Is Subaru Roadside Assistance worth $80 a year? Starlink?

Yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of buying the '19 Crosstrek.

I also got an email saying my Subaru Starlink subscription has been canceled.  Today I got a letter saying my Subaru Roadside Assistance has expired.  Until just now I thought they were the same thing but now realize they're different.

I have USAA insurance and know from experience they cover free towing, at least within a reasonable distance.  I feel like the Subaru plan would be redundant, but now I'm curious about Starlink and SOS emergency assistance, auto collision notification, etc.  The email didn't say what that costs...

Anyone more knowledgeable?

Did a little checking and see Starlink is $100 a year or $10 per month.

Package Includes:

• Advanced Automatic Collision Notification
• SOS Emergency Assistance
• Enhanced Roadside Assistance
• Maintenance Notifications

• Vehicle Health Reports
• Vehicle Condition Check
• Diagnostic Alerts
• Service Appointment Scheduler

Sounds like Starlink is your cell connection and Roadside Assistance is AAA :) The big value I see in the former is the car calling for help if you crash. It's up to you to figure how much that's worth.

Emergency service is nice for tire change, jump start or bring you fuel.  But, when it comes to the towing, what are the limitations?  How many miles and to where?  

Only to the dealership?  Only to the dealership and only if the dealership is within 10 miles?  20 miles?  30 miles?  These are the things I would want to know.  

I'm not sure what Advanced Automatic Collision Notification entails, but I don't understand why that's not a standard feature. 
 

kinda like... "We can save your life in an accident if you pay us, otherwise we're okay letting you die." Maybe I'm missing something. 

In reply to WillG80 :

It means that the car phones home in case of an accident. It's notification, not avoidance. 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Automatic_Collision_Notification

And it is standard IF you pay for your car to have a cellphone connection. That's what the Starlink subscription is. Car has no phone, car can't call. 

My brother just got in a collision a couple days ago with his Subaru (some idiot with no license or insurance turned in front of him....)  This is what he had to say about Starlink.

"We discovered that Subaru Starlink is next to worthless. And stupid. We've paid quite a bit for that service. In principle, you press a button; a rep comes on, asks if you are safe and arranges for a tow truck. And then we went into some automated ozone. No tow truck came in an hour although several drove by. So, I pushed the button again. Eventually a tow was arranged but predicted waiting time was 415-440 minutes. We went back and forth; the waiting time came down to 90-105 minutes.  Finally I gave up and called a local tow company."

We were buying a 2016 forester back in 2018 and while we were in the office where they try to sell you extra warranty and stuff almost under his breath the guy said "I wish the car had the eyesight windshield" because apparently it is so costly to replace that it almost warrants a warranty by itself. Hard pushy sales tactics by the way. Subaru marketing may sell love and granola but I've worked at Toyota and Acura dealers as a sales monkey, Subaru dealerships are just like anyone else. and their external extra cost options are crap just like everyone else's. Warranty from the factory is good whether its original or certified used but anything else any dealership will try and likely succeed wiggling out of paying or helping out with external stuff like starlink or onstar.

In reply to stuart in mn :

I thought an oh E36 M3 button might be handy, but I can see that being the case. Think I'll save my $ and just use USAA if needed. They've been quick and easy to use in the past.

I don't know about Starlink, but OnStar is a GM project. I was involved with it around the turn of the century when they were trying to figure out how to make it scale - it was a call center, and twice as many customers meant double the staff. I was demoing a concept of what always-on data might look like, including downloading  movies when you were at a high bandwidth location like a fuel stop. Oh man, the future!

I can't remember if Star link is part of this or not, but some service we pay for on our crosstrek allows us to use the mobile app and lock unlock the doors, GPS the cars location, set up boundary limits so if my wife or children decide to get abducted I know where they are headed. It also allows me to pre-warm the car or pre-cool the car with the automatic pre-start conditions. My wife seems to love it so we will continue paying our $75 a year. And yeah it comes on every once in a while to tell me that the tire pressure is low. It also helped me to identify that my wife had been driving around on a low tire, and that after I filled it up, the tire light came back on. That helped me to diagnose that I had a nail in the tire. So it is paying for itself in some aspects

It's not the same as having a satellite link, but roadside assistance with my insurance company is something like $25/year.

Mom and Dad have OnStar and it has been pretty useless.  Dad uses the one in his 08 Silverado when he gets a "reduced engine power" notification (which is frequently).  They can supposedly do a remote diagnostic... which means they read the ECM and say, "yup, reduced engine power.  You need to see your Chevy dealer.  Would you like me to schedule an appointment?"

They used to use OnStar for phone service when they traveled to Canada, but cell service has improved.

In reply to Definitely gone now :

I believe the Starlink subscription is simply the connection that allows the car to do all that. All of the things you described require two-way communication with a central server.