[hendry]

Not sure if any of the rest of you have heard of OnStar or aware what it is, but apparently it's not going to be fitted to new Vauxhalls until later in the year and will be an optional extra rather than a standard feature and cannot be added later, car either comes with it equipped or not at all, but on both my own E and the hired one I have just now, at the top of the Intellilink where the icons for available sources of audio are, e.g. the Bluetooth icon, the cable icon if you have a phone/iPod connected via USB, the mute icon etc. Ive noticed the OnStar icon in that row of icons, so is this likely to be something a Software upgrade could enable?

I do notice the OnStar icon only appears now and again, its not always there like the Bluetooth, USB cable, and mute icons are along the top of the Intellilink screen where the date and time also show.

 

[mud4fun]

Another useless app then ;-)

I thought OnStar was the subscription service that GM run to provide a personal assistant at the end of a phone?

Isn't this the thing where if you sign up for it all your details, your driving style and whereabouts are sent to GM so they can target you with marketing? No way I'm signing up for that!

I'm at the end of my tether with this intellilink junk. I'm now seriously considering getting dealer to replace it with the CD player from the base model as intellilink is not fit for purpose. Why on earth they don't give LE owners a choice between intellish*te or a decent quality Audio head unit I've no idea but I've complained to VX about it.

 

[anthony]

i was looking at the videos on youtube the other day, can do quite a lot of stuff, even lock you car if you forget and tell you where you have parked all through your smart phone, but will probably be geared towards iPhones like most things in life.

i don't think it will be something avalible to our cars without a load of of new software
installed

 

[mud4fun]

Anthony, I'm sure OnStar will have some useful features but are they worth signing away all your privacy for?

GM will know exactly what time you leave for work, how fast you are going, how high you revved your engine, how many laws you broke, which McDonalds you visited and how long you were there etc etc.

Why does this concern me? Because I work in IT and have worked with many major UK companies including banks and security is not perfect. There are always mistakes made and criminals can crack security faster than these companies can introduce new measures. Hackers steal billions from the banks every year, the government departments such as DVLA or HMRC lose personal details regularly. If the criminals can access OnStar data it lets them know where a car or its owner is and allows them to unlock and start the car.

Then you have the potential for GM to sell your details to third parties for direct targeted marketing.

Also in my view there are two critical things that need to work on intellilink and that is music and sat nav. The current apps do not work for all users or are inferior to apps we already use on our phone. VX needs to put effort into getting these sorted out first before releasing something else that I can't or won't use. :-( (especially as it is not free, you have to pay for it after the first year)

 

[mud4fun]

Also worth pointing out to anybody thinking of remapping their car, the telematics installed with OnStar may well be able to feed gear and fuelling information back to VX. This means they would be able to identify if your car has been remapped so it could affect any warranty claim. I guess the other thing it would do is force people to declare their remaps to their insurance company because in the case of a crash the telematics would clearly show evidence of the remap. Sure, if you are a 100% law abiding person that never breaks the law then you have nothing to fear but we are not all perfect. I've made mistakes several times over my driving life, driven a little too fast, exceed the odd speed limit and even driven accidentally into a one way entrance the wrong way. Are we heading for a situation where even these things will result in a ticket arriving in the post? not so far fetched I think, what was considered sci-fi 20 years ago is nearing reality now.

 

[hendry]

Another useless app then ;-)

I thought OnStar was the subscription service that GM run to provide a personal assistant at the end of a phone?

Isn't this the thing where if you sign up for it all your details, your driving style and whereabouts are sent to GM so they can target you with marketing? No way I'm signing up for that!

I'm at the end of my tether with this intellilink junk. I'm now seriously considering getting dealer to replace it with the CD player from the base model as intellilink is not fit for purpose. Why on earth they don't give LE owners a choice between intellish*te or a decent quality Audio head unit I've no idea but I've complained to VX about it.

I've got to be honest, I'm no tech junkie and working in IT you clearly have got more knowledge of this sort of thing than me, but I actually like the Intellilink and think it's a decent unit, with some fairly good features. I've had decent head units in my car in the past, Pioneer, Alpine and so on and yeah the sound quality isn't a patch on them but they are high end specialist manufacturers for audio enthusiasts, the Intellilink is a stock system which has to appeal to a wide variety of customers. I am not fussed on the Apps it offers, I don't and won't use them, I like the USB, Bluetooth and DAB, and the sound quality is fairly good for a stock unit, Certainly better than other manufacturers, it's available from Design spec upwards which is the third from base spec, even the Sting with the standard radio has Bluetooth and USB, not sure about DAB, you've got to go to midrange Zetec spec on a Fiesta to get them, and top spec Titanium for DAB and the unit looks totally out of place, Seat Ibiza does have a sat nav as standard on some specs but it looks like an aftermarket unit from Tomtom/Garmin suction mounted to the Windscreen.

Also, I have no interest in getting OnStar, my question was more just out of interest than anything else, because I'd read on Vauxhalls site about it and it wasn't available until later this year and only standard on high spec models and not something that could be added later yet the icon for it sometimes appears on the icons list on the stereo, just confused me a bit how the icon is there for something that's not been released yet and isn't specced on our cars

 

[LimeyUK]

I'm much like you Henry, though as I also work in IT I can appreciate mud4fun's view on it.

 

[mud4fun]

Hey Hendry, to an extent I agree with you

The intellilink is probably OK for people that either aren't used to having high quality stereo in the cars or don't want to pay extra for it or are more interested in gadgets than quality. However for me, just about every car I've owned for the last 20 years has had Alpine (or Pioneer etc) head units/amps and infinity speakers (even my old Land Rovers!). So in a way I've been spoilt. The sort of music I listen to also demands higher quality audio to really appreciate it (Heavy Metal, Classical and Opera).

I have no real interest in having apps in the car (other than sat nav) and certainly not ones that are primarily designed to work with iPhones.

If you are like me and have little interest in the apps but find the bluetooth, USB etc great then they are all standard features of any decent double DIN head unit these days anyway. My last Alpine HU had bluetooth, USB and DAB so the intellilink has nothing new to offer me.

My biggest gripe with intellilink is that there is no alternative offered by Vauxhall for people like me. I would not have minded if it was say an £800 option to have a double DIN Alpine mirrorlink enabled head unit and infinity speaker upgrade factory fitted. I would have happily had that instead of the intellilink. Alpine also do HU's specifically to suit Apple devices too so VX could have offered a tailored infotainment system to suit your preferred mobile O/S. Considering the high price of the LE (which is effectively the top/near top trim level) I see no reason why they couldn't offer an alternative. Sure I can fit my own but that involves logistics of taking it somewhere else, buying the interface cables/adaptor for the cars systems, taking off trim and potentially introducing squeaks and rattles when it is replaced and then having to declare the stereo as a 'modification' to the insurance. If it had been a factory option it would have been far less hassle.

Many decent aftermarket HU's also allow separate feeds of video to the rear seat screens while playing radio for the driver. This would be very useful for me with my kids and would easily justify the option cost. With more people like me downsizing from larger cars to smaller as taxation changes, fuel costs and congestion charges get more punitive I think the manufacturers need to start offering such things. Instead of offering a zillion different trim and engine levels VX should have offered a couple of infotainment solutions. I'm not the only one that thinks intellilink is cr*p and I'm sure I'm not the only one that would have paid a little more for a quality HU/sound system.

 

[D3RV15H]

Totally agree with you mud4fun regarding the stereo system. I've always had top spec speaker set ups in my cars too so an option to upgrade would have been perfect. Really don't know why it wasn't put in place, VX would be making themselves more money this way anyway?!

 

[XzinkX]

Another useless app then ;-)

I thought OnStar was the subscription service that GM run to provide a personal assistant at the end of a phone?

Isn't this the thing where if you sign up for it all your details, your driving style and whereabouts are sent to GM so they can target you with marketing? No way I'm signing up for that!

I'm at the end of my tether with this intellilink junk. I'm now seriously considering getting dealer to replace it with the CD player from the base model as intellilink is not fit for purpose. Why on earth they don't give LE owners a choice between intellish*te or a decent quality Audio head unit I've no idea but I've complained to VX about it.

You would be better off buying a Connects2 and a decent high end double din stereo.

 

[anthony]

Just been on the Vauxhall partners website and I see that the onstar is now available on the Corsa LE,
would interesting to know if they have fitted a different intellilink

 

[hendry]

Just been on the Vauxhall partners website and I see that the onstar is now available on the Corsa LE

Vauxhall say its only to be available in new cars and cannot be added to existing ones but I'm convinced it's going to be offered in our cars via software upgrade because - on the row of icons along the top of the Intellilink screen youve got the USB icon, aux in icon, Bluetooth icon, a phone icon, and a mute icon which are greyed out but light up white depending on which things are connected E.g. when my phone pairs with the car via Bluetooth that icon lights up white, when I plug my iPod in the USB icon and phone icon light up and when I mute the audio the mute icon lights up, now it's not always there but in that row of icons I regularly see a "On" icon which looks very similar to the Onstar logo (very difficult to tell for sure due to how small it is and its greyed out)

Now I'm going to guess if that "On" icon which is there most of the time is the one for Onstar why would it be there if its not going to be functional? It wasn't always there, it certainly wasn't in the row of icons for the first few weeks after I first got the car.

 

[anthony]

The option I saw was for a new car the VX partners web site offers the standard LE and also the LE with Onstar. I think there is a lot more hardware fitted to enable it to work not just a software upgrade, I may be wrong.

http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/onstar/index.html

 

[hendry]

The option I saw was for a new car the VX partners web site offers the standard LE and also the LE with Onstar. I think there is a lot more hardware fitted to enable it to work not just a software upgrade, I may be wrong.

http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/onstar/index.html

The "On" in the circle logo I'm sure I get that along the row of icons at the top of Intellilink, of course that doesn't mean to say its possible for it to be fitted, this being Vauxhall but all the same I'm sure thee Onstar logo has started appearing on the screen in my car, I'll take a PIC next time I'm out and post it up in case its for something different.

 

[Jarviser]

All the pics and video released by Vx and others show a special panel either part of the mirror or above it on the headlining. Has the three buttons, Service Call blue button, SH*T Im in trouble red button, and Privacy button. Not available to existing cars even if it was built last month.
Looks like free for a year then £79 a year. It claims to be able to send your choice of destination to "the vehicle's navigation system" whatever that is. If its Bringgo then it will be a joke if the app reviews are true.
I cant find the phone app either which is supposed to be available for Apple and Android phones. I would also like to know who will provide the 4G service, but I holiday in Norfolk and you are very lucky to get more than 2G!
Also I wonder if my new SE on Sept 1 will have it, as when I ordered it, it had not been announced as standard on SE, which it now is.

 

[Matthew]

Anthony, I'm sure OnStar will have some useful features but are they worth signing away all your privacy for?

GM will know exactly what time you leave for work, how fast you are going, how high you revved your engine, how many laws you broke, which McDonalds you visited and how long you were there etc etc.

Why does this concern me? Because I work in IT and have worked with many major UK companies including banks and security is not perfect. There are always mistakes made and criminals can crack security faster than these companies can introduce new measures. Hackers steal billions from the banks every year, the government departments such as DVLA or HMRC lose personal details regularly. If the criminals can access OnStar data it lets them know where a car or its owner is and allows them to unlock and start the car.

Then you have the potential for GM to sell your details to third parties for direct targeted marketing.

Also in my view there are two critical things that need to work on intellilink and that is music and sat nav. The current apps do not work for all users or are inferior to apps we already use on our phone. VX needs to put effort into getting these sorted out first before releasing something else that I can't or won't use. :-( (especially as it is not free, you have to pay for it after the first year)

I get your concerns but they're not the police, they can't exactly prosecute you for you breaking the speed limit, even slightly. You can disable it too from what I'm aware and only gets re-enabled if you chose it or you press SOS. I like half the features it provides and as I too work in IT I get things are compromisable, however it has the possibility to save lives and that's a good enough benefit to include it. Besides it being able to program your sat-nav, direct you, find your car, stop criminals and send assistance. I like the feature where it checks your car's pressure etc and you can have wifi. Not sure how that would work out on a practicality of paying for this service or whether it's included in the car but seems good.

I'm not sure how they would upgrade intellilink either way even if they did try to fix it because it isn't connected to the internet and in that situation makes it difficult to patch etc without visiting a vauxhall garage and them implementing new firmware which would be a pain in the bottom!

Hopefully they sort it out anyway.

Same with you @jarviser I have mine being made at some point in August I believe in time for September, so I'm unsure what they'll do.

It states "Once the exclusive reserve of the limousine, a personal service assistant will be available from mid-2015 right across the Vauxhall range." and since I bought my car past 'mid 2015' I'd presume it'll be fitted by retro.

 

[LimeyUK]

Anthony, I'm sure OnStar will have some useful features but are they worth signing away all your privacy for?

GM will know exactly what time you leave for work, how fast you are going, how high you revved your engine, how many laws you broke, which McDonalds you visited and how long you were there etc etc.

Why does this concern me? Because I work in IT and have worked with many major UK companies including banks and security is not perfect. There are always mistakes made and criminals can crack security faster than these companies can introduce new measures. Hackers steal billions from the banks every year, the government departments such as DVLA or HMRC lose personal details regularly. If the criminals can access OnStar data it lets them know where a car or its owner is and allows them to unlock and start the car.

Then you have the potential for GM to sell your details to third parties for direct targeted marketing.

Also in my view there are two critical things that need to work on intellilink and that is music and sat nav. The current apps do not work for all users or are inferior to apps we already use on our phone. VX needs to put effort into getting these sorted out first before releasing something else that I can't or won't use. :-( (especially as it is not free, you have to pay for it after the first year)

I get your concerns but they're not the police, they can't exactly prosecute you for you breaking the speed limit, even slightly.

It can be used if you are in an accident. Data like that is a gold mine for Incident Teams.

 

[Matthew]

They state it can't be added after? Well after emailing vauxhall I got this;
"Your Vauxhall dealer will be able to check if your new vehicle will be built with OnStar, if not this is something that can added at a later date."

 

[LimeyUK]

They state it can't be added after? Well after emailing vauxhall I got this;
"Your Vauxhall dealer will be able to check if your new vehicle will be built with OnStar, if not this is something that can added at a later date."

:lol:

Brilliant.

I suspect it is mostly a software upgrade - apart from cars without Intellilink. You've got a microphone etc already, only hardware they may need to install is the WiFi hotspot functionality.

 

[Jarviser]

They state it can't be added after? Well after emailing vauxhall I got this;
"Your Vauxhall dealer will be able to check if your new vehicle will be built with OnStar, if not this is something that can added at a later date."

:lol:

Brilliant.

I suspect it is mostly a software upgrade - apart from cars without Intellilink. You've got a microphone etc already, only hardware they may need to install is the WiFi hotspot functionality.

All the FAQ on websites say NO to retro fitting. Dont know where the call centre operator got that from. Theres also the big panel above the mirror with the three buttons and the 4G antenna built into the DAB one. Its a 400 quid option on most trims. On their previous record retrofit would be, what, £800??

They also need to update the My Vauxhall app to include the OnStar remote functions.