We Tested a Chevy’s Wi-Fi and Were Surprised By What Happened

By Sanjay Salomon and Julie Xie

November 7, 2014

3 minutes to read

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Sure, the truck brakes quickly and its horsepower is best in class, but what we really wanted to know about this Chevy was: can it stream Netflix?

Chevrolet, along with Audi and Chrysler, is one of the few but growing auto manufacturers that offers in-car Wi-Fi connectivity. (Yep, that means you’ll see a lot more commercials with 8-year-olds in backseats with iPads or couples curled up with a laptop on a romantic camping trip).

Armed with just about all the hardware we own, we embarked on a tour of Boston one rainy day, in a firetruck red 2015 Chevrolet Colorado to test its Wi-Fi.

The verdict? It’s awesome.

In fact, our biggest challenge was finding the Wi-Fi password in the first place. The car comes with a built-in OnStar infotainment system, which contained the password to log on. Once we solved that puzzle, it was time to put the bars to the test.

We started with something simple – just checking email on a laptop. It was easy and fast.

Alright, what about posting a photo on Instagram? Twitter? Facebook? All good.

Snapchat? Of course.

Netflix, YouTube, and Buzzfeed videos all ran smoothly on a laptop and an iPad. No pixelated shots, no endless spinning circles. One of us was able to stream Jimmy Kimmel’s latest edition of parents telling their kids that they ate all their Halloween candy, while the other focused on the road.

The only hiccup was FaceTiming in the Ted Williams Tunnel. It froze once during a call with one of our co-workers back at Boston.com’s home base. The glitch was brief and before we knew it, it returned to normal.

According to Chevy’s website, drivers can connect up to seven devices in the car, but we noticed the Wi-Fi was slower the more devices we had up and running, though not by much. The auto manufacturer also claims the built-in system has a more powerful connection than a smartphone or mobile hotspot, but is only available in 3G and 4G LTE coverage areas.

Julie tests three devices at once — all good.

Where our story veers from Chevrolet’s sales pitch lies in the company’s claim that its Wi-Fi works up to 50 feet away from the vehicle. We found the signal dropped off when we ventured about ten feet from the truck. Apparently the happy-go-lucky camping couple had better luck than.

The vehicle comes with three months of OnStar service or 3GB of data, whichever comes first. After that, you’ll have to pay for additional data. OnStar subscribers get a discount.

Even without Wi-Fi, the four-wheel-drive Chevy Colorado is a pretty slick ride and a really comforting piece of machinery to drive on a rainy day. It has an 8-inch touch screen system that supplies Sirius XM, Pandora, a rear-view camera, and four USB ports. Heated seats were a nice bonus considering the cold day we chose for the road test.

Sanjay enjoys the car’s sweet ride.Julie Xie/Boston.com

The front seats offered pretty of legroom. Safety features include lane departure warnings, six airbags, including head curtain side airbags. It also has stability control and rollover mitigation technology.

Of course, new car tech comes with a price. The 2015 Chevy Colorado has an MSRP of $20,120. The model we drove was a crew long box with four-wheel-drive and the most expensive trim, upping the price to a whopping $34,415. Add options like a premium Bose audio system and the price jumps to $36,535.

But all the GIFs and cute cat videos made it worth our time. Everything loaded so quickly we were disappointed we couldn’t spend more of our workday on the road breathing in that new-car smell and uploading selfies.