do you like your onstar? hell yeah!!!!

I am used to hypermiling my escalade hybrid and the 470-500 mile range. knowing that it has a 26 gallon capacity, I was thinking I had room to squeeze that extra 2 gallons for more mileage until the next fuel stop. having travelled from little rock and LV then SFO, I know when to fill up. guess what? on the drive back home, before reaching kingman, AZ I used 23.9 gallons already and the DIC showing low range. I was at the foot of the mountain, at golden key=2 miles to the next fuel stop then it happened, the engine died, no fuel. no start, nothing. used onstar, thank god for that extra fuel. I was only short of 2 miles as there was my fuel stop after the mountain.

when it says low range believe it. I think the extra 2 gal is reserve for a quick start when the tank rans up dry. because when I started the hybrid, it fired up quickly like there was no fuel issue at all. any inputs/ experience?

 

here is a pic taken with my iphone4

 

So it looks like you had a "little" fuel left. Were you running down hill by chance? The nose down attitude will cause the last 1 or so gallons to run away from the fuel sender and the pump inlet.

When I travel as now (I'm in St. Louis), I "superfill" the hybrid. I take a real long time but I can put almost 2 more gallons in after the "normal" click off. This gives me a solid 27 "useable" gallons.

However, I usually get fuel by 25 to 25.5 used. Sometimes the DIC has been as much as 5% under predicted. (or maybe the pump?) 5% of 25 gallons = 1.25 gallons or about 25 miles. I have "dead stick" landed on down-hill off ramps into the gas station on a couple trips.

Thanks to "Autostop" I made it by coasting and letting the engine shut off, then real easy to the pump a 1/4 mile.

Doing this with the "family" on board is not advised.

 

Evois -

I'm not sure I quite understand what you mean by "extra 2 gallon reserve".

Do you mean that the tank hold 26 + 2 gallons, or that you only have 24 usable gallons, or something else? I didn't see anything in the manual about an type of reserve (like the old bug used to have).

On a side note - interesting to see your range coming up as 475 to 500 miles. I've been getting a projected range on the DIC after fill up of just over 600 miles ever since the weather has warmed up here.

 

I only used 24 gal on the DIC, which means I still have 2 gal left. but after this incident, does it mean it is only 24 useable gal available in a tank? and the range has dropped from 585-595 miles to a "get real" 475 mile range after fill-up. I have the vehicle scheduled for a software update since the nav has some bugs too.

 

Ah - I see what you are getting to now. Good question. I've never run my tank down that far, so I'm not sure how the gauges are all programmed at the low end of the tank.

O.T. - last thread gave me 663 mile range. The truck seems to like the warmer weather.

 

Regarding the On Star question : No I dont think its worthwhile. Your Iphone is OnStar, and a million other things so what is the point of another monthly payment?

If you run it out of gas use a cell phone to call AAA. Ive had long conversations about the need for Onstar with the Onstar reps (long car trips, bored...pressed Onstar button...).

Things a cell phone cant do :

1. It will unlock your car. Great, now what? It will unlock the car, but if I lost the keys, what good would that be?

2. Send help if airbags deploy. OK that's worthy but an unlikely need.


I honestly cant believe Onstar is still in business. I wish GM would drop it and instead let you synch your cell phone using bluetooth like every other car maker. Its ridiculous that they try to cell you $1/minute Onstar phone minutes when I can just use my cell phone to make the same phone call.

For that matter, Google maps on my Droid is about 10000x better than the GM nav system.

I really do like the truck but its definitely lacking with the NAV/Onstar system. At least it was in 08. Hopefully its better now.

 

the onstar phone is not $1/minute. it is $0.01/minute or 10c/minute which the same whether you're in the US or traveling in canada where we used the onstar phone a lot instead of the roaming charges + actual phone charges c/o roger wireless of canada.

 

Hmm, last time I punched the blue button they quoted me $30 for 30 minutes. I guess I will hit it again and report back.

Yeah roaming charges are bad on Verizon in Canada, but living in Atlanta I doubt I will ever drive that far (hopefully not anyways!)

 

OK I hit the blue button this morning. Heres the deal :

$4.99 / 60 minutes.

But ... you have to pay between $19-$29 per month to be able to use those 60 minutes.

I cant see Onstar still being around in 1-2 yrs unless they offer something better. By then, everyone will have smartphones. I can get voice activated turn by turn up to date instructions with traffic, topography, weather and about 10 other things overlaid using google maps from my droid. And the app is totally free.

GM should ditch Onstar and let you bluetooth your cell phone to the head unit to make hands free calls like every other car maker is now doing. Trying to insert Onstar into that equation is totally backwards.