Trip report from NADA:
Hello Batman et al:
I just left the National Automotive Dealers Association (NADA)Trade Show and had a very nice visit with "Skip" who was the "Onstar" guy I spoke with at the booth. Having attended the show for completely different reasons, I was pleasntly surprised to see that ONSTAR had a booth of their own....in addition to the massive GM booth.
This show is for the OEM dealerships. If you sell GM, Ford Chrysler, Honda, etc., cars...you attend this show.
Here are the highlights of my visit to the Onstar booth:
1. The booth had a heavy emaphasis that new for 2001 is the Personal Calling and Virtual Advisor. Remember, they are packaged together.
2. You get 30 mins. free...after that you pay. No written literature on the price schedule.
3. They had a big maroon Yukon with Onstar Active in it. I asked Skip when it would be released...he said it is in New England already and will be nationwide by April/May. Compared to my meeting with the Subaru guy in November at the AAPEX (aftermakret) show, we're running about 2-3 months behind.
4. Why the delay? Skip says it is not because of General Magic or the system....the dealers need to be taught how to sell the product and educating them on what and how to sell the new features of ONSTAR are what is causing the slower than originally anticipated roll out timing. By the way, Skip clearly knew who General Magic was and coming from an actual ONSTAR employee, that was good to hear.
5. I got a demo of the VA!!!! Very, very cool and if you remember the sound of Ms. Portico's voice, you can't mistake her here. One big difference...she's gotten a LOT more conversational...more realistic...lots more ways she responds and how she does it. Kudos to Danny Lange and the design/development team. To activate the VA you hit the "i" button of the three button ONSTAR system. The system says "connecting to VA," and then poof! there she is asking you for your pass code. We got news that was updated 15 mins prior to our listening to it. We got sports scores that were also no more than 15 mins. behind actual time. We could not get the weather because, as Ms. Onstar VA said, "I'm so sorry..you are not in an area set up yet for local weather." We're in Vegas and she knows it (the bitch!).
6. "Get Big Blue" Skip said and she came back and gave us IBM's closing price on Friday. Quotes were sponsored by Fidelity...perhaps a tie in partner in the future.
Overall...what a pleasant surprise. I took a few of the Batman Comic books...where the Ridler and his gang are caught because Batman let them steal his Batmobile and they tracked it with Onstar to their headquarters. I suspect we will shortly see more Onstar Batman commercials.
Hard to make any concrete coclusions and in this case I won't. The facts are for all of you to ponder...but this time its facts...I met,saw and spoke with an ONSTAR guy.
HC |
