Dear Ford: Wake Up

One day in early spring 2001, I was at the house where my car was being painted, giving the guy a helping hand. Suddenly a friend of his family called frantically, saying she'd just been in an accident and that she was coming over with the car so it could be inspected. She said she was alright (although her back locked up something fierce). Later that night she stopped by with her car, a 2001 Chevy Impala equipped with the OnStar system. Turned out the car was just fine, but what totally amazed me was the circumstances around the accident and how they were resolved.

She relayed the story of what happened: she was stopped on a freeway overpass, in line to enter the freeway, when the person behind her smashed into her car. It just so happened that a state trooper was across the intersection and had witnessed the accident, so he quickly called for an ambulance. But within one minute of getting hit, she received a call via the OnStar system. The operator said, "We understand you were just in an accident. Are you okay, and do you require medical assistance?" She declined the help from the operator and was taken aboard the ambulance to the hospital, where she was released shortly afterward.

I do have to admit, I sort of live in a closed world when it comes to new cars. I pay close attention to what Ford is doing while I only just glance at the happenings over at GM and Chrysler. I come from a long line of GM-owning family members so it's sort of natural that I find out some things. But my ignorance was exploited by this accident involving an almost total stranger. What in the world is this OnStar system? This absolutely amazed and fascinated me---I just had to know more.

Turns out that on many of their models, GM offers OnStar free for up to a year, then it's a modestly-priced subscription service with several tiers (might I add, it's very affordable too). OnStar is a separate mobile communications service packed into an interface that has been preinstalled in the vehicle. With the push of a button, you are immediately connected with a representative no matter where you happen to be across the nation. If you need directions, a tow truck, or police assistance, OnStar can cover you via a real, live operator. When you use the OnStar button you are addressed by your first name. This is extremely important in helping to bring something as technologically advanced as OnStar down to a very personal level---a nice touch. Lock your keys in the car? No problemo--call the OnStar toll-free number and you can have your door popped remotely via satellite. Now THAT is cool. Someone stole your car? Call the toll-free number and OnStar can help police in tracking the vehicle. Even if you're just hungry and looking for a restaurant, or maybe need to find the nearest hotel for the night, or even want to order concert tickets, OnStar can help there as well. But most importantly, if you do happen to be involved an accident, one of several crash sensors aboard the vehicle will automatically call OnStar right away (as was the case with the woman in the story above). Folks, if the impact of this service hasn't hit you by now, please check your pulse. This is the stuff we'd always dreamt about having in our cars, and it's here now---but only in GM vehicles (and a few from other automakers).

We've probably all seen the now-infamous Batman commercials where he's in a boatload of trouble, calls OnStar, and gets his situation resolved. Now I personally have issues with automakers that resort to teaming up with cartoon characters in order to sell their vehicles (coughcough ChevyVentureWarnerBrothersEdition coughcough). But what's brilliant here is that you fully understand the entire concept of OnStar within the timeframe of these ads. What's even more surprising is that it comes from GM, who usually messes up just about every golden opportunity it's given. The ads are 100 percent effective in getting their message across and from that standpoint I must give GM a ton of credit.

So my next logical question is: why doesn't Ford offer this service? Well, it does but there's a catch---it's only available in the uplevel Lincoln vehicles (where it's known as RESCU). So "lowly" Ford and Mercury owners don't get any benefits from it. Now let's get the facts here: GM has well over 100 models. Ford has about 75. With fewer cars, Ford could probably put RESCU or OnStar in all their vehicles rather easily, and with much less red tape than GM typically does things. Yet we see no indications that Ford will be doing so anytime in the near future. Try looking up the RESCU service on Ford's website--good luck finding anything. And have you seen any ads at all referring to RESCU? Nope, me either. And yet you will always remember OnStar as being in GM vehicles. That, my friends, is effective marketing.

Let me go on record by saying that Ford is totally missing the boat on this sort of service, plain and simple. The logical thing to do would be, at the very least, to copy what GM has done by putting OnStar in their Ford/Mercury/Lincoln vehicles, then advertise the living hell out of it. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. But I guess Ford thinks it's doing better than GM and doesn't have to stoop to that level. It's time to wake up and smell the coffee, Ford: GM has it all over you with OnStar; to deny that is ignorant. For once The General has something ahead of the game and that is absolutely reliable and undeniably breakthrough. They're also catching up to Ford big time with car and truck sales, and there's no wonder why. When it all boils down, OnStar is not only a convenience, it's also a life-saving piece of equipment that's just as important as the airbags and seatbelts. This is a very technologically-driven society and we come to expect certain things when we buy new cars. At least where OnStar is concerned, GM is definitely doing the right thing while Ford is not.

I don't know if there is much that we, as consumers, can do to demand this type of service in new Ford vehicles. My suggestion would be to call or write to Ford Motor Company and express your opinion. In the face of the Firestone tire abomination, Explorer safety and recall issues, and now the new T-Bird fires, they're in a world of hurt from a consumer's point of view. If Ford wishes to continue its commitment to its customers, they will have no choice but to do this sometime soon. Let's hope they wise up and do the right thing: put the customer first, not the profit margin.

Until next time,

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