Treblig

Anyone still subscribing to the service?

Mike_TX

Nope.

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MOAcuraTL

Yes, I like the idea of stolen vehicle tracking (yes I realize the limitations and ways to circumvent this and that you might not want your car found/back), airbag deployment notification of emergency services, and the ability for hands-free calling even though I use my cell phone via bluetooth. Remote door unlock was nice on my previous vehicles although it is unnecessary on the RL.

photonbeam7

Yes, I still have it. I live in Montana and sometimes it's nice to have a 3 watt (OnStar) phone rather than a .5 watt cell.

Rob144

I've had the car for over a year, and never activated it despite a free year of service. I wonder if I can start my year at anytime?

TampaRLX-SH

The year started when you registered, regardless of if you ever utilized it.

I bought my RL 09/06 and somehow managed to forget registering with ONSTAR until 12/06. My free year runs out 12/07.

I will renew for the "Safe and Sound" package. It has been beneficial to me before when in another vehicle we were clipped from behind, flipping our vehicle. Airbags were deployed - ONSTAR immediately called the car. Unable to answer, ONSTAR had emergency services dispatched to scrape me off the pavement.

I'll pay.

Rexorg

Still have it. Got it because of the emergency notification, plus as mentioned the phone is more powerful and the Verizon service is more reliable in more places than my Sprint cell.

neuronbob

I just renewed last week for a) peace of mind, which wife reminded me of and b) potential vehicle tracking (and I am also aware of the limitations).

Chas2

But for $300 per year?!!

All these annual, monthly, what have you periodic fees from myriad of service providers drives me nuts.

VOdoc

Yikes! I blow those OnStar folks off immediately when they phone me at home. I have a perfectly good cellphone that works via BlueTooth. Guess OnStar might be more welcome if they phoned into an accident scene. Just last night I was heading home from the hospital in pitch-black conditions at 72 mph when a discarded SOFA (!!!) suddenly appeared dead ahead in my lane. If not for surprisingly fast reflexes and SH-AWD, I would have been awaiting rescue, quite possibly via OnStar. I've got a decision to make soon...it'll be a year in December.

neuronbob

Well, actually, it's $200 per year for the basic "safe and sound" plan if you pay for the year like I did, but your point is well taken. It's $300 a year for the "directions and connections" plan, which adds the turn by turn navigation system (by phone of course). Obviously useless for us. We also don't get the vehicle diagnostic service, which is handled by Acuralink.

Treblig

Thanks for the replys. The reason for the question was that on the news, there was a lady who went missing. However, she rolled her car down an embankment and it was eight days before they discovered her. Miraculously alive, but just barely. That news report really got my wife upset and the thought of OnStar came to mind. $200 is expensive, but in a case like this, would have been priceless.

lflorack

Yes. The stolen car tracking and accident notification capabilities are my reasons.

Courage

I just renewed for two years.

plastikman

That happened here in the Seattle area, she also had some mental issues, I don't think onstar covers those though, might be wrong. I am thinking about renewing my onstar as well, just the basic package though, since my year is also up really soon.

johnhayd

ditto for me

bluemule

Yep, I am still subscribing to the service. This has been discussed several times on this board, and I think most folks who have made a preference known don't want it, don't subscribe to it, and wouldn't option it if it was available.

But, I wouldn't be without it.

Only used it a couple of times. Last time, back during the winter, I came home long after dark and found a Walker along my 1/2 mile driveway. His collar contained contact info. I live in a remote area. I don't get AT&T (Cingular) cellular coverage on my regular phone where I live, but the OnStar worked fine. Using OnStar I called the owner who drove 30 miles to retrieve his dog. They'd been hunting in a neighboring county. I was able to stay with the dog to make sure he didn't stray off before the owner arrived. Very convenient and conforting to know that I can get out where I live with OnStar.

I consider OnStar to be good insurance for my road trips and at my age...and I've had one major dead in the water breakdown with my '05RL.

Within the last 4 days, I've made two trips after dark, and can say that this is not unusual for me...the first, crossing the River at Greenville and chasing the moon across Arkansas and Louisiana...4 hours and arrival time at the destination around midnight...wasn't a lot of traffic on those roads and nobody I know, I'll bet. Total mileage both before dark and after dark for that one day was 550 miles. The second, leaving the prior destination after dark and arriving at the home destination (no hounds in the front pasture this time!) at 1:30 a.m. Wasn't a lot of traffic (except for some local traffic near Jackson, MS) and met maybe a half dozen other cars in the other 90 miles on the Natchez Trace. Total distance on the return trip 335 miles.

I'm very disappointed Acura dropped it.

Don Melcher

I was too... That is why we were looking for a CPO '06 - but we couldn't find one in the colors we wanted, with CMBS/PAX and low enough milage. Plus - the deals on a NEW '07 made them nealry the same price as a CPO 06 - so it didn't make sense.

I am still trying to decide if I want to install the cell phone car kit from the old car - which would improve performance due to an outside antenna and a 3 W amplifier. Not OnStar - but better then nothing.

Mike_TX

I wouldn't try to change anyone's mind, but I live in a fairly analytical world.

In my world it is true a lady occasionally rolls over into a ditch and isn't found for 8 days (but I've heard of it only once in my lifetime), and people do have airbag-deployment accidents (although I personally know of only one person who has had a deployment, and he was just some guy where I worked), and people occasionally lock themselves out of their car with their infant inside and ice cream melting in their grocery bag (although I've never done that myself).

So that stuff does happen, I guess. But if you look at the ODDS of it happening to you, they're infinitessimal. I therefore look at OnStar the same way I look at extended warranties on refrigerators, or the risk of meteorites slamming into my house (don't laugh - it happens occasionally), or my American Airlines flight crashing into the ocean, or the Hell's Angels beating the hell out of me. There certainly are risks involved with all these things, but I'm willing to accept certain risks. If I paid other people to deal with all the possible risks of living, I'd be broke. And OnStar ranks pretty far down the list of priorities in that regard.

That's just my own rationale ... I'd rather apply that money to a big-screen HDTV. (Which I did.)

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plastikman

I renewed for another year, but what pissed me off was they already charged my account for the next month even though I told them I didnt want them to do that, I even called before it happened. They did correct it after I called.

db22

You didn't change my mind - I agree with your analysis and did not renew because of the same rationale. In my first free year, I used it twice - just to see if it works!

GoHawks

Aside from using it to do my initial registration on the way home from the dealer, I never used it during my first year.

Hence no renewal.

kirbyflorida

Never used it, will not subscribe.

db22

If Onstar charged $5 per call for people like us who do not subscribe but had the hardware, they could make some extra cash. $25 per year for the service + $100 for the airbag reporting system per occurance?

sri_gondi

I just renwed Onstar for an Year Subscription. I had to do this orelse my Auto Insurance will increse by 35%. Having Onstar saves me a lot on my car insurance. I pay 200$ for Onstar but inturn would be saving as much as 525. So total saving would be 525-200 will be 325$... Pretty simple math. I Live in Mass and Insurance rates are dictated by Mass Govt....pretty annoying..........no competition as the rates are decided by insurance companies but by Govt.......Anyways.. I havent used Onstar in this 1 yr and I dont anticipate using it ever........But still if u need something you have to have something.................

neuronbob

I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to call my insurance agent to determine whether they offer a similar discount.

sri_gondi

Yes usually any insurance companies would give u discounts for vehicle tracking devices like LoJack/Onstar...or u r rate is already including that discount..

Better find out it may not be like our state but could worth few bucks asking them......

Mike_TX

So - you're saying:

1. Your insurance costs you $1,500 a year (before the discount)?

2. Your insurance companies in MA actually give you a discount for having OnStar?

3. The discount is 35%?

If that's true, all I can say is wow. (No, make that double wow.) In Texas, we don't get a discount for having OnStar. There is a discount for having theft-deterrent devices (alarm, ignition disabler, VIN etched on window glass, etc.), but the total discount is 10 -15% depending on the insurance company, and the RL qualifies for the max discount already. I think my insurance for the RL runs less than $1,100 for the year for full coverage.

It's funny to me that the insurance companies in MA apparently value recovery of your car more than they do little things like collision damage, bodily injury and property damage liability, etc.

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dwboston

Insurance in MA is expensive. Rates are regulated - they are set by the state insurance board, and drivers with good records and those who live in the suburbs pay artificially higher rates to subsidize those with poor records and those who live in the cities. Because of this system several national insurers (GEICO, Progressive, Allstate, etc.) won't do business in MA. The new insurance commissioner is moving towards a "managed competition" model but is running into resistance from those who have benefited from the artificially lower rates. They want to prevent the insurers from using any reasonable risk measures in setting rates (no credit scores, education, etc.). That said, I live in the suburbs and pay about $720/yr for my RL w/a $1000 deductible. I do have a slightly lower rate since I have group coverage through my employer.

The discount for Onstar and/or Lojack is only applied to one of the categories, it's not 35% off of your whole premium.

Mike_TX

Okay, that makes more sense. But your original post cited numbers that didn't seem to add up (a $525 savings from a 35% discount). So, if your premium is $720/yr, I assume that's after the discount of $525, making your pre-discount premium somewhere in the vicinity of $1,250, right?

And, yes, I would expect the discount to apply to Comprehensive (referred to as "Other than Collision" in many states), since that's where the theft coverage is.

I'm not challenging you - just just trying to get a handle on your situation there.

BTW, my deductible for Collision and Comp is $200. I don't know how much more it would reduce it if I went to $1,000., but I kinda like the $200.

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sri_gondi

I do pay Insurance as high as 1553 after all the applicable discounts...I have excellent Driving record of 99 points.. I have 25% discount for Air Bags and 35% for Anti-Theft Device..

So taking the discounts off, I end up paying 1553 per year...

dwboston

My insurance dropped from $1200+ to just over $700 by moving from Cambridge to the suburbs.

sri_gondi

Mine is the other way round.. I moved from Canton to Everett which increased my premium......

Evader

I never actually realized the RL has this feature. I'm just now starting to realize all the RL has to offer. I always thought of the RL as overpriced and didn't care for the new styling, however the body kit available changes my perspective. I will def have to consider the RL in the future

lland

I was with a friend of mine the other night. He had a Suburban and I asked him about his OnStar. He said he didn't renew when the trial expired and that he has a good friend who's a GM dealer. His friend told him that if the airbags are deployed and they get the signal, which they will get (as long as the system functional), regardless of whether a valid subscription exists, they call for help. If they didn't, their potential liability would be astronomical.

LL

Ken1997TL

Does the 05/06 RL have the analog or digital setup?

My '02 RL has the analog Onstar and if I read correctly, it will be useless as of January 1st.

TampaRLX-SH

Ken,

05 & 06 RLs have tri-mode Onstar and will continue to be supported after Jan 1st.

http://www.hondanews.com/search/rele...server&s=acura

This version of OnStar service is equipped with a Digital/Analog Tri-mode phone. This means that in addition to Analog communication, the phone operates on both CDMA bands (Cellular and PCS) used by all CDMA digital networks in the US.

neuronbob

Time to trade up!

Ken1997TL

I just got the '02 RL not even 72 hours ago...



Its not a big deal, I don't need Onstar, I was just curious.

TampaRLX-SH

Yeah, we'll let you in on a BIG secret....

There is this stellar car out there.... *looking both ways*

It is a 2nd Gen RL..... VERY few know about it, not even,,,,ummmm.... *looking around*.... ACURA seems to know about it.

But Bob will teach the secret handshake if you want to get in the club.

The only requiement is an appreciate for fine engineering, value, clever functionality and refined build quality. And you have to be willing to keep it on the low...drawing too much attention will get you kicked out!

Now keep this to yourself and we will all be just fine.