Connected Services on Limited only
 

Hi all! Wanted to get more info on this. I ordered a BRZ Limited 6MT because I want the rear Cross Traffic Alert and the better tires, but looking at the more detailed specs, I see that Limited comes with "SUBARU STARLINK Connected Services" but Premium does not.

I looked up what the "Connected Services" are, and it seems like a bunch of things that track your usage patterns and location, and that info will be used to:

1. provide services if you want them (and are still within your free subscription period, and/or you have paid for addition time on the subscription)

AND

2. that info will be used by Subaru for knowing more about you and your usage, and sold to other companies to help them market to you.

Based on this, I think I would rather not have the "Connected Services", so I'm thinking about changing my order to Premium (I can always get different wheels and tires right after purchase). So my question is which of these two do you think is the likely situation:

1. Both Premium and Limited have the exact same hardware and therefore do the same tracking and selling of your information, it's just that Limited is the only version that allows you to take advantage of those services if you want to use them. (In which case, Limited sounds better than Premium to me)

2. Premium doesn't have all the necessary radios and antennas needed for the "Connected Services" to track your usage and location, so they don't have the ability to track your usage even if they wanted to. (In which case, Premium sounds better to me)

I think #1 seems more likely since Subaru would probably not bother with the expense of making 2 separate versions of the car hardware for this (especially since the "feature" we're talking about is actually valuable to them...it's one feature they really want you to have, so they'd happily give it to you for free).

Would love to hear sincere and constructive feedback on this topic. Thanks!

If they are bothering to collect your information in one, I'd be very surprised if they weren't doing it in both. The times we live in are strange.

I have a hard time believing they would keep a detailed record of driving habits and location of every vehicle equipped with this. That would be a huge waste of data and resources. They most likely would watch in real-time if at all.

My wife’s Forester has all the connected services except for the concierge plan. It’s great for remote start, remote locking/unlocking anywhere on earth, vehicle location, stolen vehicle recovery…etc. for only $75 for 3 years.

Totally worth it IMO!

PS, we never noticed any extra solicitation or issues from Subaru or any other company since we had it.

i think you're buying in the wrong era to avoid being tracked or marketed to.

First, if you
A. Have a smartphone
or
B. Use any social media, Google, YouTube, Amazon, etc.
You are already having your data collected. This is not even me trying to be a smartass, because it’s basically true.

Also, I’m fairly certain the Subaru Connected Services require a subscription after like 6 months or something.

Pulling up my phone to lock my car while at a soccer match is amazing.

Pulling up my phone to crank the car up and adjust the heating in the winter time before I arrive is amazing.

Pulling up my phone to see my wife is leaving her boyfriend's is amazing

It's worth the Subaru ads on Hulu

Well I can’t say the third applies to me, but the first two are pretty cool

Hardware differences
 

Let’s try to keep this thread focused on the facts (I.e. what hardware differences there are between Premium and Limited) instead of opinions (I.e. what data are you comfortable with sharing). Since I don’t think in this case it would be very productive to try to sway someone else’s opinion.

Anyone know if there are actual hardware differences between the two trim levels?

Hi Grosbard,

There is information on how to disable this online - found it a few months back looking for the same kind of solution.

https://www.subaruoutback.org/thread...3#post-5946760

Hi Blighty! Wow, thanks for the great info! On that page, did you go with dfranke's solution (the surgery) or walker's solution (just unplugging the 2 or 3 antennas)? Walker's certainly seems easier and easily reversible!

i would just unplug the antenna's.

de-pinning connectors is never fun, and more involved than needed.

Like others have said, it’s not hard to disable. I had a 2017 STI that came with it. I made sure to pull out the plug to the antenna. The last thing I need is Subaru knowing about my driving habits. Nobody buys a WRX, STI, or BRZ to drive it slow

yay! another person that lol's when their insurance agent calls about 'we can lower your rate, just plug this thingie into your cars OBD port to send data back to the mothership that blindly assigns pre-determined invisible metrics to your account!'

my favorite part of this is that its such a small discount to tattle on your own driving habits.


and fwiw, just because google and fb can create a marketing profile of your likes/posts/ect doesn't mean that Subaru can't make a small profit selling your data.

fuck these assholes and anyone else trying to sell your data for almost no real money just because they're desperate.