On Star on board

What I am about to say is all thought, not fact, just remember that......

On Star should be accurate, cause I believe that it uses GPS to determine your location. However, I am not sure how it would work if it had to recalculate.

Downside:
1) you have to pay for it, GPSr service, you don't.
2) On Star won't like it (I am guessing) if you want to stop by the local starbucks to get a cup of coffee, GPSr is more forgiving.
3) You can't really compare OnStar with a GPSr unit. it is like comparing oranges and apples. Yeah, they are both fruit, but they are totally different.

If the On Star is audio only, I find it inadequate for my use (I had it on a 2005 Tahoe). It is similar to the Verizon cell phone service, without a display. Basically, it was a costly item.

The 2007 in dash display unit is industry competetive.

For the money, and for the features I prefer, my Nuvi is a great value.... and I can take it with me wherever I travel. I also purchased Mexico (BiCi Mapas) and European (Garman) maps on SD cards, and it is still a better value.

OnStar has some good features but I had it free for a year on my Impala and never used it, and once the year was up I think it was something like $35.00 a month for their highest tier of service.

I did get a free demo of their vehicle tracking one morning. I was having coffee and listening to a police scanner when a person about three blocks from me had someone drive off with their new car which was sitting in the street running. After the police was called it was brought up that the person had OnStar. The police dispatcher called the OnStar people and they started tracking it. Every once in awhile the dispatcher would radio the squads with an update on the location until the squads converged on the car in another town about 12 miles away. I thought that was pretty slick.

One of the things that OnStar can do that my GPS won't do is to call 911 after an accident with airbag deployment when I may not be able to do so. It's hard to put a value on that until you need it. OnStar uses GPS, but it's not a GPS as we know them to be.

Bill

Actually there is a standard GPS in any vehicle that comes with OnStar. The one in my Impala is mounted in a box on the driver side rear inner fender. There was a website that had step by step instructions on how to isolate it and hook it up to a laptop. Unfortunately I didn't save the link.

On Star uses Both Sat and Cell technology to communicate One of the BIG problems with this is that any car with Onstar previous to 2002 has analog technology in their Cell service and it will quit next year..when the Cell companies quit using Analog service. \

Other than that it is a great service, but I wouldnt trade my Nuvi for it...I have more control over my Nuvi.