From the Detroit News, vehicle buyers do have choices other than GM and Ford. GM’s attempt to force people to pay for OnStar is backfiring:
But if GM includes something as standard equipment that a buyer can't opt out of, Gordon said, then “the price should be in the MSRP, not $1,500 extra, and it should not be called an 'option' if there is no option.”
The 'final straw'
Just as carmakers are free to make whatever they want standard, car buyers are free to go buy a different brand.
Bruce Wendt, of Romeo, did just that when he learned about GM's new “option.”
Wendt has been trying to trade his 2015 Ford F-150 pickup for a GMC Sierra pickup since May 2021. He has hit continuous ordering roadblocks.
So a few weeks ago, he decided to look at buying the smaller GMC Canyon midsize pickup instead. That's when he noticed on the window sticker a “safety option” for a three-year, $1,500 subscription to GM's OnStar.
He didn't want to pay $1,500 for the subscription-based communication service.
“My salesman said it shows on the sticker as an option,” Wendt said. “But you have to take it.”
Wendt tried to bypass the mandatory option by doing a build-and-price order online. Again, OnStar was listed under Interior/Safety Options, but the box next to the $1,500 was checked and Wendt could not uncheck it, he said.
“That was the final straw,” Wendt said. “(OnStar) was a cash grab. They're a good vehicle, I just hate being jerked around.”
Wendt ordered a Toyota Tacoma midsize pickup that he expects to take delivery of in a few weeks.