28th Apr 2008, 12:46
I would like to add some additional information about this car, my car. After all of the above initial problems. It is now April 28, 2008 and my vehicle has been rendered inoperable 2 more times & has had to be towed. In March once again while I was driving with my two young children in the car I was unable to shift in to gear.
My car was towed to Saturn for the 4th time in 53,000 miles & 2 1/2 years of ownership. The verdict is that the Shifter cable had snapped & they had to replace the cables. I THOUGHT they had done that in December, but they told me when I took it in that they had only replaced the ends of the cables. This time they replaced both cables. Saturn did give me a loaner car. After I received the car back it shifted better than it had ever shifted before, and I was very pleased.
On April 25th while was almost 300 miles away from home & 55 miles from the nearest town I just about lost the ability to shift... AGAIN! I could not get my car shifted in to 1st or 2nd gear. After a tremendous amount of effort & about 10 minutes of wrestling with it I was able to get it in to 3rd gear, then shift to 4th and 5th. I drove the car in to Abilene as far as I could go without having to actually shift down & coasted in to a parking lot. I had to call for a tow truck... AGAIN. It was towed to the Saturn dealership where they told me it was the slave cylinder. My factory warranty is long expired & my extended warranty specifically does not cover the slave cylinder (which was replaced along with the clutch, shifter plate) at 19,000 miles. It was going to be almost $1,000.
I decided to have a second opinion. I had it towed to a Firestone. They looked at it and said the clutch & slave cylinder are fine, there was just air in the clutch line & they bled the clutch. I drove it almost all the way home yesterday (about 300 miles) with no problems in 1st, 2nd, 4th, or 5th. About 50 miles from home when I shift in to 3rd gear it has a slight grinding noise. I am going to have it checked out today.
The disconcerting part of this besides the 5 times it has been rendered inoperable & has had to be towed, is that Saturn apparently was going to take me for almost $1,000 when my total bill yesterday was $125.00. Thank Goodness for honest mechanics with a female.
13th Mar 2015, 15:23
I know this is an old comment, but I couldn't help replying. This viewer states to "stick with an all GM drivetrain", but here is what you get with GM. Quoted from Wikipedia:
"The four-cylinder Vue was available with the VTi continuously variable transmission (CVT) until GM canceled it for 2005 due to dependability issues".
So I don't know how one could recommend one over the other. Honda is not normally known for reliability issues, but they have had their problems. There are lots of Vues for sale with the Honda drive train with well over 200,000 miles running strong.
2nd Dec 2007, 22:17
I have a 2005 VUE as well. I hate this car. I have had my struts replaced, a wheel bearing, my clutch, and tonight it got towed because the shifter linkage went while my husband was driving it. I agree that the seats also stain from water. It's a plastic piece of garbage and, unfortunately, I have another 3 years of driving it.