Dear GM,
I recently purchased a new Buick Enclave from you and LOVE it! I’ve owned many (MANY!) cars and this one easily makes it into my “top 3″ favorite cars of all time. You really did an outstanding job on the vehicle. Oh, and you’ll be happy to note that this vehicle replaced a Lexus RX, which we opted to not re-purchase in lieu of getting the Enclave. So your ad campaign targeting the Buick brand against Lexus is working (and in my estimation, accurate).
I have only two complaints about the vehicle:
1. The side-view mirrors are far too small for a vehicle that big
2. The range of the auto-start (even the “enhanced” one with the key fab larger than a Motorola Razr cell phone) sucks. A lot.
I’m not sure if you know this or not, but Viper has built a great iPhone app that allows people to start up their cars (among other things) by using their iPhone. Its a great app and I’m quite confident its translating into some nice sales.
That got me to thinking… why don’t YOU do it? You already have the infrastructure in place in the form of the OnStar system which can remotely do all sorts of stuff to a GM vehicle. Why not build an iPhone app that allows us, the owners of those cars, to remotely start/stop the vehicles? You could charge for the app (I suggest “free” but if you’d like to make some money, I’d pay as much as $29.99 for the app) and require an OnStar service contract to be in place (of which, I’m on the fence about anyway – this would throw me over that fence).
Beyond being a forward thinking product, this would also solve the problem of how poorly the range is on your key fabs, including the advanced one which I have purchased for the $200+ price and yet seen only a 3 foot range improvement (exaggeration – but not by a whole lot).
If you’re looking for someone to help test it, I humbly offer my services.
Sincerely,
Me.
Tags: buick, cars, gm, great ideas, iphone
December 4th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Ordered a GM car that I was told would work with the iPhone several 9 weeks ago. Plugged in the iPhone and the iPhone displayed an error message saying this device (the car) in NOT compatible.
Sales guy showed me GM’s new advanced voice dialing – Took him 8 tries before the correct number was recognized. – This sure sucked.
Here are the other probelms – Can’t read iPhone contacts, has problems with some music files… the list goes on and on.
Finally found out GM’s software is 3-4 years old and has not been updated. Dealer told me there is NO way to update the software in the car either.
I’m paid a premimum for GM’s iPhone package that doesn’t work. Glad I didn’t sign the contract to accept the car.
I’ve now learned GM and it’s dealers are so desperate they will say anything to get you to buy their cars.
When to the Ford Dealership 2 block away – The Ford Sync is very nice and it works. Only problem I can see with it, is you have to listen to the entire voice command. There’s no way to interrupt. I can tell after a month the long voice commands are going to drive me crazy.
I’m off to look a BMWs
December 19th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
[...] few weeks ago I posted an entry asking (begging?) GM to consider an iPhone app that would allow me to start my car from my iPhone. I [...]