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General Motors Co. said Wednesday that its OnStar safety, security and navigation services are now available on a few vehicles in Mexico, as GM expands OnStar to its first Latin American market.

The Detroit-based automaker said in September that it would roll out OnStar service to Mexico this year. OnStar, launched in 1996, already provides services to more than 6.5 million subscribers in the U.S., Canada and China.

“This is an important step in GM’s global growth and in making connectivity services available to more consumers around the world,” Mary Chan, president of GM global connected consumer, said in a statement.

OnStar services such as automatic crash response, remote door lock and turn-by-turn navigation will first be available for consumers in Mexico on the 2014 Chevrolet Cheyenne and 2014 GMC Sierra pickup truck, GM said. The 2014 Cadillac ATS luxury sedan will be added later this year and more Chevy, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles equipped to work with OnStar will be available next year, the company said. GM is making the OnStar services free for a year to subscribers in Mexico.

GM also has opened a call center in Mexico to provide directions, vehicle information and emergency services to consumers in that market. The company declined to say where the call center is located and how many employees work there, citing security issues.

“It was very important to us to have local advisers who know the language and geography of the region to better serve Mexican subscribers,” GM said in statement. “The call center is staffed appropriately to provide 24/7/365 service to Mexican subscribers.”

In 2012, GM sold 185,000 vehicles in Mexico, representing more than 18 percent of the market.

Mexico was slated to be OnStar’s first location using GSM (global system for mobile communications) based technology. Last year, OnStar said it would team up with Madrid, Spain-based Telefonica to use the company’s international GSM network and mobile-to-mobile connectivity to help provide OnStar services as it expands globally.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130626/AUTO0103/306260073#ixzz2XN1LO6Bz

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