21st Dec 2005, 13:06

If I remember reading my car manual correctly, the tires that come on the Saturn Ion 2 are strictly dry weather touring tires. If you want to drive in the rain, snow, etc. then you really need to buy new tires. I had the same handling issues and it was then that we realized the tires are the lowest quality possible. I replaced them with the new Toyo Ultra 800 and the difference is unbelievable. The car handles fantastic now. Hope this info helps.

3rd Jan 2006, 22:54

I have the 2004 Ion II. I bought it with only 70 miles on it. At 8,000 miles I had the heater core replace and it has been problem after problem ever since. Anything from having to get new tires at 20,000 due to the alignment being off (the tire shop told me that it could only get this way from the manufacturer, Saturn reimbursed me for the alignment), the heater blower replaced 3 times, and the bushings have been replace 2 times. These are just a few of the problems I have had. Does anyone have a sulfur smell coming from their car? I have used all the different types of gas as told by Saturn and the odor has not gone away. Saturn has not been able to duplicate it all the times that I take it in,so I am just bearing with it.

3rd Jan 2006, 23:04

I had the same problem with the car idling high. They could never duplicate everytime I took the car in. One day it was acting up and I took it in and did not turn off the car and the mechanics came and looked at it. They determined that it was a sensor and then when you turned off you car it reset, so the problem was not consistant. Hope this helps.

19th Sep 2006, 12:27

I was having the same problem with the idling and stalling in low gears, and it turned out that the computer needed to be re-calibrated. It's run fine ever since.

14th Mar 2007, 09:24

I think it's hit or miss with this car because it seems like people either have no problems or tons of problems. My Ion has been nothing, but problems as well. I have issues with it idling too high, my windows (manual) are all loose so they rattle. The seal around the driver-side door is bad. The lowest gear on my automatic transmission doesn't work properly. The rpm's shoot up to around 4,000 or 5,000 (even when I shift into the gear from a speed of 10 mph) and continue to climb until I shift out of that gear again. There is a piece of the center console near the driver's side feet that continually falls off. Finally, the hood release lever falls off every time I try to use it. I would never recommend this car to anyone.

21st Dec 2010, 13:44

The sulfur smell is most likely the catalytic converter going bad. Seen it happen a bunch of times, and it always smells like rotten eggs.