7th Oct 2007, 17:38

We purchased our 2003 Saturn Vue in Feb 2007 and by Sept 2007, we were also having transmission problems. Saturn quoted us a price tag of $5000.00 to fix the problem. The vehicle is parked in my driveway totally useless to us. We are very upset with Saturn and the way they are handling this problem. We also have contacted the law firm and have talked with Ron Hoover.

26th Oct 2007, 14:48

I made my last payment on my 2003 Saturn Vue (84,000) on October 1st, 2007. I made an appointment with my mechanic on October 3rd to have my "service engine soon" light checked out. It was the transmission. Had the Vue sent to a transmission specialist who told me the only thing he would do is put in a brand new factory transmission for $6,500, which of course I cannot afford at this time.

We contacted our local Saturn dealer who put us in touch with Saturn Corporate. We were assigned a case number and the local dealers' service tech checked out the transmission. His quote was $4,700. Our "case worker" at Saturn said the would pick up the parts if I paid for labor - $1,200. I agreed to have the work done.

I picked up the vehicle on a Thursday night. Drove it home where it sat in the driveway until I went to work Monday morning. The "service engine soon" light came on. Took it back to Saturn where I was told the problem was a bad valve body cover (or something) which was caused by the over heating of the transmission, and the metal filings of the bad trans. Price to fix is $1,240.

Contacted my case worker who after researching said it was an engine problem, not a transmission problem. The local delear agreed to pick up the parts (again) if I paid the labor - $500. For those of you scoring at home, that's $1,740 in two visits.

16th Nov 2007, 11:39

I bought my 2003 Vue in March. In July, the engine went out on it. Fortunately for me, it was still under the car lot's 6-month warranty and they got stuck with that bill. I just had the inconvenience of being without transportation for the month it took. A week ago, (November) my son got stuck out on the interstate 70 miles from home. They towed it to the Saturn dealer (50 miles away) who quoted me $4,800 for a new transmission. We found that nobody, but the dealer would fix it because nobody else works with that type of transmission. When I picked up the vehicle the dealer had 'good news' for me. They calculated something wrong and the bill was only $4111. The repair only took 2 days and they had to have the part overnighted. No amount of customer service can fix a bad vehicle.

I have owned this vehicle less than a year and had both the engine and transmission replaced. I will be getting rid of this lemon ASAP.

I appreciate the info on the class action. I will be making the call.

18th Dec 2007, 14:32

It is sad to say that it makes me feel better to know that I'm not the only one with the problems on my VUE. Hunk of Junk will not purchase another Saturn. It just went back in to the shop and the transmission now has to be replaced. This does not include the rebuild of the transmission, loose bolts, horn, alternator, belt assembly, and many other problems. Did I mention it has less than 100,000 miles on it and only 27,000 since they rebuilt the transmission? I am going to sell it as soon as it gets out of the shop and buy a Prius.

12th Feb 2008, 04:29

2003 Vue, manual transmission. I've owned 4 previous manual transmission vehicles prior to this vehicle, and this is by far the worst experience I've had. It's sometimes *impossible* to get the car in gear. The stick shift is so stiff. I was told that it would get better as the car aged. Not true. It's so stiff, in fact, that the shifter cable busted at 15K miles. And it just happened for the second time at 43K miles! My wife's 14 year old SL and my previous SL1 were dreams to drive compared to the Vue. I'm saddened that I cannot recommend this vehicle to anyone.

8th Mar 2008, 18:11

I bought my '03 Vue in October of '02. I just finished paying it off in Dec. '07.I absolutely love it and am saddened that a transmission shop in my town gave up on trying to fix it after almost 5 weeks, charged me nothing for what they did do, and vowed never to work on another Saturn Vue again. After going for a spin in an '04 today, the salesman tells me he can't ethically sell me that one, priced at about $12 or 13,000 by the way, because it has the same transmission in it, then he told me with the transmission issues mine has, I will probably only get $500-600 for my Vue for trade in. Cannot believe they think I am that stupid. I am scheduled to bring my Vue in on Monday morning for a true trade in value after they see it, but have decided that I will take my $500-600 trade in value somewhere else. Sorry I don't have time to tell you about all the other issues I've had with the Vue because I'm about to call Ron.

31st May 2008, 21:01

To all that have the excess tire wear, specifically in the back, and growling noise with vibration when turning: Saturn put out a bulletin in April, 2004 about this issue. The problem was they sent it to car shops only to avoid a recall. My shop was nice enough to give me a copy. The rear drive module differential clutch has to be replaced because it draws moisture due to faulty sealing. I am ticked because I went to them with a problem in the rear and they treated me bad, told me it was lack of rotation and bad tires. I went somewhere else and got tires and alignment and the noise went away, until a bearing went out in the same tire a month later. Got that fixed and was good until the tires wore down again within 12,000 miles. The noise was back. Went to Firestone this time. Tires, alignment... noise was gone. Went back for brakes, they told me I had a rear cv axle broken. Had it replaced (500.00), drove 20 miles, loud crack, noise and vibration back. Saturn knew about the rear end issue but pushed me away so they didn't have to deal with it. I am now out of warranty. The bulletin # is: 03-04-20-003A. This is for the 2003 and 2004 Vue. If you can't find it yourself, see if your non-Saturn shop will pull it up for you.