Factory Manual

KARNUT · January 26

My first portable phone was a bag phone in 1994. It was use sparingly at 1$ per minute. I still have the same number.

dieselfan1 · January 26

28 minutes ago, Chuck FB said:

Unless its any different recently there are very few people that at least used to have a sat phone, they were and I think still are pretty expensive just to have working, never mind using it to call on as they charge so much a minute and that rate used to be completely insane. One of my nephews did have one or borrowed one to go out into the mountains with his sled and only used in case of an emergency. Even a regular cell phone in Canada or I should rephrase that, in places outside of the major cities is far more expensive than what phones/plans are in the states or in those major Canadian cities. The government and telecommunications companies have prevented true competition so the few companies that do exist up here and some under one umbrella but make it sound like they are a competing company, they charge whatever they like. In fact I believe there are two companies here that one can have cell service through.

I expect that in the oil patch if your somebody as in a boss and have to have communications, they would have something better but then its a big money making company paying for that luxury. Way back what seems like a life time ago I worked briefly in the oil patch and of course most job locations were far away from civilization and cell phones did not exist or at least any system around here didn't at that time. It was a two way radio that also had the ability to contact a mobile repeater operator ( an actual person ) who patched you through to the other party and everyone on that frequency could hear both sides of the conversation. In fact a long time ago we had that feature on our two ways on the farm, that whole system of repeater towers and so on is most likely long dinosaured now. One would probably have to be watching a movie from the 1960's or 70's to see someone pretending to be patched through !.

A top end sattelite phone is less than a new iPhone.

2026 Satellite Phones: Cost, Plans & Reviews | BlueCosmo https://share.google/s3CrG7nnc3G5C969o

IsatPhone Airtime Plans | BlueCosmo https://share.google/lVSbvlyDQnjQHsRQP

Edited January 26 by dieselfan1

Chuck FB · January 26

4 minutes ago, dieselfan1 said:

A top end sattelite phone is around the same price as a new iPhone.

2026 Satellite Phones: Cost, Plans & Reviews | BlueCosmo https://share.google/s3CrG7nnc3G5C969o

IsatPhone Airtime Plans | BlueCosmo https://share.google/lVSbvlyDQnjQHsRQP

From the bit I searched and it did not give all the calling to phone type fees per minute but seemed like it was adding at least 50% more onto the prices you found simply because its in Canada. The issue is that if one isn't made of money and it gets very expensive to be on the phone for any length of time, it ends up that a person would have a regular cell phone and sat phone bill to pay every month. For some people it may make sense but I am not remotely in that financial world.

dieselfan1 · January 26

The cost wouldn't bother me a bit if my life depended on it.

MaverickZ71 · January 26

6 hours ago, newdude said:

I mean...a $30,000 Equinox doesn't come with one either anymore...so...

I mean...a $9995 Chevy Aveo came with one in 2004...just like everything else...so...

newdude · January 26

7 hours ago, MaverickZ71 said:

I mean...a $9995 Chevy Aveo came with one in 2004...just like everything else...so...

No infotainment system to integrate a manual into in 2004.

Pryme · January 26

12 hours ago, KARNUT said:

My first portable phone was a bag phone in 1994. It was use sparingly at 1$ per minute. I still have the same number.

My dad had the same phone(Motorola black bag phone) same time frame and it was also a buck a min.

dieselfan1 · January 26

32 minutes ago, Pryme said:

My dad had the same phone(Motorola black bag phone) same time frame and it was also a buck a min.

Me too 1991 bag phone 40 cents a minute. Took it apart and mounted the phone on my dash in my 86 C10. I was a bigshot on the jobsite.

Edited January 26 by dieselfan1

KARNUT · January 26

I remember way back when my father and a couple of his supervisors had solid mounted car phones. It was in the mid seventies. There was equipment behind the seat of his elcamino ss. On the floor was a rotary phone with a bunch of buttons across the top. Every time I saw him use it he would dial 0 for the mobile operator. That lasted about 6 months he said here’s your beeper go to a pay phone if you need me. I later asked our secretary what was the deal. When I saw the bill I almost passed out.

Chuck FB · January 26

7 minutes ago, KARNUT said:

I remember way back when my father and a couple of his supervisors had solid mounted car phones. It was in the mid seventies. There was equipment behind the seat of his elcamino ss. On the floor was a rotary phone with a bunch of buttons across the top. Every time I saw him use it he would dial 0 for the mobile operator. That lasted about 6 months he said here’s your beeper go to a pay phone if you need me. I later asked our secretary what was the deal. When I saw the bill I almost passed out.

That reminded me of Dan Tanna on the show Vegas as he cruised around in his red Thunderbird convertible answering the car phone, high tech fancy and cool !. I did a search and found out that the Edmonton mayor was showing off a car phone in 1986 as the system became available there, I have no idea when cell service eventually came up here to the north but sure wasn't a thing in 1990. I was handed a beeper and I would have been one of few who even was given one of those at that facility. Canada invented the phone but a large sparsely populated areas within the country isn't going to have the funding by the few users to justify spending on the technology.

Speaking of the infotainment system and being able to load up the manual, I haven't a clue how that is done and the only potential connection I have to the truck is with my slow wifi in the house. Which also brings me to the fact that I just realized the other day I am having a glitch with my info center where it won't allow me to chose anything and be that home, music, camera, settings screen etc as soon as the truck is moving and gives me a warning if I touch the icons to the left that I can't move anything while the vehicle is in motion. I have also realized that the info center has not updated since just before I bought the truck almost a year ago and if I press update it does its circle thing and claims there is no update. I don't know if its not able to get enough signal to actually do anything or not. I don't subscribe to onstar, nor do I have a cell connected to the system. Unless there is something else that I should be doing I assume I will have to bring it into the dealer for them to force an update in an effort to fix the glitch or unless there is something wrong with the hard unit.

Chuck FB · January 27

While I haven't fixed anything yet with my infotainment glitch, I figured out why I have never received any over the air updates since the truck was at the dealer before I bought it, its because they never went through the motions at the dealer to connect my truck in any way to me the owner. So once the limited time onstar promo system ended, the onstar basics that I should have had for 8 years didn't actually exist either. There was no agreement signed etc and the salesman did not spell out what would happen as per no updates or zero functionality of the onstar system.

As per the conversation with the salesman, I did contact onstar and somehow it had enough signal to do that ( I think it may have been going off of a newer tower that only one cell company allows to be used for their cell phones ) and ironically onstar was doing their own inhouse updates so they were not able to help me today, call back another day ... how fitting !.

Chuck FB · January 29

I looked at the operators manual that is in the infotainment system and it has diesel engine section headings to chose from, no gas engine headings. Is this what all gas trucks get loaded in from the factory as an over all generic manual as I was wondering if this was normal or a screw up from the factory ?.

Also got onstar basics signed up yesterday as it should have had from the beginning, not sure if there is some time line before it works fully as I still can't get it to find any updates although keep in mind its using a slow wifi connection as it does the same thing as before with searching and then claiming there are no updates ( which I know there are a few of now for a vehicle built in the beginning of 2025 )

Atlas · January 29

On 1/25/2026 at 2:56 PM, dieselfan1 said:

What good is an owners manual if you're in the ditch?

I see the humor in this, but there are some surprising things about modern cars where information in an owners manual might help.

For example, a lot of people are flummoxed by turning off traction and stability control. It's not always just a press of a button anymore to completely disable those things so you can try to wheel-spin out of a slick situation.

There's also some really weird stuff, like Jeep transmissions. On models with a lever for the transfer case you can pull it into TC neutral, but getting the auto trans out of park is another story if the vehicle is dead. There's an access portal in the console and you have to fish around inside it for a lanyard that you physically pull to disengage the parking pawl, which can't be done from underneath.

And here's one... last generation Chevrolet Camaros... The battery is in the trunk. The trunk lid is ONLY electronically actuated. The doors have no physical key cylinders. The hood release is where you'd expect it, locked inside of a car with a dead battery and you can't open the doors, hood, or trunk. Oh, and your paper owner's manual is locked inside the glove box .

What do you do then?