My Saturn was purchased in May 2003, and as soon as Dec. 29th 2004, (actually even before this date) the car was having problems with the transmission - making sounds, slipping, disengaging, loss of power numerous times while exiting parking lots into traffic, and even some times when accelerating from a dead stop, like from a stop sign. Sometimes it would shutdown for 3-5 seconds (the car would coast, and then if you took your foot off the gas, the car would accelerate again)
At 108,000 miles the transmission totally failed.
Went into a Saturn dealer several times and complained about it; each time got "blown off", was told that the sounds were normal, common to all Vti's, and was told the slipping was traction control.
Several times I ended up purchasing transmission fluid to put into my car; this would seem to improve things with the transmission for about 6 months or so. Then it would get worse again and I would go back in talk to them. At one point when I dropped by, they test drove the car and claimed that they could not reproduce the problem. Conveniently they did not note any of my complaints into their computer system.
I had gone in one time when I had a cracked windshield to see if it could be replaced under warranty. I stopped by and they fixed my hood release lever cable, I purchased a mini-model of my car, and several times to purchase transmission fluid. Each time I talked with them about the "quirks/problems" of the transmission. They did not mention any of these visits in to Saturn, in to their "system" either.
When I talked to them, no one mentioned or notified me of any known problems with the Vti transmission, nor did they notify me that the transmission warranty for the Saturn Vue had been increased from 3yr/36,000mi to 5yr/75,000mi. Believe me, if I had known I would have brought the car in "officially" for transmission service!
We also recently found out about several service bulletins that were released in 2004, I was not notified of any of the service bulletins by Saturn, either by mail, phone or in person at their dealership. Someone mentioned recently to me something about Saturn changing their transmission fluid or some kind of additive to be used, I was told they have the sole patent on it and it is very expensive; they did not tell me about this at any time either.
Each time I went in, and talked to them about my concerns, never did they mention anything that would have helped me. I thought my transmission warranty had expired long before, as I am a copier service technician, and so I put miles on my car at a faster rate than some other Saturn owners. Even so, in April of 2005 I have records that my mileage was at 51,000 miles on my Saturn, so I was still under the extended Warranty at that time, I just didn't know. If I had been notified that Saturn had increased their Transmission Warranty coverage, I would have taken my car under warranty to have the transmission looked at. However, I did not know about the increased warranty coverage, and since I could not afford the costs for transmission replacement/repair, I "limped" along with my Saturn Vue, for as long as I could, sometimes in rather dangerous situations, until the transmission failed.
First I tried to purchase transmission fluid again to see if that would help the problem, as it seemed to improve it in the past. (On 12/7/2007, after barely making it home from a trip on Friday) I did not drive the car over the weekend and put the fluid it in Sunday night. The next morning I barely made it into our main office at work. So I took my car in after the meeting on 12/10/2007. I first had them purge/flush and replace the transmission fluid, this cost me nearly $400.00. They also told me they were going to reprogram the computer system.
Since my car was now out of Warranty... (even the extended one) -- for the first time they admitted to me the known problems with the Saturn transmission, and NOW (after the fact) they told me (too late) about how Saturn had increased the warranty. After getting the work done (note - they did not reprogram the computer like they said they would) the service adviser at the dealer told me that after doing the work, that they could not reproduce the problem during the test drive, but that he was sure it would happen again soon.
Well it did, the problem started up again on the way home from picking up my car from Saturn, that very night!
The next day I contacted Saturn and then later also, Saturn Corporate. Neither one would help me out in any way. They basically told me tough"!!!
I found out it would be nearly $5000.00 to replace the transmission. I got on the Internet on web sites like -- (Please look these up!!! http://www.carsurvey.org/model_Saturn_VUE.html and http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109944&highlight=transmission ) and read description after description from one Saturn Vue "Vti" transmission owner after another, describing the exact problems I had, the same stories over and over.
This is not just my problem, this is an epidemic, and Saturn and our Saturn dealer have known about it for a long time, and they are not doing anything help the Vti transmission Saturn Vue owners. After calling around town to several other transmission shops, they told me that they have had several Saturn customers in with Vti transmission problems, and they have heard lots of bad things about how the local dealer has treated their customers.
Here is a list of some of my most important complaints -
- Our local dealer never "registered" us or our purchase with Saturn Corporate.
When I called Saturn Corporate and registered my "concerns" on 12/17/2007 I ended up being on hold for over 20 minutes while she tried to locate our car and owner information; it turns out Saturn dealer had never registered us or our car (owner purchase/registration/vin# etc) with Saturn corporate. She finally called our Saturn dealer and confirmed our purchase of our Saturn Vue in May 2003, and then we gave her all of our and our car info so that she could enter us in to their system. She said we were not listed in either of their computer systems, and she could find no record of us or our car.
- I was never notified via mail/phone or in person at the dealer of any recalls, service bulletins or known problems with my 2003 (Vti) Saturn Vue. Note - I took my car in to have the rear stabilizer struts for rear suspension and front wheel bearings replaced, but the only way I knew about that was that my in-laws heard about it on the news and told me).
- I went in to Saturn dealer several times in the last 4 years and talked with them numerous times about transmission noises and problems, they always said "normal" etc (as described above) - never did they admit known problems or about the increased transmission warranty.
- Our local Saturn dealer conveniently did not register any of my complaints into their system, even when I was there to get other smaller issues worked on, and I mentioned it to them then too. (windshield crack, hood release cable, etc. as listed above)
- Thousands of people have complained about transmission problems, all over the Internet. Some of them have nearly gotten killed, (including me as power was lost as I was exiting parking lots into traffic) Saturn knows they have a transmission problem and have not done anything to rectify the situation.
- Not until Dec 2007 did they admit to me any known problems with their Vti transmission. The mechanics, now that my car is outside of warranty, told me about known problems with Vti transmission; in their words they told me it was defective from the manufacturer.
I paid $380.97 (as described above), was told that problem would come back very soon, problem showed back up on the way home. (Note - I never got any portion of my money back for that failed service) The service adviser actually told me before they even looked at the car, that I needed a new transmission. (He and the service technician were actually chuckling about how I got 108,000 miles out of it and that I was luckier than other people!
At the time I thought this was suspicious as it was before I got on the Internet and found out about the epidemic of Saturn Vue Vti transmission problems.) Note - Now they are claiming we never complained about our transmission, just because they did not take the time to note any of my complaints into their service computer. (So they say, how did we know they didn't delete it?)
In summary - The transmission problem is an epidemic. When I went in for service the week surrounding my service date of 12/10/2007, I saw four to five 2003 Saturn Vues (Vti's) all in lined up in a row for service. I was about to take a picture with my cell phone when service advisor came out. I asked him if all of those Saturn Vues were in for transmission problems and he said yes (I found out on the Internet that some people have put up to four transmission replacements in their 2002-2004 (Vti transmission) Saturn Vues. Before I could have a chance to take a picture they started moving the Saturn Vues. I explained my situation to both Saturn dealer and Saturn Corporate and was met with snobbery and a refusal to help me out. The customer service was so bad I chose not to have them service my car and went to a different transmission shop, where I had to spend nearly $5000.00 to get my transmission replaced.
Now that it is replaced I have tried to trade it in at Ford dealer, but was only offered 2,400.00 for it! It has been in the local paper and on Cars.com for 2 weeks and I have not gotten any calls! Even though there are photos showing that my Saturn is in such good condition on the outside, and inside it looks like it just came off the showroom floor!!! It's looking right now like my depreciation for this car is about 89% after only approx 4 1/2 yrs!!! Incidentally I had just paid off the car about three weeks before the transmission went out. I had planned to have this car in use several more years before going out and buying a new one, however on the Internet person after person recommend getting rid of the car as soon as possible, even after just replacing the transmission. In fact the service advisor from Saturn himself recommended it!!!
I won't trade it in for another Saturn, after the really bad service and customer service, that I have gotten from them, it would be like dealing with the devil!!! What I would like is my money back for the Vue! I loved everything about the car, but this! If they had only fixed the problem or figured out a way to replace the Vti transmission with a regular one!!!
Apparently because it is being replaced with the same transmission, you never know how long it will last, and some people have had theirs only last 7000.00 miles or so before they have to get it replaced again. Why has there been no safety recalls!!! You know Saturn makes even more money every time these transmissions are replaced outside of warranty!!! So not only does Saturn have a known epidemic, but they have done nothing about it. Not even corrected their Vti part problems, from my understanding, resulting in repeat failures!!! Help!!!
Well, I would suggest keeping it as long as it lasts. If you can't get anything for it, why give it away when it is still moving under its own power?
If you've just replaced the transmission for $5,000 then you should at least get another year out of it, even if the worst stories are true, and on the bright side, it might last you another few years.
In the meantime, you can be saving up money for another car. Remember, every month you drive the Saturn that is already paid for means one more month that you don't have a car payment. You can always wait to just junk it the next time it needs a multiple-thousand dollar repair. Hopefully, it will be a few years until that happens.
My son and his girlfriend own a 2003 Vie with about 60,000 miles. They just started having problems with it. It will run, but will not move when in drive. Sounds like you have it in park and are revving the engine. Does this sound like transmission problems? If the transmission warranty has been extended to 5yr/75000 miles then they should get it fixed for free. Right?
To the owner above me...yes. with the extended 5yr/75000 warranty you should be covered. I purchased mine in jan 2003 and the transmission was replaced about 1 month ago at @55,000 miles. it is back in the shop now with another transmission related problem... they say "cracked seal". since this is directly related to the new transmission replacement they are doing it for free. during all this transmission stuff they have paid for a rental... which has been on an average 4-5 days.
I'm ticked off as well. since this is my wife's vehicle (which she has babyied) I'm still deciding what to do anticipating further hassles. yuk.
I wish I had known about all this before I bought my Vue. Mine is a 2004 with 89,000 miles on it. I considered myself lucky because up until now I had never had a problem with it. Well as of this morning it is at the dealership where it waits to be diagnosed. Unfortunately I'm 99.99% sure it's the transmission and after reading all the comments all over the internet, it just reinforces that. So tomorrow I expect a call from the Saturn dealership telling me I need a new transmission and it will cost $xxxx way more than I can afford being a single mom. I have enough cash that I can probably purchase a used car with lots of miles and hope it holds up while I pay off my Saturn. And the Saturn will probably sit in my apartment parking lot until it's payed off and I can sell it for $xx if I'm lucky. This is my second Saturn, the first one was great (SL1) but after this experience, I will never purchase another Saturn again.
Add another to the pile - we bought a 2003 Vue NEW and have had every oil change, every brake pad replaced, every piece of service done at the dealership. NO ONE ever mentioned ANYTHING about problems with the transmission and I never got a piece of mail from Saturn about it or anything about the warranty being extended. I've only ever received 1 recall notice and it was completely unrelated to the transmission.
97K miles, and I'm being told it needs to be replaced - $5200 for a rebuilt, $5700 for a new transmission. And we were literally just days away from buying an Aura. I'm getting a 2nd opinion from a local transmission guy this week.
We've had 2 Saturns. I seriously doubt there will be a 3rd.
I'm getting my 2004 Vue back today with a replaced transmission.
They 'fixed' a transmission issue last year. This was one week after I brought it in telling them it was slipping, not accelerating and was very, very loud while idling. Their diagnosis was that they could find nothing wrong. But this past Monday my car just shut off in the middle of the highway! I turned it off and it came back on and took it to my own mechanic. His diagnosis - MAJOR transmission issues. I find it hard to believe my transmission went bad in a week.
He urged me to call saturn - a clue that it was an expensive fix. The dealership said the warranty had been extended to 75K my Vue has 79,432 miles on it. I was sick. I started looking up the issue online only to find out Saturn knew about the problem! That's when I got angry and went to the dealership.
I have to admit I wasn't nice at all, which I felt bad for afterwards because I liked the guys at the dealership. They called me on Tuesday and said they would be replacing the tranny at no cost to me. I know they did not have to do that, but I am grateful. I will be writing a letter to Saturn praising the actions of the dealership, but also voicing my displeasure over this whole debacle.
Just so everyone knows..
Certain tricks of a service advisor is to NOT tally the customer complaint. Why? It's time-consuming, and they have repair orders that are of cash customers. The cash customer RULES over most warranty work.
If they tell you about a recall or TSB on the transmission, then that's money out of their pocket if it's claimed via warranty work because Saturn will only pay the dealer so much for each repair. The mechanic get's screwed most times on his "draw" which is the money he makes on each repair. If he can knock out 100 hours of "book time" work per week, he's rolling in it. If he works 100 hours of "warranty" time, he's lost money.
Dealer's suck. I should know, I worked as a Nissan Service Advisor for a while and we LOVED it when a Murano or Sentra owner would roll in. Muranos are bad about transmissions and Sentras, well, Sentra owners just don't do maintenance to their Sentras. Hell, most of them can't even afford a new Sentra let alone a $21 oil change at the dealer.
NEVER buy a new car.
Just like everyone else it seems, my 2002 Saturn Vue is at the dealer right now in need of a new transmission. Just paid it off, warranty just ended, and now I have to put a new transmission in for the SECOND time.
The first time was 6 months after I purchased it, and it only had 18,000 miles on it, so obviously the warranty covered that one.
This time I am not so lucky. Only have 79,000 miles on it, but gonna have to put another dud transmission in it. It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it.
The dealership has offered to only charge labor for it, but that is still way more than I can afford, and quite honestly more than I think I should have to pay.
I think GM should offer a lifetime warranty on these VTi transmissions, seeing as how they seem to be disposable. I am dumb founded by what I have discovered in the past week regarding Saturn and GM.
I used to be the biggest Saturn promoter, absolutely loved my Vue, but I just can't recommend them to anyone now. If you have a Vue with a VTi transmission, I would strongly suggest getting rid of it before the warranty runs out!! If you don't, then you are literally riding on borrowed time! :-(
Just to add another Saturn to the heap. I have a 2003 Saturn Vue.
About six months ago I had a transmission fluid leak, which was fixed under warranty. I also had problems with the car not going over 2000 revs, so I couldn't get the car out of a steep driveway in reverse. They told me I was under warranty and that the computer shuts the car down when it isn't working properly. No biggy I thought, great and paid no attention to the problem. I took my car in two weeks ago complaining of the car almost stalling at lights, and what I thought was a transmission problem. They did my 600000 service early and recommended 4 new tires, $1000 in all, and could find no problem with the car; they said it was working within normal parameters, and that the technician drove it and could not reproduce the problem.
Two days later service engine soon light comes on. Take it back and guess what, the transmission has failed. I was told that it would cost $5600 and that I should take it to Car Max and see what they would give me. He even said don't buy another Vue. I feel like they knew about the problem earlier, and now I am also out of extended warranty by 4 months.
My question is this, does anyone know or think I could go back to the dealership and insist that the problem was ongoing from the original leak?
2005 Saturn Vue AWD VTI Transmission 52k miles. Just received its second transmission. Covered by warranty - but was unaware of 5/75 warranty. Never notified and was unaware of Vue`s ongoing problem! Trying to trade and only get offers of 85 hundred for a vehicle that cost near the mid 20`s.
It is as clean as a new Saturn, and has a new set of Michelin`s ($700.00). This offer was from the Saturn Dealer on a used Honda CRV. Seems to me the 5/75 warranty needs to be extended to say - 8/200k. miles. If you can`t sell or trade, then GM should help their customers keep the vehicles on the road so they can get some use (that they anticipated when purchasing) for their money spent! This would show that GM stands behind their product and their customers, and would gain MANY new customers, not only with Saturn, but throughout GM!
Good morning. Thanks for everyone's comments. I have a 03 VTi Transmission Saturn Vue. It has been wonderful until yesterday. On the highway, all of a sudden, it had reduced power, etc. I took it to the nearest respectable car shop. This morning, they called and said (1) transmission needs to be overhauled and (2) this is happening more and more with Saturn Vue's. This shop is very good, and I trust them. I got online and found this site and others. I called my dealership and asked about the extended warranty being issued by Saturn for cars to cover 5 years, 75,000 miles. I told him my car has 71,000 (my 5 year is in Sept) and was hoping it would be covered. The dealership guy said, sorry, I was wrong - it covers 70,000 miles; I had just missed the cutoff. I then called Saturn headquarters, got a wonderful rep on the line who said the warranty is 75,000 miles, 5 years. Called the dealership who was less than thrilled with this news. I hope not to get a dud transmission in there as a replacement. We'll see... I will post an updated comment in a few days. What a mess.
My Mom owned a 2003 Saturn Vue, and passed away 3 years later. She had the 5 yr, 75 miles.
I drove the car and put 15,000 miles on it in 6 months. It now has 30,000 miles, and 3 weeks after the warranty went out - guess what? Yup, you guessed it - the transmission went out and dealer wants $5800 to fix it.
Warranty or not, a car with only 30,000 miles should not need a trannie. I called the "zone" guy from the factory. He came out. Without any fight they agreed to fix it and I pay $500. I was thrilled, but then learned they are replacing only the bad parts in the trannie and leaving the existing good parts. And, dealer would only warranty the parts. What good is a warranty with no labor? I'm fighting.
For everyone concerned, there is a class action lawsuit for 2002-2004 Saturn Vues. It is filed in California Federal Court, Eastern District entitled Castillo vs. General Motors, Case No. 2:07-0948. Attorney is Lakin law firm #618-254-1127. You don't have to be in California to be part of it - It pertains to 2002-2004 Saturn Vue's.
I'm sad to put this out there. My Father worked for GM for 46 years and retired. He instilled in his children to buy American products and especially GM cars, as they were the ones putting the food on our table. Well, that was the old days when making a wrong a right was the right thing to do.
Don't give up. GM and Saturn know the VTI transmission is defective. In fact, they have discontinued it. So, why even replace it with another faulty trannie? You read the comments, they just continue to break. So much for the American made product.
My Father is turning in his grave from the embarrassment of GM - I just know it. He was always so proud to be associated with one of the finest companies - at one time. It is pathetic that GM and Saturn do not step up and warranty its product.
I had just read the last comment and contacted Lakin Law and was directed to their web site at www.lakinlaw.com where I found some information about the suit. It seems that very soon there will be relief for all us suckers who bought this vehicle. The model years included are 2002-2005 Vue's and 2003,2004 Ion's. The gentlemen I spoke to at their office said it was supposed to be on the judges docket this month, but didn't get put on so they are hoping for sometime in September.
Saturn should recall every one of these cars. With a dealership this size, it is a shame that they are robbing us.
My tranny went, my fuel pump, my carrier bearings etc etc etc.
I owe 13000 on this car and am taking a hit on the credit I have tried all my life to do well on. It's not fair Saturn. I will never buy another car from this dealership ever, and anyone I talk to from now on will hear about how Saturn has blown me off.
The transmission in my daughter's Saturn Vue gave out. She took it to the dealership and was told $5,600 to replace it. Now we find that this is a common problem and that GM knew about it but did not recall the cars with that transmission.
There is a class action law suit in the works, but that doesn't help someone who is struggling with car payments, house payments, high utility bills etc and whose car is now for all intents and purposes a piece of junk, on which she still owes $4,000.
My advice is buy Japanese.