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Comments
dave
What did you decide about the valve job?
Getting a used head from a recycler and putting it on yourslf? Lets hear from you!!!
Ihcohen, I would reccomend that you go back to your local Saturn dealer and let them look at it again, get the scoop, then wine like crazy about how you were planning to buy a new Saturn and can't now because of all the unexpected repairs. I have every confidence in Saturn that they will at least cut your maintenance problems in half assuming you appear really pissed off and if they think they will get another sale out of it, its only good business. A little white lie never hurt anyone good luck
Its no secret to anyone that Saturn is a Service oriented company most of the time, so why not get what you paid msrp for. That is the main reason for buying a Saturn = Service. In addition to the polimier panels, high resale, and low cost of ownership. I have a strong feeling that if Ihochen does what I suggested that his problems will get alot smaller. If you had a car that was going to cost you hundreds, or more wouldn't you try a couple different things to get the price down? OR do you have money to flush down the toiliet?
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000502/mi_gm_sale_1.html
Total Saturn sales are up about 25% YTD (Jan-April) versus 1999. SL sales are down a bit, but LS sales more than make up for the shortfall. Still, Saturn sold about 47000 SL sedans YTD, more than a lot of GM sedans. I assume LS sales are more profitable, so I guess Saturn dealers must be doing OK.
To move those SLs, I hope GM will consider offering the GM Card discount to Saturn owners too. Right now, it applies to all GM divisions except Saturn and Saab. Just a thought.
Go Saturn!
Overall, Saturn has the best service of the dealerships I have dealt with (others were Mitsubishi, Ford, GM, Nissan - I exclude my local garage). My big beef was that I had to see them a lot during my 3-year warranty period.
Regarding the timing chain: there wasn't a problem with the chain. But, there are two PLASTIC slides that hold the chain. One of them broke, and caused the chain to jump some teeth, and that's what caused my problems. I ended up having them replace anything, since it's a 5-6 hour job, and it just saves time in the future. And, this mechanic charges $48 an hour for labor. I saved $200-$250 by taking it there instead of the dealership. So please don't talk to me about "Partnerships," becuase that's give and take, and all Saturn has done is take.
It seems like you either get a Saturn with no problems or you get one with lots of problems. I really didn't have any problems until it was about 4-1/2 years old.
Just the other day I went to Saturn for a free car wash ,and let it slip that I thought my car was pulling a tad to the right and they immediatly took it for a road test, readjusted my tire pressure, re adjusted the clutch too, all with out an appointment. I am almost always blown away by the fantastic service my Saturn dealership gives me (Saturn of Albany) NY.
I wish it could be the same for everyone, I wish everyone who buys a Saturn could receive the same wonderful treatment which I am now accustomed too. Don't give up Lisa, I know it may look dim but maybe there is still hope , good luck.
humans," is ludicrous, and exactly the kind of
sensless argument that I would expect from my local
Saturn dealers. "
Apparently you were proved wrong , and molly said so her self by talking about her wonderfull service visit, she seems to have been treated with respect, and this is not a surprise from a Saturn dealer.
As for the loss of power issue, you say tomato, I say tomata. It's a senseless arguement. Sounds like your not happy with your Saturn experience by your comments, why don't you check out a new Toyota at www.toyota.com
Saturnboy, I think you need to get off your high horse about the Saturn's government rating. I judge a car by its all-around crash performance and the Saturn doesn't quite have it. Sure, if you hit a wall head-on at 30 mph, the Saturn is one of the safest small cars to be in. But how common is that? Not very common at all. In the side-impact, the 99 SLs got only an average 3 star rating. Nothing to write home about. That equals the rating given to the Honda Civic, but is lower then the 4 stars given to the similar sized VW Jetta. In fact, the VW Jetta is now the safest all-around performer out of all the small cars. It received 5 stars for the head-on impact, just like the Saturn. And lets not forget the 40 mph offset-impact, a very important test of the strength of a cars structure and also a relatively common type of accident. The Saturn was rated acceptable in this test, but was rated below the VW Beetle, VW Jetta, Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Elantra, and Ford Escort (in descending order). Look at the pictures yourself and tell me the Saturn did not look disturbing. The steering wheel was shoved back rather close to the dummy's face and the front plastic quarter panel broke in half and flew off the car. Overall, the Saturn is not as safe as you make it out to be. You cannot judge a car's performance on one crash test alone.
As far as crash safety, (lngtongue18) I do think the saturn s-series is still #1 in small cars. Full frontal impacts do comprise 1/2 of the crashes according to the NHTSA and the saturn havs the lowest death and injury rate of and compact economy car (a4 did better, but it's not economy).
http://www.highwaysafety.org/vehicle_ratings/ddr/ddr_4dr.htm
http://www.highwaysafety.org/vehicle_ratings/ictl/ictl_4dr.htm
I really do think results from real-life crashes are the best thing to look at, really; all tests are contrived to show one aspect in the real world, many types of accidents occur, and thest numbers show the results of them. When i got my sl2 in '96 it was way way ahead of the pack (IMO).
dave
And this is for everybody in the know:
I have a '95 SL2, which started knocking recently, and it is getting worse by the week.
First, it only did it when cold and uphill. Now, it does it during acceleration, or at some other times when an autoshift occurs.
I looked in the automotive repair book. It talks about gasoline as the first suspect. I should think that is not the culprit since I have been pumping at COSTCO for about a year.
Then it mentions fuel filter, some ECM or similar module and the EGR valve. I have not talked to any mechanic yet.
Any ideas as to what to look for? Or plausible causes of this?
1) Fuel system cleaner. Techron is good. Marvel mystery oil has a rep but i don't know if it's for real.
2) Change plugs
3) Premium gas
The last being a last resort. Maybe have the dealer try if the first 2 fail. I often buy gas at chevron because they have techron already in the gas, but i'm not sure offhand how much.
I'm a costcoite too! They have a lot of nice gourmet food for regular food prices--i just wish they took more credit cards.
Saturnboy, just don't take everything so personally. If someone doesn't like your favorite line of cars, well, no biggie. It doesn't really affect you.
dave
You might have pointed out the real reason for knocking indeed. I will follow your advice and get some Techron.
And I think you also put your finger on the reason for carbon buildup. About a year (~7000 miles) ago, I replaced spark plugs. While doing that, I discovered a couple of spark plug wells to be full of oil = blown head gasket. I replaced that with an OEM gasket which is composed of a perimeter gasket plus four small round gaskets, one around each spark plug well. I did not place one of the four correctly and it leaked oil into the well - had to fix it a little later. I suspect the gasket might be the culprit behind the knocking, too. Will check gasket leaks over the weekend, too. (If it can be done easily, I am not sure about that.)
saturnboy, you will love your new LS1. It is a great looking car, good choice. Is there an LS1 forum on edmunds or elsewhere?
Women are from VENUS, not Saturn.
I doubt Saturnboy is a female. Not too many women have a sort of passion about any one particular brand of cars like he does.
But Saturnboy, change your name to Saturnman. Better to be a man than a boy.:()
And yes, I'm stereotyping. Let the flame wars begin.
I have nothing else to believe in now...
Look at the crap Saturnboy just pulled with me. He emailed me this message dated the 24th.
"It's been a pleasure listening to you also, I would like to know who made you the Saturn expert? Or shall I say the king of bashing Saturn. You will never draw customers away from Saturn, no matter how important you think you sound, nor how many times you say how horrible you think Saturn is. Their success will continue regardless of little pipps like yourself. Have a nice
Saturn free life, oh, I blocked your email address, don't call me, I'll call
you."
Now I know we are dealing with a child. I think that is a bunch of crap to email me this sort of message. But two can play this game Anyone who would love to send Saturnboy (aka Steven VanBuren) an email telling him how ridiculous he sounds, please let me help you! He can't block an email unless he knows what it is Hmmmmmm.....babywolf2000@hotmail.com Have fun with this I bet he didn't expect this at all. Who's the dimwit now?! Oh, and Steven, since I know you are watching the forum, you are pretty stupid thinking I can't contact you as I do have other screennames But, I am not as childish as you, so I will refrain and instead allow others to do it for me or force you to change your email account.
I'm sure anyone here would consider this taking a forum way too far by actually breaching trust and emailing a nasty letter to me when I did not do the same to him nor give him permission to contact me. I believe I just effectively destroyed any credibility Saturnboy had in this forum. I still think it is so funny how I suddenly became the king of bashing Saturns when I just pointed out a few simple crash test data and my own small experiences with Saturns. Oh well, his loss not mine. And if this is the kind of people that are in the "Saturn family", count me out! Thanks for listening everyone and I hope you find Saturnboy's actions disturbing.
He'll need a Ranger to haul all the BS he shovels about.
Floridian, tired of his rantings!!
And now for a Saturn car question. My SW2 has
56 000 miles on it. Is there some major service or investment in new parts that I ought to do that is not mentioned in the owner's manual? For example, when do I put new struts on? The Book says nothing on that matter. Also, as my car is a 1997, I am curious to hear from anyone with high mileage experience with this engine. Can I easily expect an engine life well in excess of 200 000 miles? What stuff will begin breaking as I approach the almost 100 000 mile mark? Thermostats? Tach cables? Just curious.
clary: I have 90K miles on mine ( a '96 ) and have as of yet just done book maintenence. Everything seems to be in solid working order ( knock on wood ). Every other car of mine has needed substantial work by this point ( escort, tercel, VW passat, saab 900 ) so i'm pretty pleased about that.
dave
And, my question: I have had a lot of problems that were taken care of during the warranty period (transmission, front end alignment, instruments, battery). Since then, the head gasket leaked but nothing else seems to misbehave. Has anyone been involved with a car like that - what should I expect to fail, or what should I do to protect the car? My '95 SL2 is now approaching 50K miles.