Faults:

1) The transmission slipped between 2nd and 3rd from day one, but they kept telling us that there was nothing wrong. We complained about this each and every time it was brought in for other warranty repairs, with the same answer every time.

Finally, after about 50,000 miles of this, we went to another Saturn dealer and were told that it was a ‘Calibration’ problem and that they could and would fix it! Interesting, one dealer says nothing is wrong and another says that they can fix it! Does this sound right to you?

I then insisted that they ‘service’ the transmission, in other words change the transmission fluid and filter, since it had been slipping for 50,000 miles and probably had excessive wear on the transmission and fluid.

It took an ‘Act-of GOD’ to get Saturn to pay for the lousy $110 for this service, because they claimed that service wasn’t due until 100,000 miles, even though it had been slipping due to the dealer not knowing how to fix it.

Saturn Customer Service, being as ‘cheap’ as possible, finally gave in and gave me $100 credit towards the transmission service --- they obviously couldn’t afford the other $10! --- But then, of course, this ‘cursed’ car got the dealer as well --- something went wrong during the transmission service and they had to ‘pull’ the transmission to fix it, so a transmission service turned into a 6 day stay in the shop.

By the way, after a few months, the transmission started slipping again on an intermittent basis. For information, when I looked thru the Internet concerning other Customer comments about 2002 Saturn Vue transmission problems, I found a lady who had identical transmission problems and then, at around 100,000 miles, a failure occurred. She was told by Saturn that it would cost $7000 to replace the transmission! --- Quite outrageous to say the least.

2) The vehicle went into ‘Limp-Mode’ right in the middle of the freeway while traveling at 60 MPH. Now that’s pretty scary with 2 young kids in the car ---apparently, saving the engine is more important than saving lives! The car had to be towed. The dealer replaced something with the intake system.

3) A few months later, the same thing as before --- ‘Limp-Mode’ on the freeway, towing and repair of some intake throttle body part this time.

4) Then we saw coolant leaks on the garage floor --- another tow-job to the dealer.

5) A few weeks later the same thing! This time they told us to drive it to the shop --- my guess is that they were even hoping that the car would ‘burn-up’ at this point.

6) Then the key wouldn’t come out of the ignition. They replaced the ignition switch lock assembly and we were told that we can’t have more than 1 key on our key chain, because it is too heavy for the lock --- can you imagine being told something as ridiculous as this?

7) A year later the same thing with the ignition lock occurred --- apparently even the weight of one key was too much for that poor, cheap ignition switch! --- Saturn replaced it again.

8) The passenger rear door power window broke --- needed some new parts.

9) The driver’s door panel began dis-assembling itself --- needed fixing.

10) The rear hatch gas lifts needed replacing, since they wouldn’t hold up the rear hatch any more.

11) The CD player stopped working --- Saturn replaced it.

12) The hood latch even broke when the service manager tried to open it for an engine noise we had identified. Apparently the hood wasn’t made to open this many times!

13) Now, after the warranty has expired, the engine stalls for no apparent reason and will only restart after a 10 to 15 minute waiting period. In fact, once you turn off the engine at a shopping center, you can’t restart it for at least 45 minutes. If you try to scan the computer system, no code comes up, but there sure is a problem!

We took the car to a FORD dealer and they performed the repair after their expert trouble-shooter diagnosed the problem even without that pesky little Saturn computer not giving a hint that there was a problem.

By the way, if you look up 2002 Saturn Vue on the Internet, many people seem to have the same stalling problem and same transmission problems. If you have the time to sift through the huge pile of ‘Service Bulletins’ for Saturn, I’m sure Saturn knows about these problems, just like they probably know about some of the other problems but won’t help the customers who got stuck with their lemons.

General Comments:

My 2002 Saturn VUE has been a nightmare since I bought it new in 2002 --- a TOTAL piece of JUNK that even the Service Mgr at Saturn essentially admitted after numerous repairs were performed during the warranty period.

Unfortunately, for me, many things required repair 2 times but not 3, so I couldn’t cite the “Lemon Law”, but it really is a Giant Lemon to the point that the Used Car Department of Saturn wouldn’t take it as a trade-in because it had too many documented problems identified in their records! Can you imagine, they wanted me to sell it myself (to some unsuspecting poor soul)! --- they didn’t even want to ‘wholesale’ the piece of junk!

Conclusion:

1) Saturn is an inferior auto maker --- Don’t buy one and don’t recommend one to others.

2) Saturn Customer Service is unacceptable, to say the least.

3) The Saturn VUE was spelled incorrectly --- it should have been spelled ‘VIEW’ since you can count on getting a great ‘VIEW’ of the back of a tow truck!

4) The GM and Saturn executives should be held accountable for allowing sales of these inferior products, along with totally unacceptable Customer Service. "A different kind of car. A different kind of company." --- What a joke! --It’s really the same Junk that they’ve always made, at the same company, run by the same un-caring executives!

5) I can only hope that the Saturn name goes by the ‘wayside’ like the Vega and the Corvair, and no longer disgraces our great country with its’ “Made in the USA” label.

I have been a ‘die-hard’ advocate of “Buy-American” ---- but at this point, the Saturn company even got me to switch to a Nissan ---- I just traded in my Saturn today 7/26/08 and bought a Nissan Pathfinder, which is 10 times better than the Saturn ------- SHAME on you Saturn and ditto for GM as well!!!

Faults:

Odometer jumps (increases) miles randomly.

Trip meter also randomly increases.

Actual distance traveled (using GPS) = 68, trip meter reads 878.

Also odometer has increased the same amount (878 miles).

Car only sees 2,9xx miles a year (over 6 year period). Kept in a garage protected from severe weather.

Failure began when parked outside on 90 degree day (inside at least 160 degrees).

Early morning when car is cool, no problem with either gage.

General Comments:

2002 Saturn Vue has been a good car, even though it has little wear and tear, parts do seem to be sensitive to heat.