2002 Saturn VUE AWD V6 from North America
Summary:
A lemon!
Faults:
To start off, I pick up my completely new car from the dealer with 2 problems i.e. 1) Air conditioning not working (compressor kaput) 2) Unable to unlock/open the trunk. The two problems were eventually fixed after a lengthy wait of 1 1/2 weeks for parts.
After two weeks of driving in my brand new Saturn, the fuel gauge went kaput! It was giving a wrong reading on the gas that I had. Had to wait another 2 weeks for parts and eventually when it arrived, it took the dealers two days to fix it.
Week 12 of driving my new car, the steering column began to develop very squeaky noise. As the days went by, the squeak became a loud rattling. Again, sent it in to the dealer and found that the bearing on the strut had to be replaced, and that took 2 days.
Week 14 of driving my new car, the rattling noise came back again intermittently. This time when I took it to the dealer for a service, they apparently said they can't hear the noise it's making and hence, as they can't pinpoint the rattling noise, they don't know how to fix it. I even left the car there for 2 days for them to "drive around" to locate the problem, but still they can't pinpoint the problem.
Currently, I am driving around my new car with a rattling noise that comes around quite often.
General Comments:
The quality of the car is totally disappointing. The servicing is good, but apparently dealers don't stock up on parts so when you need part replacements, it's going to be a min of 1-2 weeks wait.
IF you are in the market for a compact SUV, go look for something else other than this car! It's not worth the time and hassle!
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 20th December, 2002
14th May 2003, 11:28
I purchased my 2002 V6 AWD in Feb 2002. I have never been satisfied with the vehicle. I called the 800 phone and ended up filling a Lemon Law on the car.
I had to take the car back three times for the steering wheel noise. The first time was only days after obtaining the car from the factory. The dealership finally fixed the wheel struts and the problem went away. The air conditioner linked into the passenger front side of the car water-logging the rug. From instead the car you could hear noice from the windshield.
When I filed a lemon law against the vehicle, because of the shifting problem from 3rd to 2rd, Saturn felt the shifting problem was not important enough to warrant fixing. The dealership said they could never reproduce the problem. Saturn made a "deal" with me to compensate me for my inconveniences, but I had to sign paperwork and could not file for a future lemon law on the car.
I do alot of stop and go driving and take my daughter and the neighbor children around. Currently I have over 20,000 miles on this car and I cannot get rid of it. Trading it in for another brand of car is impossible because the trade-in value is ridiculous. I like the personnel at the dealership, they tried their best to help, but I would never recommend this car or any Saturn product to anyone.