2001 Saturn L100 from North America - Comments

AMAZING!! OK, I live in Los Angles. Driving at 70 miles an hour average on the 405 freeway! Driving home from work. My car just stopped. Completely went... Ffffzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and then nothing.

So I had it towed $165 to mechanic, and they charged $95 to tell me the compression was at 0; this means the timing chain broke and my pistons pushed through my valves and destroyed my engine. "WHAT WHAT" they told me $5,000 to fix the entire engine. The car has sat there and I have no transport. I have taken the bus and cut back on my work in Los Angeles. Miserable!

Needless to say, I have made 2 car payments to a car that sits under the palm tree collecting bird "luck"... Check this out: I check the mail 2 days ago. a big red stop sign says RECALL I read it, and it says the timing chain has been recalled on this car and at no charge to me, they will fix it. Today I am having it towed to them.

I see this in two ways: Yes man messed up this car, but had it not been for divine intervention (God) and me seeing this small post card, almost junk mail. Today is November 18, 2008 and I am having the car towed to Saturn here in CA. I will be back to tell you how this turns out... jeniferizhere@yahoo.com

Nice decent American made car, until... timing chain.

My car is silver and is stick shift. I guess it's one of the 20,000 made in America.

Reviewer Update:

I called my local Saturn dealer. I spoke with Angela. She had good phone manners and completely understood my situation. She told me to have the car towed into the lot and they will do their own diagnosis.

I had a tow to the dealer. Angela called me within 2 days to tell me that yes, the timing chain was broken and that the chains break, also contributed to the engine being destroyed. We both agreed that the reason my car had been sitting was due to the recall matter at hand.

She spent a day talking with Corporate and it has been a week to the day. I picked up my car this morning with a BRAND NEW ENGINE, yup drove it off the lot home. New engine, 12 months warranty, runs beautifully!!!

God is Great... All the Time!

Jeniferizhere@yahoo.com.

Wow! That's amazing because the same exact thing happened to my engine, and Saturn is not taking any responsibility. I have a 2001 L200 and my timing chain broke on it too. As a result of the chain breaking, it broke several other parts in my cars engine. I took the car to an independent mechanic and they fixed the timing chain, and Saturn agreed to pay me back for the costs because it was a recalled part, but after they fixed that problem they realized there were other things that need to be fixed, and Saturn said they wouldn't pay to fix it unless I got it towed to Saturn and had them look at it.

The other damage was clearly from the timing chain breaking, but Saturn wouldn't take responsibility for it, and blamed the other mechanic for the damage. Learn from my mistake! If this happens for to your car, just take it to Saturn!

Now I am being told that I need a new engine and it's coming out of my pocket, even though it is clearly because of the recalled part that Saturn won't take responsibility for.