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I apologize for your frustrations and your experience at the dealer. Can you email me directly with your VIN? I look forward to your response.
Christina
GM Customer Service
I apologize for your frustrations. If you would like to email me I am happy to look into this for you.
Christina
GM Customer Service
Why am I here you ask? Well because we were traveling home from Vegas Monday with our whole family, slowed down in a construction zone, went to apply the gas and the car wouldn't go. There was no drive or no reverse. Applying the gas sounded like the car was in neutral. We were stuck on the highway, in the middle of no where, in a construction zone and a car that wouldn't go. We had never had a warning that anything was wrong. We were towed to the next town, spent the night in a hotel and the auto shop in the tiny town said the repairs were above their trained technicians and they couldn't get Saturn parts. We then spent $500 to tow the car back to Tucson.
Money doesn't grow on trees as you all know. We had just taken a short family vacation and we had to have family come and get us. We have a daughter with medical issues and she had taken ill while we were stuck in this strange town in this hotel. I have never felt so helpless in all my lifetime. Yes, we made it back home thanks to family driving nine hours to rescue us.
We called our local dealer after researching the codes given to us on Diagnostics from the initial repair shop. It's a computer more or less inside the transmission. Because it's IN the transmission, they have to break it open to get to it, which means rebuilding it. However, it cannot be rebuilt because the parts are not sold in pieces, it's an all or nothing situaton. There is ONE used transmission on the east coast, yes it could ship here but if its problematic, like ya'll post here we have to pay to ship it all the way back too. New transmissions are available but very costly. I was told thankfully I don't have a AWD because it's even more costly. A little warning to those AWD owners out there.
I have loved my outlook. I am on my 3rd set of tires, had new brakes put on it again two weeks ago and I have over 107,000 miles on it. I look at this car all the time after four years, six months and I love it like the day I bought it. It's a pretty car and until now, it's never let me down. It wasn't so pretty up on that tow truck and it pains me that it left me and my family in a dangerous situation with an ill child.
My new transmission will be installed and I hope to be back on the road again in a matter of weeks. I pray that when I get my car back that I can be as happy as I was before this happen. Like so many of you, we researched. We come from a long range of family Saturn owners. My father in law had two and one was well over 300,000 when he sold it. My sister in law has a saturn van. My brother in law had a Saturn. My Dad drove a Saturn for years too. I could go on and on. We bought a Saturn based on their reputation within our family. We too have been proud Saturn owners, now I don't know what to think. I feel let down. We did everything we were told to do to keep our car in good running order... here we are!
Are you currently experiencing concerns? If so I would be happy to assist you. Please feel free to email me.
Christina
GM Customer Service
Been through the
reprogramming to fix the shifting issue (several visits)
timing chain engine disassembly recall
headlight wiring replacement recall
leaking sunroof (several visits)
I hope these issues were resolved in newer models. When the car is running well, I love it. When it's not, oh boy.
Sorry to hear about the problems with your transmission. Have you been in contact with GM Customer Assistance?
Thank you,
Caron, GM Customer Service
Sorry to hear about the problems with your vehicle. Could you please email Christina with your complete contact information (including full name, mailing address and phone number), VIN, current mileage and the involved dealership sent in an email. Also, could you please provide a description of the problems you are experiencing?
Thank you,
Caron, GM Customer Service
Tricia, GM Customer Service.
Tricia, GM Customer Service.
Tonight it died on the road, engine still running, but wouldn't go forward or reverse. The engine light came on. I'm guessing it's the transmission. I had it towed to the dealer (7pm, open, but service dept. closed), dropped of the key and left a phone message.
The vehicle has 42,000 miles. I'm wondering if this will be covered under the Mfr. warranty? I purchased an extended warranty. Should I not mention my warranty, else the dealer will submit to them and bypass Mfr.?
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Here are the repair details:
Internal mechanical disassembled. Found failure 0 F 3-5-R Wave Plate with damage resulting to 1-3-5-R housing and cover. Metal throughout and plugged filter. Cleaned all case debris, reconditioned valve body, replaced filter,housing, cover, clutches and all one-time-use seals and gaskets. Flushed cooler 2.5gpm 111F CYC 49709C7C06. Installed, filled and tested. No further issues.
It drives great. Better than before the problems. The "metal throughout" gives me concern about the long-term performance of the transmission.
But, so far, so good.
I’m sorry to hear that your Outlook didn’t shift for you. If you like, we can follow up with your dealership for you. Please email us with your information (name/username, contact info, last 8 of your VIN, involved dealership) and we’d be happy to see what we can do.
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
I’m sorry to hear about this difficult situation you are in. I am unable to make any guarantees up front, but Customer Assistance can investigate into this further for you. Please email us your name/user name, contact information, the last 8 digits of your VIN, and the name of your involved dealership.
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
I have never owned a GM product, I have always owned Mazdas and Fords, now I know why. A car with under 70K should not leave you stranded.
Someone give me some idea of what I am looking for......
Hope this helps.
In lieu of that here is what I had done. What I don't know is if it was one problem that was solved with one fix or a combination of fixes. However, given the issue only started after about 60k miles I have to think there was one primary issue.
Things to bring up or have checked:
1. clutch wave plate - if you experience long and consistent shuddering, you likely have a bad or incorrectly installed clutch wave plate. This was not an issue with my car, but my great tech mentioned this as one source of problems he has seen with Outlooks.
2. Transmission was completely replaced - car wouldn't shift, would rev high and only stick in first gear. Had metal shavings and burnt fluid so they replaced the trans. While this happened soon after I started noticing the hesitation under load I think it was more of a coincidence and bad timing with the transmission (read on). It just went bad and had to be replaced. I wouldn't have expected that at 60,000 miles but glad for the warranty.
3. After the transmission was replaced, the hesitation started again almost immediately. This is why I think the bad transmission and hesitation were two separate issues. To help resolve the hesitation the dealer said they needed to apply the latest OCM and TCM updates. There is a TSB (tech service bulletin) out there for something very similar to this experience but as I understand it those hesitation issues were being felt early on in the ownership of the car. My issues didn't start to occur until around 60k miles. So if you have very few miles on your car this flash may help resolve your problem. It will also give you some more get up and go for passing as well better shift management under load. Car drives much better with this update but.....
4. Even with the flash and the new transmission the hesitation was still there. This last time with the ride along with the experienced tech he pegged the issue to either being an engine misfire or a wiring issue. He said often times these problems seem to show themselves as transmission issues but they are actually engine problems. This is why it takes more time to diagnose or resolve because they spend time looking for trans or trans related problems based on what is being described when the issue is actually in the engine. What finally (and finally is a relative term here) resolved our problem was a replacement of the ignition coil. Since that has been replaced the car drives like it did when we drove it off the lot, if not even better.
Hopefully, this is the end of this issue for me and that we've found a permanent resolution. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure if there was a combination of things that finally resolved this or if it was solely the ignition coil. In any case, I hope this info helps with any of your experiences and if for nothing else helps to get your car back to you that much faster. Experience here is key so I'd ask your service rep to either talk to the tech that will work on your car or ask for someone that has a depth of experience working with Outlooks, Acadias, Enclaves, Traverses as they will have a good understanding of the issues with these cars.
Good luck!!
Note: all of this was covered under the powertrain warranty so other than inconvenience (and even with that I was able to get a loaner whenever I needed one) I didn't spend a dime.
I'm sorry to hear that you're already experiencing some concerns with your Outlook. If we can assist in any way, including looking into warranty/recall information on your vehicle or assisting you in working with a dealership to resolve this concern, please email us your name/user name, contact information, and the last 8 of your VIN.
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
GM will never make this right. Remember - they're too big to fail. They have the blessings of the US Gov't. A little thing like this won't stop them. The whole idea that US made cars are now on par with Japan is a total fraud. But with all the money that the Gov't sunk into these auto makers, they have to continue perpetrating this lie.
Maybe we need to start Occupy GM??
I just went through this roughly 3 weeks ago myself. The answer is yes!, you can take it to any GM dealer, as long as your vehicle does not have over 100k on it, they will fix it under the 100k mile warranty. Do not let them tell you differently either, the best thing to do:
1) If you have a friend or own an OBDII scanner, scan it and get the engine codes... I am 100% sure your issue is the r35 or 35r wave plate. Almost all of the Saturn Outlooks have that issue between 65-85k.
2) Don't let the GM dealer tell you or talk you into saying anything about the transmission fluid! The dealer I went to tried to double talk me into agreeing that the transmission fluid was dirty and had not been changed. This was an attempt to say it was my fault; this is a power-train issue that is quite common with this line of vehicles.
3) Ask the dealer to supply you with a loaner vehicle, as this issue usually requires them to rebuild the transmission, which in my case took 2 weeks. With that, do not allow them to give you a small car as a replacement, you need something of the same size and standard.
4) If you have already rented a vehicle, ask the dealer to cover the cost... I did, and they covered the rental, plus gave me a loaner.. top line Suburban with Navi and rear entertainment... I almost bought the sucker off them, they just wouldnt take my Saturn off my hands...;) :shades:
http://www.saturn.com/tools/dealerlocator/search.do
Keep us posted, and if you need customer assistance, please don't hesitate to send an email.
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
July 2010 (72K) - took in for service & they recommended a tranny flush as per maintenance recommendations. So had that done along with a few other things.
July 2011 (98K) - After getting stuck on the I76 bridge between Philly & NJ, i contacted OnStar to get the code for the check engine light & got the P0700 code. Once i got back to Springfield MA i took to my dealer (Balise Chevrolet) and they "couldn't replicate the condition" so therefore nothing was done (Notice how close to running out of Warranty - go figure right)
Nov 2011 (103K) - On way back to Philly for business and within 45 miles my check engine light comes back on, i call OnStar & get the P0700 code again. Well i continue on & then at about 150 miles i get a digital warning on my odometer display that transmission fluid is hot & to idle engine & start losing power & I call OnStar & get code P0634. So i pull into rest area & then after ten minutes i continue journey, then in about 30miles the whole process continues. Then on trip home after about 150 miles same issues. I then take to dealer (Balise) and they charge me $100 for diagnostic to only tell me that they found the codes and that my transmission oil appeared burnt & they recommend another tranny flush for $200.
So i contact customer service & let me tell you i think the only thing they are good for is working with the dealer to rape you even further over the coals. Not only do they not recognize there is a problem with the tranny but they only recognize diagnostics from a GM Certified Saturn Specialist & not a 3rd Party who would have your best interests in mind vs a "Company" dealership. Then I am told i have to do the recommend flush in order for them to even consider covering any issues down the road that might occur since i reported it before the warranty was up. However if they do determine there is an issue, im still stuck spending the $200 for the flush that may or may not help the problem.
Just for a laugh: I was also told that i need new rotors (again), which i will do myself at this point & replace right front sway bar link. I then asked them to check my 2010 service record & they replaced my left sway bar link. Then the service rep at Balise says "We usually replace both at same time". I just looked at him and said "It just keeps getting better doesn't it".
Is there anyone else out there that loves their Saturn as I do, but would appreciate GM stepping up & fixing a known propblem like our tax dollars fixed their problems? If so id like to know any recommendations on starting either a petition or even a Social Media campaign to "out" GM & their "Quality Customer Service"
I'm sorry to hear about your frustrations with this situation. Can we look further into this? When you worked with Customer Service, did you have an SR#? Did you have the transmission flush done? Please email us this information so we can continue to assist.
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Im not really sure how much you can help me since noone else really has been able too. I do however find it funny that when i actually speak to someone about this being a KNOWN issue noone seems to know what im talking about. However a GM Customer Service rep responds to everyone of these complaints.
Anyway i have the flush scheduled for next Wednesday because as stated i have no choice if im to a chance in GM owning that there is a problem.
My SR# is 71-1011510774 & my rep is Maria. She has been as helpful as she can be, but to be honest i think its just a call center & someone reading from a script..."We contacted your dealer to discuss your issue, but because your vehicle is outside the Warranty window we can only recommend you do what the dealer recommends & if there continues to be a problem we will reevaluate at a later date"
Wonder what all the GM employees would have done if the government hadnt taken my tax payer dollars to save their jobs....yeah i went there...
Thank you for that information. As your case is already being handled by a District Specialist (to whom I would send a case if it needed to be escalated), it is not something that I can assist further with other than to explain further decisions made in the process.
If you would like more information about the proceedings with your case, Maria is scheduled to call you next week on the 5th, or you can email us and we'll discuss it further from there.
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Regards,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
I see that you have been working with your dealership this year on a few different concerns. Have you set up a case with Customer Assistance already? Please email us more information if you are interested in doing so, including your name and user name, your contact information and the last 8 digits of your VIN, the name of your involved dealership and your current mileage.
Thank you in advance,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Engine: Cylinder head, block, timing gears, timing
chain, timing cover, oil pump/oil pump housing,
OHC carriers, valve covers, oil pan, seals, gaskets,
turbocharger, supercharger and all internal lubricated
parts as well as manifolds, flywheel, water pump,
harmonic balancer and engine mount. Timing belts are
covered until the first scheduled maintenance interval.
Transmission/Transaxle/Transfer Case: Case, all
internal lubricated parts, torque converter, transfer case,
transmission/transaxle mounts, seals, and gaskets.
Drive Systems: Final drive housing, all internal
lubricated parts, axle shafts and bearings, constant
velocity joints, axle housing, propeller shafts, universal
joints, wheel bearings, locking hubs, front differential
actuator, supports , front and rear hub bearings,
seals and gaskets.
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Have you already opened a Customer Assistance case with us (I apologize if this is redundant and you already have been in touch with us via email; a co-worker helps out with the Edmunds email)? I would strongly recommend you doing so, if you haven't yet.
I am very sorry for the inconvenience this has been, but thank you for your patience as we work to sort this out!
Sarah
GM Customer Service
With all these problems and having 2 GM dealerships hang up on me I will NEVER buy another GM product ever. At this point my car is at the shop again (and these people have so much attitude when dealing with them) and I am now driving a GM rental which I dont particularly care for.
As of today I am still without a car and getting more irriated as the day goes on.
We look forward to assisting,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
We have 47,0000 miles on it and I could just cry. I need to get home and not be stuck here while This car most likely gets a new transmission. It had more coming out of the back and said something like reduced engine along with he check engine light on it. I do recall telling my husband that I noticed that it would kinda jump when I was at the light when I had my foot on the break. I can't believe this car hasn't been recalled.
Lisa