credit card info, so they couldn't charge me past the trial period.
I did call On Star a couple of times while it was on, just to check and see if they were there, once was in the middle of the desert while off-roading. Once I had them unlock the doors on the truck for the hell of it--that's kind of creepy when your locks pop open and you didn't do it.
I'm not into that big brother scare crap--you're already screwed if you wreck your truck, the cops can pull the computer which will give them all the info they need to determine how wreckless you were driving at the instant of impact.

ditto ;)