Happy Holidays from Victory & Reseda!

Victory & Reseda wants to extended a warm holiday greeting to you!

But, first, a little story…

On Christmas Eve, I was driving around the Twin Cities looking for something to eat for dinner. This week yielded two vehicles to work with, including a 2016 Chevrolet Equinox LTZ that I am writing on for a couple of clients. Never having a General Motors in for review during Christmas week, I always knew of a special service their telematics division offers during Christmas Eve.

I was looking for somewhere to eat that was still open at 7:00PM on Christmas Eve. Some of the places I wanted to go were closed, so I was hoping OnStar would help. Every time I used OnStar in the GM vehicles I worked with, they had been nothing but exemplary. I figured this would be one test that should work, especially when my appetite was calling.

As I spotted a Perkins restaurant in Eagan that was still open, my call to OnStar was in progress. After I had my first question answered, I recalled about their Santa tracking service. Then, I asked the OnStar representative if they could find out where Santa Claus was. Just so happened that he was in Argentina along the Atlantic Coast.

How did that all work? Once you call OnStar and ask about Santa's whereabouts, one of their reps would be able to show the actual location of the big guy, his sleigh and team of reindeer using tracking by NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). This had been something NORAD has done for decades. A friend said he would call them when he was a child in Colorado Springs to see where Santa was. OnStar added this special service for the past seven years.

OnStar is specially staffed for Christmas Eve to accommodate the extra call traffic. Each tracking call has something extra behind them, as a dollar for each tracking call will be donated to the United Way for Southeast Michigan and United Way Mexico. Last year, OnStar donated $2,600 for both organizations based on these Santa tracking calls.

The call was not done. The representative asked if I had any children with me in the Equinox. Being by myself, I did not. The representative said she wanted to find out what they wanted for Christmas. That is something that goes the extra mile! If I had kids, they would have enjoyed someone from inside the car asking what they wanted under the tree.

It made me wonder what if they had OnStar back when I was a child – when Mom had the 1972 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Luxury Sedan with my brother and I in tow. I know Matthew would be more fascinated with NORAD's tracking technology as I would of the telematics aspect of the car.

In all, that single OnStar call on Christmas Eve made an exhausted, frustrated, hungry, old, single gay man a bit more fulfilled…and a lot less lonely.

With that said…Merry Christmas for those who celebrate it today. Please make the rest of the Holiday Season brighter today!