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OnStar Owners Bristle at Loss of Service

Analog version of the popular service now officially defunct

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 19, 2008

GM's analog customers who are now without the safety and convenience service are angry.

Julie in Austin, Texas said she discovered her OnStar service disappeared while on a recent trip.

“I've since found out that it can't be upgraded, repaired, modified, adapted or anything else. Now I have a rear view mirror with buttons that continually remind me I have a broken part in my car that GM refuses to repair.”

Cellular telephone companies are no longer required to provide the analog service the older OnStar systems employ. This is the latest step in the transition from analog to digital communications sanctioned by the Federal Communications Commission.

If your car or truck is a 2002 model or older with an analog-only OnStar system you have probably already figured out the system is kaput. Now the analog-only systems are officially useless unless the consumer was able to purchase a system that GM could upgrade to a digital connection and the consumer paid for the upgrade.

Cege in Dallas is one of those OnStar customers who are out of luck with a useless system: “My OnStar doesn't work but my car still does,” she wrote.

General Motors made digital upgrade kits available to consumers who had active OnStar subscriptions. Roughly 90 percent of the GM analog OnStar systems were capable of being upgraded to a digital connection.

Cege said she was not offered the upgrade.

A Manassas, Virginia OnStar user bought an OnStar-equipped 2002 Chevy Silverado in 2003.

“I have found out from GM themselves that GM knew in November 2002 of the OnStar problem but did not change the OnStar analog model to analog/digital until 2003 models,” he said.

“They did not choose to inform 2003 customers of the problem with 2002 models even after they knew the problem existed.”

The Silverado owner thinks G M “should be forced to design an upgrade for the analog model for the 2002 truck or each owner of this truck should be compensated for the entire cost of the OnStar model and damages should be awarded to each truck owner for false advertisement."

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