24th Mar 2008, 17:54

Add another to the pile - we bought a 2003 Vue NEW and have had every oil change, every brake pad replaced, every piece of service done at the dealership. NO ONE ever mentioned ANYTHING about problems with the transmission and I never got a piece of mail from Saturn about it or anything about the warranty being extended. I've only ever received 1 recall notice and it was completely unrelated to the transmission.

97K miles, and I'm being told it needs to be replaced - $5200 for a rebuilt, $5700 for a new transmission. And we were literally just days away from buying an Aura. I'm getting a 2nd opinion from a local transmission guy this week.

We've had 2 Saturns. I seriously doubt there will be a 3rd.

17th Apr 2008, 14:48

I'm getting my 2004 Vue back today with a replaced transmission.

They 'fixed' a transmission issue last year. This was one week after I brought it in telling them it was slipping, not accelerating and was very, very loud while idling. Their diagnosis was that they could find nothing wrong. But this past Monday my car just shut off in the middle of the highway! I turned it off and it came back on and took it to my own mechanic. His diagnosis - MAJOR transmission issues. I find it hard to believe my transmission went bad in a week.

He urged me to call saturn - a clue that it was an expensive fix. The dealership said the warranty had been extended to 75K my Vue has 79,432 miles on it. I was sick. I started looking up the issue online only to find out Saturn knew about the problem! That's when I got angry and went to the dealership.

I have to admit I wasn't nice at all, which I felt bad for afterwards because I liked the guys at the dealership. They called me on Tuesday and said they would be replacing the tranny at no cost to me. I know they did not have to do that, but I am grateful. I will be writing a letter to Saturn praising the actions of the dealership, but also voicing my displeasure over this whole debacle.

28th May 2008, 10:10

Just so everyone knows..

Certain tricks of a service advisor is to NOT tally the customer complaint. Why? It's time-consuming, and they have repair orders that are of cash customers. The cash customer RULES over most warranty work.

If they tell you about a recall or TSB on the transmission, then that's money out of their pocket if it's claimed via warranty work because Saturn will only pay the dealer so much for each repair. The mechanic get's screwed most times on his "draw" which is the money he makes on each repair. If he can knock out 100 hours of "book time" work per week, he's rolling in it. If he works 100 hours of "warranty" time, he's lost money.

Dealer's suck. I should know, I worked as a Nissan Service Advisor for a while and we LOVED it when a Murano or Sentra owner would roll in. Muranos are bad about transmissions and Sentras, well, Sentra owners just don't do maintenance to their Sentras. Hell, most of them can't even afford a new Sentra let alone a $21 oil change at the dealer.

NEVER buy a new car.

30th May 2008, 19:12

Just like everyone else it seems, my 2002 Saturn Vue is at the dealer right now in need of a new transmission. Just paid it off, warranty just ended, and now I have to put a new transmission in for the SECOND time.

The first time was 6 months after I purchased it, and it only had 18,000 miles on it, so obviously the warranty covered that one.

This time I am not so lucky. Only have 79,000 miles on it, but gonna have to put another dud transmission in it. It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it.

The dealership has offered to only charge labor for it, but that is still way more than I can afford, and quite honestly more than I think I should have to pay.

I think GM should offer a lifetime warranty on these VTi transmissions, seeing as how they seem to be disposable. I am dumb founded by what I have discovered in the past week regarding Saturn and GM.

I used to be the biggest Saturn promoter, absolutely loved my Vue, but I just can't recommend them to anyone now. If you have a Vue with a VTi transmission, I would strongly suggest getting rid of it before the warranty runs out!! If you don't, then you are literally riding on borrowed time! :-(

11th Jun 2008, 20:11

Just to add another Saturn to the heap. I have a 2003 Saturn Vue.

About six months ago I had a transmission fluid leak, which was fixed under warranty. I also had problems with the car not going over 2000 revs, so I couldn't get the car out of a steep driveway in reverse. They told me I was under warranty and that the computer shuts the car down when it isn't working properly. No biggy I thought, great and paid no attention to the problem. I took my car in two weeks ago complaining of the car almost stalling at lights, and what I thought was a transmission problem. They did my 600000 service early and recommended 4 new tires, $1000 in all, and could find no problem with the car; they said it was working within normal parameters, and that the technician drove it and could not reproduce the problem.

Two days later service engine soon light comes on. Take it back and guess what, the transmission has failed. I was told that it would cost $5600 and that I should take it to Car Max and see what they would give me. He even said don't buy another Vue. I feel like they knew about the problem earlier, and now I am also out of extended warranty by 4 months.

My question is this, does anyone know or think I could go back to the dealership and insist that the problem was ongoing from the original leak?

24th Jun 2008, 18:52

2005 Saturn Vue AWD VTI Transmission 52k miles. Just received its second transmission. Covered by warranty - but was unaware of 5/75 warranty. Never notified and was unaware of Vue`s ongoing problem! Trying to trade and only get offers of 85 hundred for a vehicle that cost near the mid 20`s.

It is as clean as a new Saturn, and has a new set of Michelin`s ($700.00). This offer was from the Saturn Dealer on a used Honda CRV. Seems to me the 5/75 warranty needs to be extended to say - 8/200k. miles. If you can`t sell or trade, then GM should help their customers keep the vehicles on the road so they can get some use (that they anticipated when purchasing) for their money spent! This would show that GM stands behind their product and their customers, and would gain MANY new customers, not only with Saturn, but throughout GM!