Automotive News reports that just as GM expands its promotion of OnStar in GM cars, other carautomakers are dropping the service, which they say has appealed to very few customers.
And that’s fine with GM, which no longer is promoting it aggressively to competing brands, the newspaper said.
Audi and Subaru stopped selling the push-button communication system on new cars this model year. Volkswagen will stop offering it next model year.
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Honda’s Acura Division may drop it as well, says Dan Bonawitz, vice president for corporate planning and logistics at American Honda Motor Co.
“It is a subject that we are giving serious consideration,” Bonawitz told AN.
Car company executives say the close association that GM has built with OnStar, low customer acceptance and emerging technologies make OnStar less attractive to GM’s competitors.
OnStar is a two-way wireless communication system between drivers and GM. OnStar reports it has about 3 million subscribers across GM and import brands.
The basic service is called “Safe and Sound.” For $16.95 a month, or $199 a year, OnStar monitors vehicle locations and will send emergency vehicles when airbags deploy in an accident.
The “Luxury and Leisure” package cost $69.95 a month, or $799 a year, for services such as personal concierge, remote vehicle diagnostics, driving directions and roadside assistance.
Volkswagen says it’s having a hard time selling subscriptions.
“Our take rates at Volkswagen are running less than 1 percent,” spokesman Patrick Hespen told Automotive News.
He added that installation for OnStar was running around 12 percent for all Audi models when they discontinued offering it on new vehicles.
OnStar is focused on helping GM sell cars and trucks. This year, GM announced that OnStar would become standard on all retail vehicles it produces. The company also said it would begin marketing OnStar aggressively as a GM brand. The idea is to link the service’s safety and security appeal with GM vehicles to help drive sales, AN reported.
“GM first,” said OnStar President Chet Huber in an interview last week. “There will be millions and millions of GM vehicles produced equipped with OnStar.”
