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ON Star no longer a problem!!!!

J

JDseller

Well-known Member
The ON Star issue has been settled for now. The truck I was looking at was at a local GM dealer that I have done business with for over thirty years. I have bought every new vehicle I have ever bought there. I went in and ask him to render the ON star inoperable. He spent the next half an hour telling me how great it was. I stopped him and told him he was not listening to me. I WANT IT REMOVED OR PHYSICALLY made not able to work. He then went back to telling me how dumb an idea it was to unhook it. I just walked out!!!!!

Went across the street and bought a ten year old Dodge W3500 with a Cummins and 6 sp in it. It is a Florida truck with only 35k on it. I talked with the original owner and he verified all the info. Best part for me is that it was three thousand dollars cheaper than the Chevy.

I also called the Chevy dealer back and told him not to count on selling me much in the future, parts included. If he had just said he could not do it or that it would hurt the truck I would have lived with it and made my decision accordingly. It PO me when he just wanted to lecture me on what I wanted.

P.S. The Dodge is a good riding truck. I have to mount the gooseneck hitch and brake wiring before I can try it out for pulling.
 
You are worried about On Star and your cell phone? If the government wants to find you they will. You do realize that they have satellites orbiting the earth that have cameras powerful enough to take a clear picture of your vehicle license plate while you are driving down the city street in New York? No, it is not a joke either. Good luck with your new truck.
 
Good choice on the old dodge, although I would have recommended something pre 90s since even a 10 year old truck still has a ECU tracking your driving habits. Something with a carburetor would probably suit ya better.

I'm still not sure what all the fuss about a bit of technology is, but then again I've always kinda been a tech junkie (who likes classic tractors and cars... go figure lol) but if thats your preference sticking with older vehicles rather than trying to hack parts off the hightech cars is definitely the way to go.
 
I know very well what the government can do. I was the one reading and using those very same pictures forty years ago. Even in the Vietnam days we had high quality pictures that where amazing. I know that what is available to day would be mind boggling.

What I am really objecting to is the invasion of my privacy. Let them make the ONstar an order option. Then each customer could decide if they want it. No they could not do that. They instead decided that they would hard sell something that they could generate a monthly income out of. The real sad part is most Americans don't even see that they are giving up little bits of their privacy for supposed benefits. Most of the services are things that you already can do with excising technology.

How long after the income plateaus on ON star that the big brains come up with the idea to do " generic tracking" to gather information to direct market something to the On Star users??? Examples???? You go to the gym twice a week so they send you fitness product ads or you stop at an elementary school everyday so they assume you have children of that age. You start to get products pitches for kids stuff. Never mind that you are sixty and just drop your wife off at her job each day.

To me the advantages of the system does not out way the potential for abuse. It also duplicates things I already have: I have a cell phone, I have a GPSS navigator, I have a spare key hidden on the car, and etc.
 
I'm happy to hear you got that solved. Now you can turn your attention to more pressing issues, like getting treatment for your paranoia.
 
JD, I'm on your side on this issue.
When I was in the Navy I had to have a security clearance in order to go aboard nuke subs to work on them. It was just a low level classified clearance. They gave us some training about clearances and the thing they told us over and over was the issue of "need to know".
They said you could have the highest level of security clearance in say nuclear power generation but that would not get you into a place where they were working on top secret electronics or weapons systems.
Why? Because you do not have the need to know about those unrelated systems.
I don't go around doing illegal things. I play by the rules and pay my taxes. So there is no reason for any entity to scrutinize my daily habits. Likewise is no reason for me to sheepishly make it easy for anyone to get my info easily. They don't have the need to know.
Period.
I don't see you as paranoid. And I really don't get why others here are taking cheap shots at you for wanting to protect and exercise your right to privacy. If they want to let the whole world watch them like a man living in a glass house that's fine by me. But I don't want to.
And they can't make me. No matter how much scorn they show and how many cheap shots they take.
Simple as that.
 
I can see your point JD. Why pay for something if you are never going to use it. Boss gave me a smart phone. Had things on it that I never used. Just wanted a simple phone.

Good story about being tracked.
One company I worked for. Installed a tracking system on our service trucks. Told us it was to help us find job site. Yea righ

We found out that if you went above 70. It would call the office and report you. So me and another guy would hit 75 until the red light came on. Then back off and do it over again several times in a row. Then drive normal for a day or two. Drove the office nuts trying to find out what was going on.

Another guy would leave the yard. Stop and put a lead shield over his antenna. His truck would vanish from the screen. Then during the day it he would take off the shield and reinstall it. Also drove the office nuts.

Another guy was called into the office for speeding. The day before. Only problem. His truck was up on the rack for repair and had not moved all week.

The really good one. Was one guy called in the office and chewed out for being in one spot for more than four hours. Turned out he was on a job site doing 8 hour load test. Lots of red faces on that one.So you can have fun with the trackers.
 
Whatever happend to the "Customer is King"? You don't want it that should have been the end of the conversation with the Chevy guy he should have done what you wanted not try out for the debate team.Need more people like you to just walk out and not be a sheeple in situations like that.You're spending the $$$ you call the shots.
 
Good for you, jd. Gm has been ramming onstar down our throats via commercials ever since it was introduced and they are still treating it like its a brand new invention. They have to pay for those commercials somehow and one avenue is to force it on the customer but we don’t HAVE to be their customer. Jim
 
A cop friend gave me some perspective on this. The commercial on TV where the cops are in hot pursuit of a stolen ONstar equipt SUV and the cops notify ONstar with the identity of the vehicle and ONstar shuts 'er' down. Pretty cool stuff until you are 10 minutes late paying a library fine or parking ticket and your vehicle is shut down until all your fines and penalties are satisfied (plus towing charges). There is not a single person in this country that doesn't cross the line on a daily basis, however innocently. There's just too many laws and many conflict with another. When a computer is tracking them it becomes apparent. When a goverment entity can collect on them well you can guess where this is going.
 
Yeah, I heard about those cameras 30 plus years ago and laughed when they said someone meeting Ben Liden's description was walking everyday in the compound, but they could not make a positive ID.What a joke!!
 
I saw a news report a while back when they had some drug people in new york on trial.They caught them from info they got listening in on the onstar system in the drug dealers car.
 
I too really think the government is way too intrusive but keeping in mind that they only have so many people I know they can't track everyone all the time.....not even a small % can be watched that close.

On the ECU.....that isn't what records "event" like really hard cornering or barking, foot to the floor excelleration and so on. It the controller for the air bag system. And that only records the last few events.

I also keep in mind that how well a secret can be kept in directly proportional to the number of people who know it. A disgruntaled employee or someone who was canned can and will spill the beans real quick....if only to get their mug in the news for a few seconds. Also lets say what, 1 in 20 vehicles on the road have it? So I guess only people trying to hide something from the government buy ON STAR equiped cars?????? And while I'm not impressed with the IQ level of a lot of government workers I don't think they are dumb enough to think they would be really helping national security out by only tracking GM ON STAR equiped cars and trucks.

I do agree that the dealer should have siad OK we can disable it or told you why they can't.......what I want to know is why you stood there that long and listened????

Rick
 
If a person studies history. There are "many" instances of law abiding citizen who were minding their own business. And still ran foul of their own government.
So many people think if they keep their head down and be a good citizen, they are safe.
 
My Dad had said (of Nostar (sp. int.)) that anyone that can't find their way around & deems themselves an accedent waiting to happen, NEEDS TO GET OFF THE ROAD!. LOL!

Have a good one! I'm off to the tractor show in Sussex to get lost. ;v)

Mike
 
I enjoyed this post! I think it was the dumdest thing I ever read! You must think you are a double naught spy or something! Fun is where you find it!
 
With the way some of you guys are worrying about what-ifs, I honestly don't know how you make it through the day.

There's a million things they might possibly maybe use onstar for that isnt an advertised feature, but so far it hasn't happened. The FBI has tried to get court orders to use onstar as audio surveillance and the courts shot it down. Onstar will only track the location of your vehicle or use the shutdown feature on it if the owner has reported it stolen... unless you make a habit of stealing vehicles, no worries there either. Most technology CAN be used in the wrong way... but until that happens, why waste your time worrying about it?

Onstar is a private company, they really have no reason to waste their time and resources tracking non paying customers for the fun of it. If that changes anytime soon, I'll gladly snip some wires on both of our onstar equipped cars... but for now I'm enjoying the insurance discounts


For those of ya that are so paranoid about the what-ifs of technology... what on earth are you doing with a computer in your house, a cell phone in your pocket, a credit card/debit card, bank account or any other form of technology that could possibly maybe kinda be used to track your everyday actions and movements? Seems like you'd all be living in some camouflaged mountaintop hut in West Virginia with oil lamps.
 
I don't share your concern, but then I was never GI.
I wonder how many of the naysayers on here would have liked to have been a loyal hard working Japanese American under FDR's watch?
Or how many of them will willingly register all their firearms when the time comes?
Good for you. It's still the USA.
 
(quoted from post at 07:54:03 08/28/11) Why pick on West Va? Why not live in Salem, Ill.?
Click to expand...

lol, theres no rugged moutains to hide out on in Salem IL?

Feel free to replace WV with any state that has large areas of dense woods and rugged moutains where it would be hard to find paranoid hermits :lol:
 
From reading these posts is seems like some people are not concerned about technology at all.
They go about their day using OnStar, cell phones, credit cards and other "trackable" things.
Shall I say they are a bunch of Rubes and make snide remarks about them?
I don't think so. It is not my concern how they think or live.
So what if a fellow doesn't like all that technology and doesn't want to use it. Why does that make him the subject of ridicule?
Also, if I use credit cards and cell phones why does it follow that I have to use Onstar too?
Makes as much sense to me as someone saying that because I like cabbages and carrots I must like sweet potatoes too.
One more thing; Why the hyperbole? If JD doesn't like Onstar why suggest he would be happier living in a camoflaged hut in the mountains?
 
Ever heard of computer hackers? How log before they hack into Onstar and create havoc?Anyway you never loose freedoms in large steps you loose them in tiny ones.If you're too dumb to read a map you're too dumb to drive anyway.
 
Good for you JD. Have watched your posts for quite some time, and you have a great amount of what some people are totally lacking. COMMON SENSE.
Where you go and what you do is none of any ones business, much less having big brother watching your every move. It seems many people are more than willing to become sheep of the government.
Joe
 
We used to be Pontiac and GMC drivers.

Well P went away, & I can't see paying an extra $2000 for an Onstar setup I don't like or want.

We drive a Toyota and some Dodges now.

I understand.

My computer has on/off swtches, I can control it somewhat. Onstar is 'there', doing 'whatever it wants'. Don't like that. Out in the country, need the vehicle to work, not be controlled by Big Brother.

--->Paul
 
(quoted from post at 08:19:38 08/28/11) From reading these posts is seems like some people are not concerned about technology at all.
They go about their day using OnStar, cell phones, credit cards and other "trackable" things.
Shall I say they are a bunch of Rubes and make snide remarks about them?
I don't think so. It is not my concern how they think or live.
So what if a fellow doesn't like all that technology and doesn't want to use it. Why does that make him the subject of ridicule?
Also, if I use credit cards and cell phones why does it follow that I have to use Onstar too?
Makes as much sense to me as someone saying that because I like cabbages and carrots I must like sweet potatoes too.
One more thing; Why the hyperbole? If JD doesn't like Onstar why suggest he would be happier living in a camoflaged hut in the mountains?
Click to expand...

I didn't say folks have to use onstar.... but for most people who don't want something, simply choosing not to pay for the service is good enough. Insisting that the unit must be yanked from the truck thrown on the ground and beating to a bloody pulp is where the paranoia becomes evident. I think the closer analogy would be if you like eating cabbages and carrots but you think the sweeet potatoes are reporting your conversations back to the government.

If you stop paying them, they gladly turn off the service for you, no need to go farther than that. I've got 3 or 4 old cell phones laying around deactivated, I don't live in fear that some government agency will remotely access them and use them to bug my house.

I just pointed out that there's technology in our everyday lives thats far more intrusive than onstar.... the computer you're posting on the internet with is tracking more things about you than onstar will ever know. Computers and cell phones and credit cards have been used for years to track down people, onstar never has unless you're a car thief.
 
(quoted from post at 08:43:17 08/28/11) This is the third On-Star post by JDSeller. The other two were mysteriously deleted. Nobody knows why.
Click to expand...

see? the fed's are tracking his internet postings already, they don't need no stinking onstar! :lol:
 
Thing about internet postings is just about everyone can find your location from a post. My computer knows where I am when I go online. DH
 
I'm just curious here. Your handle is JDseller which sounds like you might sale for Deere. Considering your stand on this, there is no way that you could, in good conscious, sale a GPS equipped tractor to a customer and sleep at night, knowing that farmer might be tracked while planting corn. The horror.
David
 
I used to love GM, my first car was a 55 chevy, but GM has made a lot of junk. The alum. block Vega, the 5.7 diesel, the Cadillac northstar engine, among others, and now they want to force us to take the onstar system. They went broke once and they should have gone out of business but us taxpayers had to bail them out. It looks to me like it will probably happen again.
What is amazing to me is to see how many sheep there are defending the companys and the govt. when they take away our freedoms. You sheep will be the ruin of our country.
Untitled URL Link
 
(quoted from post at 08:07:24 08/28/11)
(quoted from post at 07:54:03 08/28/11) Why pick on West Va? Why not live in Salem, Ill.?
Click to expand...

lol, theres no rugged moutains to hide out on in Salem IL?

Feel free to replace WV with any state that has large areas of dense woods and rugged moutains where it would be hard to find paranoid hermits :lol:
Click to expand...

The woods ain't all that's DENSE in WV :shock:

Just kiddin the hillbillies (I mean mountaineers) a little....
 
When I bought my Buick Lucerne I had a choice. Either take Onstar or not. If I ddn't take it ONSTAR was activated for one year--NO COST to me. I didn't take--didn't it. I think the guy buying the GM with it wasn't about to compromise. I don't think GM lost much of a customer. My 2 cent. I sure hope he got off of the puter before the government found him. lol
 
(quoted from post at 08:51:04 08/28/11)
(quoted from post at 08:43:17 08/28/11) This is the third On-Star post by JDSeller. The other two were mysteriously deleted. Nobody knows why.
Click to expand...

see? the fed's are tracking his internet postings already, they don't need no stinking onstar! :lol:
Click to expand...

Yep..And that GM dealer is also a special agent and prolly went across the street and put magnetic trackers on all the dodge vehicles...... Onstar problem NOT SOLVED................
 
Sheep like you will be the first one to turn in the patriots for thirty pieces of silver. You'll be calling the gestapo, he owns a gun! he had his lites on at 2 in the morning, he has a beard, he's a terrorist!
 
Can't agree 5.7s were junk. We've had two of them, a '79 Delta 88 and '80 Sedan de Ville. The Olds was most troublesome only because Roosa-Master was experimenting with space-age polymers they didn't know anything about. When they became Stanadyne and threw away that frigging E-ring away, injector pump trouble disappeared. They got 28-30 MPG and outlasted the cars they were in. Still have the '80 engine, installed it in a '71 C-30 with a camper. Not a world burner, but the C-30 had such a high rear end ratio, made it ok for short haul camping trips. Still gets 15 MPG
 
I did work in the shop for almost twenty years and was in sales the last ten years at a dealership. I have been away from full time working for JD dealers for the last six years.

I sold very few GPS units( Green Star) until parallel tracking came along. Then they had an application that would make/save you money.

Read my lower posting. I am not doing anything illegal but I don't want some one to have the ability to track my movements. Plus remote shut down of my vehicle.

It is more of a privacy issue than being paranoid. I don't want a house build in my back yard. I don't want to be close to some one else's house either.
 
Yep, they got yer IP addy and can track a cell phone......if they have enough people to monitor the puters! Couple of years ago the FBI was crying that they didn't have to funding to try to catch pedophiles, claimed they had a whopping 23 agents available and that they needed hundreds. Sure you get in a wreck they are going to check yer cell to see if you were talking or texting and may even check with On Star after that if and only if you are driving a GM so equiped. But even with puters they don't have the man power to check everyone and they will not soon have it. Is the government intrusive? Sure I believe that. Are they tracking me? I really don't think so. Iguess I'm more worried about other things that them tracking me. I just haven't done anything that would justify it. People who write this conspericy stuff are one of 2 things. Really parinoid or jokers who are setting back laughing their back sides off over the people who buy into their writings!

England has camras all over they place to monitor the public......and a high crime rate, guess all that tracking stuff is really working for them! Plus after the years with the IRA it's much easier for them to get wire taps and watch people......that didn't help em out much.

Not saying that if they could the government wouldn't do it but they just can't. Even back when billy boy was in office and th White House told the FBI to track gun sales they couldn't keep that quite. They couldn't keep the gun sales thing with the straw buyers quite......tracking indivduals would require many more people and keeping it quite would be a night mare! With the Reps in power in congress if they go any wind of that they would be yelling and conducting investigations. If a Rep was the president the nnalert would do the same thing.


Ok I'll crawl back under my rock and hope the sky don't fall!

Rick
 
Your cell phone is tracking you also.

UPS is really outfitting their trucks too. Makes Onstar look elementary.

Rick
 

What I am really objecting to is the invasion of my privacy. Let them make the ONstar an order option. Then each customer could decide if they want it. No they could not do that. They instead decided that they would hard sell something that they could generate a monthly income out of. The really sad part is most Americans don't even see that they are giving up little bits of their privacy for supposed benefits. Most of the services are things that you already can do with excising technology.

How long after the income plateaus on ON star that the big brains come up with the idea to do " generic tracking" to gather information to direct market something to the On Star users??? Examples???? You go to the gym twice a week so they send you fitness product ads or you stop at an elementary school everyday so they assume you have children of that age. You start to get products pitched for kids stuff. Never mind that you are sixty and just drop your wife off at her job each day.

To me the advantages of the system does not out way the potential for abuse. It also duplicates things I already have: I have a cell phone, I have a GPSS navigator, I have a spare key hidden on the car, and etc.

Another angle on this is that it make the vehicle more complicated. So as it ages then the odds are greater that you will have an issue. How many ten year old cars still have all of the power windows or seats still working???
 
Makes me wonder if you were to unplug the onstar module (computer, brain, whatever) would these new vehicles even run? Car theives a few years ago would apparently unplug the onstar module located somewhere behind the glovebox when they drove off with the fresh kill - I bet things have changed with that now. I have heard legislation has passed allowing the feds to use onstar to track people by simply checking off a few boxes on a form to compel onstar to share data. This IS the start of big brother gone wild. Now go watch 1984.

"A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference."
Thomas Jefferson
 

I saw an ad the other day that looked like Ford is getting into this scam as well with their new vehicles.........
 
JDseller,
Personally, I'm not concerned about some govt agency tracking me via Onstar. But this is America, after all, and we're all entitled to our opinions and right to live the way we want. My objection is that since Onstar is equipped on EVERY GM car, you're paying for it whether you want it or not. After our "free year", we called to cancel it and they gave us another 3 months "free". When I called to cancel after that, they were "surprised" I wouldn't sign up since they had given me an extra 3 months. I've had it on several vehicles and the only time we used it was to use up the free cell phone minutes that came with it. After that, we never hit the button.

The only time I think it would help is if you're driving on a dirt road,alone, in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night and run off the road so no one can see the car, and you're knocked unconscious or badly injured. OK, that is a possibility, but the odds are low. Low enough for me to not spend the monthly fee on OnStar.
 
My family has been GM forever. I'm currently driving a 3/4 ton with 502,000 miles on it, never been in a shop. I love my Chevy, but I won't buy another. That's because the CEO of GM came out a month or two ago saying he wants the government to raise the gasoline tax by $1.00 or more to encourage us to buy smaller cars. That's all it took for me. Who the hell is GM or the CEO to tell me what I should drive? Or how much the federal excise tax should be? I'm switching to Ford. Can't believe I'm saying that, but we have to make a stand somewhere sometime.
 
(quoted from post at 15:20:44 08/29/11) My family has been GM forever. I'm currently driving a 3/4 ton with 502,000 miles on it, never been in a shop. I love my Chevy, but I won't buy another. That's because the CEO of GM came out a month or two ago saying he wants the government to raise the gasoline tax by $1.00 or more to encourage us to buy smaller cars. That's all it took for me. Who the hell is GM or the CEO to tell me what I should drive? Or how much the federal excise tax should be? I'm switching to Ford. Can't believe I'm saying that, but we have to make a stand somewhere sometime.
Click to expand...

I think the thing there is the government trying to force the companies to make and sell (sell being the key word here) more fuel efficient cars. GM still has the government trying to pull it's strings after the bail out plus the government trying to force the production of certain types of cars. Only way you are going to get main stream Americans into little death box cars it to raise the price of gas. A certain sitting president wants to raise the taxes on gas for the same reason. He's been saying that sense he was running for the nomination.

Rick
 

■Ford 911 Assist with GPS location remains a subscription-free, no-additional-cost feature to customers for the life of their vehicle

Ford's in it too.
 
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