10th Jun 2008, 19:13

2003 Saturn VUE 2.2L FWD.

My wife and I fell in love with this car when it first came out. We did not have the money to buy brand new, so I bought one on an action sale in 2006.

I had to change the transmission 2 months later. I have to admit I did not do my homework at the time, because I would have sold the car after I changed the tranny, but now after about 43000km I have to change the tranny again.

I wonder why Saturn hasn't given people an option of changing to a more reliable tranny; it would have been so easy to do, and they would have had a lot more happier customers. Does anyone out there know of a way to outfit this car with a better tranny?? (automatic or standard)

Simon.

15th Jul 2008, 16:59

11/2006 I traded my 93 Dodge Van in for a 2003 Saturn Vue, it had 59,000 miles on it. It now has 82,000.

Three weeks ago I heard a funny noise coming from the front end, sounded like something was loose, took it in to Midas and they traced it back to the transaxle.

Got an estimate from Saturn (told by several transmission shops Saturn was the only ones who could fix a CVT Transmission) - $5,400. Sticker shock, the service person who quoted me this amount sounded very proud of the fact that he had just repaired two other transmissions just this last month. Told me exactly what will need to be done. When I asked why so much, I never received a logical answer.

After reading all the comments, it's nice to know that I am not alone out here. I called the Saturn Customer Service Help line today. I need to get a print out from the Service Department exactly what needs to be done and what the cost is. From what I read, I don't expect much help there either. No warranty left on the car.

I knew nothing about Saturn when I bought it 2nd hand. I had always heard that Saturn was a very good car to buy, boy I was told wrong. I am upside down on my loan right now, and with the noise in the front end, wouldn't get much out of a trade in - if I could talk someone into trading it in for me.

I can't afford to fix it, can't afford to trade it in. Right now I'm up a creek without a paddle. The Saturn Vue sits in my front yard, afraid to drive it. I take the bus, at least I'm saving on gas.

I just hope that Saturn will help with the repairs. If not I will try to find a Class Action Suite to get into. Now I know why the first owner got rid of this car. You can bet ASAP I will be getting rid of it also, my first and last Saturn.

17th Jul 2008, 16:35

There is NO secret that the CVT tranny in the VUE is flawed and likely to break. It takes a 5 second google search to figure this out. It will also tell you that GM extended the warranty to 5 years and 75k miles on the CVT because of a high failure rate, but now you're beyond that too.

Saturn may offer you some help, but they are under no obligation to do so. They even extended the warranty voluntarily, but you went past it.

Should a tranny fail this early? No, of course not. But at this point it is your problem, and I hope you man up and deal with it rather than looking for some lawsuit to deal with your mistake of buying a known defective automobile. Take this as a learning experience.

It amazes me that folks take such a cavalier attitude to spending a large sum of money on a car without first doing a little research. What you "thought" or "heard" about Saturn was the best you did, and it turned out to bite you. Remember than not all Saturns are the same, and in this case, not all Saturn transmissions are the same.

28th Sep 2008, 22:06

I have a 03 Vue. Last week it started to make a beeping noise randomly driving down the road. It is the same noise as when the head lights are left on after the car is turned off. There is no engine lights or anything else. Took it to the mechanic, he said that he cleaned the connector on one of the computers and it stopped. Now it's doing it again. Help?

30th Sep 2008, 21:05

I have a 04 VUE with 40,000 miles. The CVT trans. has been rebuilt twice. The repairs have a warranty of 12k miles or 12 months. I will be trading it in in the next few weeks before the 5 year/75,000 miles warranty runs out.

GM just settle a class action lawsuit on Sept. 12 concerning the CVT trans. Google "Saturn VUE class action suit".

5th Oct 2008, 14:07

Driving home yesterday with groceries, my 2003 Saturn Vue, with the Vti, started making a crunching sound around the left front wheel well and my dashboard lights lit up like a Christmas tree. I lost all acceleration power and just managed to get the vehicle off the highway and to the side of the road. Called my hubby to come and get me.

This tranny cranked out at 90,000 miles and had a new rebuilt tranny installed at 84,000 miles. What the heck?

The scary part of this is that I had no warning until I heard the crunching sound and immediately knew I had a serious problem on my hands.

Now, I have a 1997 Cadillac Catera and the tranny went out on that car with 69,000 miles. At this time, I would say that GM has a huge problem on their hands with unreliable and totally garbage transmissions. Neither of these vehicles were cheap when bought and were bought with safety in mind.

I will be calling Saturn tomorrow and see what they have to say about this but will not be holding my breath expecting any resolution.

My husband is a mechanic and will probably rebuild the transmission with much better results than Saturn can offer from the previous posts I have read. He rebuilt the tranny on the Caddy Catera and it runs like a dream... and it cost two thirds less to do than quoted by the dealership where we purchased it.

It is sad that Saturn and GM have decided to take a blind eye approach to all the problems with these vehicles and their totally unreliable trannies.