[SHRIVES23]

Hey I JUST got the Terrain, two quick questions.

1. The ECO mode, is it safe to always drive with that thing on or should I kinda limit it to highway driving?

2. Is the bluetooth feature FREE, it goes through onstar when you set it up, but is the feature free on the device even though it goes through them, or is that part of the 30mins hands free calling that was included when I bought it?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Roesterman]

1. You can leave it on all the time. It adds about 1 mpg. It makes more difference in city driving because it locks the torque converter at a lower rpm. The
torque converter is locked already at highway speeds. Locking the torque converter at low rpms causes noise below 2000 rpm that is cancelled by the ANC
noise suppression system.

2. Bluetooth is free. It uses your bluetooth enabled cell phone(after pairing) to receive calls and hear it through your car speakers. Onstar is not free(after trial period). Ithas its own built-in cell phone. You can use either method to make calls. Onstar will work in areas where your cell phone wont get a signal. It has more power and there are no long distance fees in north america. The 30 minutes of free calls is for Onstar calls.

 

[SHRIVES23]

Thank You! I thought that was how it worked. For the Bluetooth navigation, does it use my google maps (HTC INCREDIBLE) and announce them over the car stereo?

 

[Roesterman]

Thank You! I thought that was how it worked. For the Bluetooth navigation, does it use my google maps (HTC INCREDIBLE) and announce them over the car stereo?

Do you have FM transmitter on your GPS? If so, you can set up your GPS to announce over a FM channel. If your GPS has bluetooth it is probably there so you can answer your cell phone and dial out on it. You don't need that part because your Terrain has that feature built in.

I keep my GPS's (Garmin and TomTom) unlinked from vehicles so I don't lose functionality of my entertainment system. If you link them to FM you have to keep it there to hear announcements from GPS.

 

[NoobNox]

I don't even know why GM made "Eco" an option to turn on/off. Turning it on gives you marginally better mileage (slightly quicker upshifts/lower idle rpm) yet turning it off doesn't noticeably improve performance. There really isn't a reason to turn it off unless you are bugged by the slightly rougher idle.

 

[Narg]

It's usually confusing to differentiate On-Star from Blue-Tooth. Basically you SUV has 2 phones in it. On-Star has it's own CDMA based cell phone. And whatever you have paired with Blue-Tooth (which actually goes through the stereo, not On-Star) What's also hard sometimes for me is to wait after starting the car for a minute. Some phones are slower than others at pairing, so when you sit down, start up and then immediately hit the handsfree button, you might get a response that the call is going through On-Star rather than your phone because the phone hasn't finished pairing yet.

That's cool that your Incredible does navigation voice through Bluetooth. Some phones won't work with the GM bluetooth that way. You'r lucky.