I have a factory installed Onstar in my '03 OB sedan. I bought the car used and have contacted Onstar / Verizon about getting the service, they tell me they don't have records showing my car is recognized by their system and that I have to contact a dealer to activate it. I called the local Subaru service and this person told me she didn't even know Subaru's came with Onstar. Well I ended that conversation right then, thanks for your time. Can anyone elaborate on this? I have no idea about Onstar except what I read in the brochure and the web. Does the system have to be "turned on" by a dealer or can I go somewhere else or do it myself?

As usual all help is appreciated.

Joe

To be quite honest, I didn't think Subaru came with Onstar either. There was an alliance with subaru & GM a few years back, so I guess it's possible. I would question whether it's actually a factory installed option though.

 

Do you have a brochure or can point to a website that says it was an option?

 

You may want to contact subaru of america directly. You can find a contact number on www.subaru.com

A limited number of MY04 Subarus had OnStar installed from the factory in accordance with a deal between FHI and GM. I know this 'cuz my '04 L.L.Bean came with it. The dealer had to activate my account when I bought the vehicle new, and the first year of Safe & Sound service was free. It also included 30 minutes of air-time for the hands-free voice-activated cellphone, but I purchased extra minutes every now and then 'cuz the integrated phone was a pleasure to use and gave me great signal reception (as compared to my handheld cellphone). I renewed my OnStar subscription the following year, as well. Never had to use it in an accident or emergency (and I never locked my keys in the car, either! ) but I did like the feeling of security from knowing that if I was ever in a serious accident, help would be automatically summoned. That alone was worth the subscription fee. OnStar wasn't available when I traded up last year to the '06 L.L.Bean otherwise I probably would have gotten it again. Like I said, the cellphone part of the system was excellent.

 

 

Cheers ...

 

 

[Edit typos.]

 

yeah OnStar was in the LL Bean Outbacks (adn the H6 3.0 high end model too IIRC) but was dropped after GM flew the coop. Might have to go to a GM dealer to get it activated.

 

If you don't want to go that route, here is a good article on hacking the GPS in the OnStar box so you can use it

 

http://gps.hackaday.com/entry/1234000170038047/

 

shows how to put the chip into NMEA mode and feed the output to a laptop or palm PC or something, I didn't read all of it since I don't have an OnStar box to tinker with.

I have a factory installed Onstar in my '03 OB sedan. I bought the car used and have contacted Onstar / Verizon about getting the service, they tell me they don't have records showing my car is recognized by their system and that I have to contact a dealer to activate it. I called the local Subaru service and this person told me she didn't even know Subaru's came with Onstar. Well I ended that conversation right then, thanks for your time. Can anyone elaborate on this? I have no idea about Onstar except what I read in the brochure and the web. Does the system have to be "turned on" by a dealer or can I go somewhere else or do it myself?

As usual all help is appreciated.

 

Joe

 

Call the reginal service rep, and start off by saying "i really like my car.." . They get so many angry owners its nice to hear from a happy one, and makes them more apt to help.

Also you can try a GM dealer, or another subaru dealer. If i reacall there is nothing specail at all about the subaru onstar, so the gm dealer may be able to help.

 

nipper

Well here is an update on the Onstar system. I contacted a GM dealer and they were friendly and helpful but could not answer any questions about the system. So I contacted Subaru of America service rep. I was told by them that this car has an older version of Onstar and the newer software from Onstar does not recognize this older version. But wait, now my question is this; Does anyone out there have a Subie with an active Onstar account? The car is only a 2003 and was origanally sold in October of '03 so thats only a little more than 2 years old. It must be a very recient update and they left all of us out in the cold. I am checking further and will let all know.

 

Joe

I have an inactive Onstar system in my '03 OB VDC Sedan. I chose not to activate it when I bought in Dec '04, but my dealer gave me that option. I couldn't imagine the system already being out of date.

It's possible GM modified things when Subaru & GM split....not really sure. You may want to ask them when they updated things.

I am sure the dealers were given documentation on how to activate OnStar, but many would be too lazy to look it up. A GM dealer may not be able to help if activation requires VIN.