Bluetooth question
 

We are thinking about replacing our 2008 Rabbit with a 2010 Chevy Malibu LTZ. (hard to passup 3000 off, + 1000 trunk money for trading in a foreign car) Plus we are both tired of driving a car (rabbit) that has 120 mile seats. About the most uncomfortable car seats I have ever owned.

The car we are looking at has bluetooth. Will this work with only one device? Both of our cell phones have bluetooth. Will both phones connect when we are both in the car? or does it only work with one phone?

I have our bluetooth headset paired to my iphone, and my wife's. I believe that it will simply respond to whichever phone initiates or receives a call. We rarely use the headset, so I'd have to test it out to be sure though.

edit: assuming that the car's bluetooth would function in the same way.

You can pair it with both of your devices, but the system will have an order of precedence so that if both of your devices are in the car at the same time, one device will pair with the car and the other will not. The order of precedence varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and in some applications it can be re-ordered.

Every Bluetooth equipped car I've had can pair with multiple phones, but will only connect with one at a time. When my wife and I are both in the car with our phones, only one of the phones will connect with the car - and there is no consistent "winner". But if either of us get in the car alone (or leave a phone at home), it works with whichever phone is with us. I also have an iPhone and a Blackberry, both of which are paired to the cars. When I'm carrying both, it's random as to which one connects.

I've found it to be random at times.

GM's Bluetooth module is integrated into the OnStar module.

I have a first-gen BT-enabled OnStar module in my '08 CTS... Works fairly well for making or receiving calls, but has no other features that other manufacturers have with their BT -- things like address book integration. That means that while you can answer a call by pressing the steering wheel button when the phone rings, you have to initiate outbound calls from the phone. I've also noticed that the caller ID info only occasionally gets displayed properly in the instrument cluster for inbound calls.

GM may have added some new features since then -- so probably worth asking about any newer features they've added in the last two years.

And, as JST said, you can add more than one phone. The controls to do so are all via the OnStar voice prompts (just press OnStar and then say "Bluetooth" -- you'll then get a menu of BT functions). Its probably the easiest BT pairing sequence I've used...

One more thing:

The GM Bluetooth implementation makes it fairly easy to switch the active BT phone. Just go into the OnStar BT menu, and it will allow you to switch to another phone via voice control. When you add a phone to the car, you also are asked to give it a name -- so the car will play back the name you have to you (which is kind of weird when the auto-gen voice changes to something recorded in your voice)...

The BMW system in my car has an order of preference and it is not random. If it appears random, I suspect it just didn't find a phone. It will pair with 3 phones.

The Toyota system in the mini van has a select feature. If you want to change phones to pair, you have to tell it which phone to switch to. The selection screen only works if you are stopped. It will pair with 6 phones though. That's useful since there are only two of us.

The last GM bluetooth I had was not the greatest. But that was a 2005 car and I think they improved it the next year. The Toyota system is also not the greatest, but that is a 2006 car. The BMW system is great. Sounds great, always works, integrates well with the car . . . hopefully the on-star based systems have achieved that level of functionality by now.

GM only had quasi-supported BT as a dealer-install option until ~1/2 way through the '08 model year. They finally realized that trying to sell minutes through Verizon only for use via the OnStar phone in the car wasn't working -- not only did it require an OnStar subscription, but the pre-pay per minute cost wasn't really effective. And it required a person to call the car's dedicated number.

So they finally added BT to the OnStar module. Still not the greatest implementation, but it works well enough. Should be new and better features now though...

They say the memory is the first thing to go! You are right, I added the car as a third line on my cell plan. It was the phone itself that wasn't all that good, not the bluetooth.