When we were stationed at Fort Lewis, our Honda Accord finally died and we needed a new car quickly. We didn't spent the years I spent researching the Toyota and we had heard good things about Saturn, so we bought a Saturn LW 300. It has been nothing but a headache. While the car had less than 10K miles on it the tires started splitting. Then one thing after another went out. It was supposed to not need major servicing till after 100K but they changed that to 60K. Of course our warranty was out at 60K and the repairs found were in the thousands. I called Saturn and they picked up half of the tab because I was furious. Since then it is still causing problems and we are just holding it together till it dies. DH drives it back and forth to work and occasionally I run it to the gym or something. This hunk of junk now has over 116K miles on it--I NEVER thought it would make it this far. I took it in today to get my oil changed (which I used to do every 3K miles religiously until I hit 60K and had all those repairs). I also needed a state inspection so I had them do that as well. Of course the service guy comes in with a list of things that I need to have repaired.
The radiator leaks and that would be almost $1K. I told him it had been leaking for almost 20K miles and I wasn't going to fix it because I could just keep on adding water to it. Then he said the air conditioner fan was broken and when you idle it would not blow cold air only when you were moving and that was almost $1K. I told him I wouldn't slow down long enough to idle at all and that I spent over $2K repairing the entire ac system about 2 years ago or so. I'm not making anymore major investments in this car. If I didn't need a state inspection and an oil change (that's the other clincher you have to take it to the Saturn dealer for an oil change because they have a star shaped wrench to remove the oil filter and none of the other places have it) I wouldn't have taken it in at all. It makes me sick to think of all the money we have invested in this car, but DH and I consider it an expensive lesson. Oh well, it will be interesting to see how long it lasts.
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6 comments:
guess I don't need to tell you that you should have listened to your father and never bought an American car....lol....
Sounds like you've had some serious issues with that thing. For us, it was Fords. I had a Ford Ranger in college (I bought it for the color ... purple! What a mistake) I put so much $$$ in that stupid thing. Then it was stolen (suckers!) and I got a Ford Escape. Everytime I turned around it was causing me problems. When George got back from his last deployment and realized how much I'd managed to save while paying off both vehicles and the motorcycle he decided that we should probably get a reliable vehicle it we wanted to start a family in the next few years. That when I got the Tahoe! Its like angels from heaven are singing everythime I get in it!
That star shaped wrench bit sounds strange- I never had that problem with my Saturn. Maybe because it was older? I really do think you have a lemon. I have not known a single other person who has had the kind of trouble you have. I know multiple people (including my brother and SIL) who have owned back-to-back Saturns with no major problems. Mine was doing great until I rear-ended that Mercedes : )
After saying all that though, I have preferred the Toyota and Honda I've had since then.
Peggy
OK, blame me. We have had a Saturn wagon since late 99 and still drive it although the only expense has been with the ignition failing every so often and leaving metal chips from the key within it.
Ours has minimal problems; however my BIL's has had almost as many problems as yours. They hate it and are sorry they bought a Saturn.
Make that "had." It did become too expensive to fix over a year ago. LOL
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