Car Net wifi cost

[jimgironde]

I posted a few days ago that I have 2017 GT estate on order for Sept delivery.

The vehicle comes with Car Net with a 3 year free subscription to "guide and inform" but relies upon your smartphone to act as a wifi hotspot.

My mobile doesn't have a massive usage allowance as I am internet covered everywhere I ,am static. My mobile contract is up for renewal before Sept and I need to renew.

QUESTION. Car net provides basic info like weather, news, petrol prices, car park spaces on the move etc etc. Does anybody know whether the data usage is heavy or light for the service? I know that depends upon usage but was wondering whether the service was a drain on usage or light on usage?

[MattB247]

I asked the same question - the consensus was "not much" but no definite answer. You will connect Bluetooth for calls, and also via the wlan for car net usage, and in my limited experience it really doesn't use a lot.

See here for how to connect an iPhone, which is a royal pain:

Car-net linking to smartphone

There's a USB port in the armrest which I use to charge the iPhone while it's connected to the car - iPhone battery life sucks at the best of times so this saves me worrying about the battery dying while it runs Bluetooth and wifi at the same time. If, however, you use the normal iPhone lightning cable to connect it will automatically run mirror link meaning the phone wifi will disconnect and can't be used for normal car net data so you may want to go to eBay and get a charge-only lightning cable which won't transfer data. This leaves wifi connected and charges the phone when in use.