2001 Saturn L200 2.2 liter from North America

Summary:

Worst car I have ever owned in 40 years

Faults:

Within the first year the console lid between the seats broke, and even though I bought the extended warranty, this was not covered.

Also, within the first year, the driver seat adjustment to raise the seat higher broke. Also not covered by warranty. As I am not a slim person, I did not complain about this. But now the whole seat has collapsed. In all the cars that I have owned in the past 40 years, this is the first one ever to have this problem.

I take care of my cars, and change the oil every three to five thousand miles, and usually they last about 12 to 15 years, before I replace, but this one has fallen way short of that mark. Also it is about 50 to 75 thousand miles short of my normal mileage.

I have had to replace the battery 3 times in the 7 years I have owned it.

Then the tail lights started going bad. I was informed that I had to replace the whole tail light unit at about 200 hundred dollars each. Six months after this the car was recalled for the tail light repair.

The heater core went bad six months ago while I was on vacation, and the rugs were saturated with a fluid leak. When I got home I wanted to replace one section of carpet in the front, but was informed that this was not possible, and I would have to replace all the carpets for a cost of over 200 dollars.

And now the timing chain has cracked and my car is not part of the recall. I called customer service, and was told that the dealership would offer me 15% off a repair cost of 1000.00 or higher. But I had gone to the dealer first, and they said the repairs started at 800.00 and could go up from there. My timing chain is cracked not broken; I was parked when the car refused to start, and now with the help of customer service I am paying 50 dollars more than I started out Thanks.

I will never buy another Saturn or trust my dealership to work on this one.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 27th June, 2008

2001 Saturn L200 2.2 from North America

Summary:

I would recommend this car to anyone once the timing chain work has been done

Faults:

I took the car to the dealer for the timing chain recall. That went great, but the next time I drove the car after the work had been done, my power steering pump blew... suspicious to say the least. I took the car back to the dealer and they laughed in my face, not taking my concern seriously... not only that, but they charged for half an hour of work that it took them to pop the hood and tell me I was crazy.

General Comments:

Other than minor complications with changing the rear brake shoes, this car has been a delight to own for almost 12 months.

I've taken this car on approximately 15 1200km round trips and no issues.

The stiff suspension makes it a bit of a rough ride in town, where the streets are a little bumpy, but it's still a great handling car.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 14th May, 2008

2001 Saturn L200 2.4 4 cylinder from North America

Faults:

The only real problem with the car has been the BCM that went out. We took the car into the Saturn dealer. We took the car to them on 3/14 to replace the BCM and have an oil change. They called 4 days later to let us know they could not program the BCM. They let us come pick the car up and they did not charge us.

2 weeks later they called and told us they could now program the BCM and it would take about 2-3 hours. When we got out there we had the shuttle driver take us to the mall. After we had been there for a few hours, they called and said they could still not get it and they would give us a loaner til the next day.

The next day they called and said the BCM would have to be sent to Saturn Corp for the programming, and said it should take a few days. 2 weeks later we finally got the call that it was ready. When we went to pick it up one of the problems was still not fixed. This has been a HUGE joke.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 14th April, 2008