Can you imagine if when watching Smokey and the Bandit, Burt Reynolds reached up to the rearview mirror in his ’77 Special Edition Trans Am, pushed its blue OnStar button, sending a signal from the T/A to a satellite overhead and then to an OnStar command center, and a polite and trained live advisor quickly downloaded voice turn-by-turn navigation to the mirror for the Bandit to get from Texarkana to McDonough quicker than Sheriff Buford T. Justice?
OnStar employs approximately 2,000 advisers at three call centers in North America: Warren, Michigan; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Oshoa, Ontario, Canada. With OnStar FMV installed into your ’81 or newer Pontiac, you can enjoy turn-by-turn navigation, hands-free calling, stolen-vehicle location, and, if you ever need it, emergency roadside assistance.
Far-fetched? Not at all, because OnStar FMV (For My Mirror) gives your vintage or late-model Pontiac OnStar’s core features (’81-and-up currently; there is a possibility that OnStar will extend compatibility to pre-’81 Pontiacs, such as the SE Trans Ams that Burt Reynolds drove in Smokey and the Bandit and Smokey and the Bandit II), which owners of many ’06-and-newer Pontiacs enjoy as factory-installed optional equipment. (Owners of pre-’06 Pontiacs with the discontinued analog system of OnStar can upgrade to OnStar FMV, too.)
“For years we’ve had people telling us that though they’re not in the market for a new vehicle, they would like OnStar [on what they already own,]” OnStar’s Stefan Cross says. “We never really had a way to deliver on this customer demand. That is no longer the case now that OnStar FMV is on the market.”
OnStar FMV is more than a direct-replacement rearview mirror for your Pontiac—it gives you safety, security, and connectivity services; an accelerometer to detect moderate to severe crashes, which then activates Automatic Crash Response and sends first-responders to your exact location; GPS locating to get you from where you are to where you want to go, but more importantly, to locate your vehicle if it is ever stolen; and hands-free cellular phone service—either by purchasing minutes to use the embedded OnStar phone or with Bluetooth connectivity pairing the mirror to your Bluetooth-enabled phone. OnStar FMV also includes access to live advisors 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
OnStar FMV is sold at various consumer-electronic retail stores or by mail order. It retails for $299, though we advise you shop around for the best deal when buying it.
Currently, OnStar’s live advisors can only register 17-digit VINs into their system, and that’s the primary reason why OnStar FMV is compatible only on ’81-and-up vehicles. From a hardware perspective, OnStar FMV and its three-wire power harness will install into any 12-volt powered Pontiac—that means all the way back to ’55—but OnStar says there’s no plan in the immediate future to register 13- or 10-digit VIN vehicles. (High Performance Pontiac thinks OnStar should develop a workaround for ’80 and older vehicles, as it would be great asset to owners of collector Pontiacs.)
An OnStar subscription is $18.95 a month ($199 a year) for the Safe and Sound plan—Automatic Crash Response, 24/7 Emergency Services, Roadside Assistance, Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance, hands-free calling, and Virtual Advisor services, which gives you personalized traffic, weather, and stock updates. The Directions and Connections plan is $28.90 ($299 a year), which includes all Safe and Sound features plus Turn-by-Turn Navigation. Pairing your Bluetooth-enabled phone to OnStar FMV for hands-free calling does not require a subscription.
OnStar strongly recommends that you used a trained OnStar FMV installer, but as you will see, any reader with basic mechanical skills can do it. We were referred to professional installer Jeff Pifer of Suncoast Marine Electronics in Largo, Florida.
He routes the OnStar FMV power harness underneath the headliner and then down the A-pillar.
Before Jeff began, he made sure our Pontiac passed the following pre-installation checklist:
• A windshield angle 20-50 degrees (for mirror adjustability and proper crash detection)
• No cracks anywhere in the windshield and/or chips near the mirror mount
• A proper mirror mount (“big foot”) and/or a mount adaptor
• Clearance to allow the top of the OnStar FMV Mirror transmittal access to the sky through the windshield when mounted (if not, an external GPS antenna must be used; OnStar FMV comes with a data-port connection for the antenna, which is sold separately)
Our T/A came factory-equipped with map lights in its rear-view mirror, so Jeff zip-ties the OnStar power harness to the map-light power harness to keep things tidy. (Depending upon your Pontiac’s model and year, you may or may not have a power harness going to the factory rearview mirror.)
• No metallic tint on the front windshield (remove metallic-based tint before install)
• Mounting location will allow OnStar FMV mirror to be fully adjusted for all drivers and not interfere with visors, console, and such.
Let’s see exactly how he installs Onstar FMV in a ’98 Trans Am.
Tools Used
Wire strippers and cutters
Voltmeter
Torx T20 key/driver
2.5mm Allen key/driver
Panel tools
Zip-ties
Electrical tape
Soldering gun and solder
Tools Used
Definitions
VBATT or B+ (Yellow Wire): Direct positive 12-volt power from the battery
Gnd (Black Wire): The GROUND side of the battery; the metal chassis of the vehicle is used as ground in most cases.
Accessory or ACC (Red Wire): A positive 12-volt power line that is only active when the ignition of the vehicle is in ON/RUN or ACC (if available), and is inactive when the ignition is in “crank” or “off” positions
