2003 Saturn VUE AWD review from North America

Bought the Vue in September of 2003. Was previous owner of two Saturn SL2s and loved them. Tried a couple of other cars in between including Subaru (loved them) and Acura (loved them). We traded in our Subaru, gave my husband the Acura and I got the Saturn I have wanted since it first came out. Well, immediately upon driving the car, there was a shimmy/shudder in the car. I thought it was just me because my first SUV, but my husband (after I finally let him drive it) asked me about it. It was taken to Saturn in end of November, 2003 and they balanced the tires. The shimmy/shudder was still present in the car, but again thought it was just me. Husband again mentioned the problem and I took it back to the dealership in early January, 2004. They gave it back to me the same day rebalancing the tires. The next week, I took it back to them for the same problem and they had it for 10 days. They replaced the rear axle, rear differential, rear bushing and replaced the drive shaft. Immediately upon driving it, the shudder was still there which they said was road tested good. I took it back to them again and they rotated the drive shaft 180 degrees and gave it back to me the same day. The problem was not only still there, but they made it worse. They have now had the car since February 3 and the car is still not repaired, they haven't the faintest idea what is wrong with the car, but I was told they can't fix it, but hey, they'll keep trying.

One more problem the car had was its failure to start one day. It was completely out of the blue and 30 minutes later the car started on its own. It has never done it since then, but I have heard of other people with the same problem. The service center was not able to reproduce the problem and blamed it on my auto starter.

I love the idea of Saturn and I used to love their cars. I'm not sure what happened to the quality, but it has gone down tremendously. I will never recommend another Saturn to anyone. Unfortunately, the sales people are so nice and they make it so easy when buying a car, I just wish other dealerships were like them. Too bad those sales people can't make the cars because they would be phenomenal.