Wrecked car, new car

After having my new car rear ended a couple weeks ago and totaled, it was a Kia Spec5, We are going "up the hill" to the high desert tomorrow where the future son-in-law is a finance guy at the chevy dealer there. Going to be getting an HHR, hope I like it. Can't beat the deal. Just gotta decide which color, kinda hoping for a red one myself. Does the on star work with any cell phone? The wife and I use tracphones. How much is the monthly cost after the free year? Thanks.

Reply to
Paul O.
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If you have never driven one yet, make sure you like the small windows and visibility before you buy it.

Reply to
Paul

Congratulations on the new vehicle Paul. Do yourself a favor - ask your questions of the dealer. You have some good questions that you ask, but you ask them in all the wrong places. Go ahead and ask your future son-in-law all of the questions you have before you close any deal, and make sure you're comfortable with the answers. It would be a shame to end up with a new vehicle that you're not satisfied with after the first week of driving it, just because you didn't ask, test drive, etc. to the point where you were happy with that choice *before* you sign on the line.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

Reply to
Paul O.

To my knowledge, you need a new phone setup, but that may have changed. The cost depends on the plan. Minimum is $200 a year for the basic plan. go to

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for more information.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Reply to
Paul O.

If 'hi-desert' means So-Cal, good news is that OnStar meets Calif requirements for hands-off voice phone. Buy enuf minutes to cover your hands-off needs and give it a try. Then make up your own mind. Theft tracking, airbag deployment monitorning and remote unlock...all worthwhile.

I stupidly locked myself out of my wife's car and my house a couple of months ago. I don't carry AAAplus and OnStar saved its annual cost in about 15 minutes.

Keep your Tracfone. This isn't a substitute for a good cellphone service. OnStar minutes are reasonable but it won't work if the car battery dies. Also, some emergency service calls (like

911 etc.) are intercepted by OnStar.

We were caught in the midst of the Devore Fire and Onstar was able to relay nearby accident and fire hot-spot info to the CDF and CHP.

-- pj

Reply to
pj

OnStar does not use your cell phone, it is a satalite system

Reply to
Mike hunt

It is partly a satellite system (for GPS location). The cell phone portion works through regular cell towers. That is why many of the older OnStar subscribers were left with no service when the cell companies dropped analog service that the original OnStar was built on.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

OnStar gives you 30 minutes free to start with and while setting it up we were offered another 100 minutes to add to it for a year for $13.99. Minutes roll over. We took it. We are not heavy cell phone users, that's why we use TracPhone, but every once in a while the need arises.

Reply to
Paul O.

If you have an older analog system and received a letter from OnStar that it wouldn't be upgradeable, check again.

Go to the OnStar website digital upgrade page and plug in your VIN number. Kits are coming out for many older systems this month.

Initial visit to the dealer went quickly. Service advisor wrote up the service order and cashier took my money. Kit is on the way!

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-- pj

Reply to
pj

I guess that's a good thing. I never used mine in the year it was free, never re-newed and never had the desire to use it. IMO, the premium service is way overpriced and the "turn by turn directions" is a poor choice for navigation compared to a dash mounted system for less money.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

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