Like many 2020 Chevy Spark owners, I opted for the convenience of an in-car 4G LTE hotspot, expecting seamless connectivity on the go. Paying for OnStar’s monthly service, I anticipated reliable internet access for navigation, streaming, and staying connected while driving around Dallas. However, my experience has been far from satisfactory, and it’s time to address the elephant in the room: the hotspot in my 2020 Chevy Spark has been consistently useless.
From day one, the hotspot has technically “connected,” but the speeds are so abysmal they render the service unusable. We’re talking kilobytes per second – speeds reminiscent of dial-up, not modern 4G LTE. Living in a densely populated area like Dallas, with no shortage of cell towers, signal strength should not be the issue. Downtown Dallas boasts robust 4G LTE coverage, yet my car’s hotspot struggles to even load a basic webpage in a reasonable timeframe. Forget about streaming music or using navigation apps that require a stable data connection; the 2020 Chevy Spark hotspot simply can’t handle it.
Seeking a solution, I contacted OnStar support, hoping for a quick fix or some troubleshooting guidance. Unfortunately, their attempts to resolve the issue were fruitless. Despite their efforts, the hotspot remained stubbornly slow and unreliable. After years of paying for a service that never delivered on its promise, frustration has turned into disappointment. It feels like paying for something fundamentally broken.
When purchasing a brand-new 2020 Chevy Spark, the expectation is that advertised features, like a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot, will function as intended. While technically the car does connect, the unusable speeds make it a worthless feature. In today’s digital age, a connection speed of a few kilobytes per second is simply unacceptable. It begs the question: shouldn’t Chevrolet or OnStar take responsibility for replacing these faulty hotspots with units that actually provide the promised 4G LTE speeds? For now, I’ve cancelled my subscription, unwilling to continue paying for a consistently useless service that was part of the original vehicle purchase.
