one thing to consider is that if you buy off the lot, most dealers order VUEs with alot of extra stuff so it is hard to get the 'low' price. I wanted and got side airbags but this limited the color selection unless I wanted a sunroof or AWD or other stuff. Also I could not wait for one to be built because the incentives I wanted to use were going to expire.
Today I tested a 2004 VUE with the new V-6 at Saturn of Decatur (Atlanta). It was a AWD 25k without sunroof, mileage 19/25 regular gas. Ride was good with 17" wheels. No torgue steer with AWD. The new gauges look great. The A/C was strong on the second setting. The engine was very smooth and powerful. They should sell well.........
The new center gauges look very nice, same for the new steering wheel leather and shift knob. The dash vinyl looked the same to my eyes. The interior though quiet could use a few more upscale touches IMHO. The exterior looked the same save the new 17" wheels. The new 3500 motor was a good fit in the engine bay and didn't appear crammed.
Sounds like the 2004 model has some definite upgrades. While I think there is room for improvement on the Vue (or any car for that matter), overall I am very pleased with it. Mechanically the Vue has been solid and trouble free and really that is the most important thing. Having great customer care makes it all the better as you always feel good about what you are driving.
Perhaps in a few years we will get another Vue, I don't see ever needing anything larger. It's a perfect size!
I went back to the dealer today to test a white FWD 2004. Didn't get the ride since the car had not been prep'ed (go figure, I saw the same vehicle in the back on Saturday). but, I did notice that the antenna is the same as last year. The price was 26k plus with leather and sunroof. The interior looks a lot better with the leather option. I just opened the door and could feel/see the difference. Mileage on the sticker was 20/28.
are available at the saturnfans site for 04 VUE. The Red Line option is $1995. About what I would have guessed. It looks as though the price for a FWD V6 has gone up around $300 or so. Not bad with the new motor.
Isnt Chevy putting out a new SUV based on the VUE this year? Is it going to have the Honda Motor? It looked pretty cool, but my VUE is in the Garage to stay.
The Chevy Equinox version has a 3.4 GM V6. The Vue has a 3.5 Honda motor starting this year (2004) from a trade GM did with Honda for transmissions.
I saw a 2004 on the local lot last night. It was a fairly loaded up frond wheel drive model. Mileage is impressive at 20-28. Looks like the interior has been done up a bit better also. I will have to sit in one next oil change.
bigdaddy : Keep in mind, they added standard ABS. Price really has not gone up at all if you consider that.
julians : Chevy will definitely not be getting the Honda engine. The 3.4L in the Equinox that vue42 is speaking of is actually coming from China (of all places). It will be a more traditional OHV truck engine (rated at 185hp) so it should still have lots of grunt.
A fwd V6 - I will write up a more detailed report but sufice to say this - tourque steer is not the problem - its TRACTION. Whoa this thing can lay down the rubber....
...reading the last 100+ posts. I've got one Saturn ('03 L300) and the wife has the VUE on her short list of replacement vehicles to consider when our Explorer lease comes due next spring.
Intrigued with the Honda V6 .. my sis has an Odyssey and she tells me the acceleration is pretty good. I can't imagine what it would be like in a vehicle that weighs several hundred pounds less. Wifey might just get a ticket or two!
BTW, mileage for the AWD version of the V6 is 19 city and 25 highway, which I don't think is too bad. Optioned up the way the wife wants it (sunroof, leather, 6 CD changer, curtain air bags, other misc), the MSRP is just north of $27K.
Will continue to lurk to see what folks think of the '04 V6 VUE's. Thanks to all for the truly informative posts!
I'm going to give you a basic rundown of what is different -
Painted door handles - Whoopie!
Engine - Sounds just like a Honda when you fire it up. Power is extremely smooth and linear. There is no point where you feel like "ok VTEC just kicked in". VERY quiet compared to the 03 V6. The acceleration is very good - although surprisingly not significantly better than 03. Could be just the butt dyno is off because it sounds quieter. It does have way more torque off the line than I expected. The FWD version I tested could light up the 17" factory tires VERY easily. In fact if you are making a left or right turn you anything more than 50% throttle will cause loss of traction. There is tourqe steer but it is less than the 03. As for acceleration at speed, there is a LARGE amount of midrange punch but it is rather uneventful. When you hit it at 55 the engine just quickly, quietly, and smoothly spools up as you are thrust back in your seat. I was unable to get into a situation where I could drive faster than 85 - but 85 comes in a hurry and the VUE is pulling just as strong at 85 as it does at 35.
Soundproofing - wind noise sounds the same. Engine noise much less. Road noise sounds like less, I don't drive a VUE every day so I can't be certain.
Steering wheel - MUCH improved. Finally a 3 spoke steering wheel. Looks exactly like a CTS steering wheel, feels good.
Steering - MUCH improved. Better "on center" feel, and better feedback.
Ride - same.
Interior - dash looks much nicer. Not a Lexus but even I can tell it is more pleasing to the eyes. The cloth interior is quite ... interesting. Some odd patterned cloth where you sit surrounded by cheap looking and cheap feeling pleather. I've seen worse vynal - but not by much. Seems like leather will be a very popular option.
Power seat - no clue. The one we have is manual seat.
Stereo - this VUE had the MP3 6 disc player. I need to research it further but the stereo sounded so nice I thought it had to have the advanced audio option. It didn't. I don't know if they changed speakers or the head unit is better but bottom line the sound is better by quite a bit. The MP3 player is not advanced in the sense that you can't search through folders. Everything reads as if it were on the root level. However it is very easy to use - and of course you can put 150+ MP3 songs on a single disc so with the 6 disc changer you could have a lot of music at your disposal. It would be nice if there were a remote for lazy passengers to use - there isn't. Still - for a factory unit I was impressed.
Overall - this will take a vehicle that is easy to sell and make it even easier. I imagine more people will compare it to the Pathfinder and Highlander than the CRV or Escape. The 04 reminds me of a Lexus RX300. Not as pretty or comfortable of an interior - but very smooth and quiet. I did get to drive it a little through a twisty road with a couple switchbacks. I was imagining what the Redline VUE would be like with a 1" drop and sportier suspension. X5 on a budget?
I, too, want to thank you for the excellent write up on the '04 VUE .. even though we know you are (slightly) biased
The dealer where I got my L300 from does not show any '04 VUE's in their inventory. Are we to assume that your dealer has one in stock and that they should start showing up in greater numbers over the next month or so?
Unlike dindak, we'd probably get one totally loaded - AWD (necessary for Colorado winters), leather, sunroof, 6-CD changer (though no need for the MP3 stuff), power seats.
However, we are not cross shopping the vehicles afk_x suggested -- right now, the short list is the VUE and the Subaru Forester XT. We considered the Highlander for a brief moment but the wife commented that it looked too "minivan-like" on the inside, which pretty much equates to the kiss of death.
We just took delivery of an 04 VUE today, much the same as afk_x, it's just a front wheeler. Didn't see any point in going the whole enchilada with all 4. Besides, per the spec sheet it's supposed to get pretty good mileage on the road 28 they say. Even around town it gets a respectable 20.
We've not driven it but 12 miles so far. At least that's what the odo says right now - a total of 12 miles!!!! Needless to say, we don't want to really jump on it yet because it could use some sane driving for a while, at least until the bearings get some kind of wear pattern in them.
We test drove an 03 in May and were impressed with it, but this is far and away the better vehicle - quieter and smoother power curve were the two most noticeable features. Will keep the forum posted as we progress through the life of this vehicle.
Actually, were were within $200 of buying a used CR-V on Saturday the 20th. But we decided to cool our heels until Monday and maybe relent then and cave to the dealer. But we talked to our son over the weekend and he's in touch with the local Saturn dealer and informed us they had the 04's in so we toured the lot on Sunday, saw 4 of them and went in Monday to test one. Guess we got hooked.
So far it's the perfect vehicle for my wife. She's been piloting a Voyager for 9 years and amazingly it still has the original tranny, but she was ready for a change to something more modern and not quite as big (long). The VUE seems to be the perfect fit. It's jet black with the 17" wheels and looks pretty good. No fancy external accessories yet, but we did get the front windows tinted so it looks like a regular Mafioso mobile.
Hopefully this will be a great replacement vehicle for her and if everything positive that you guys say about the make comes true, we'll really enjoy the vehicle. Thanks for all the comments we've been reading, most of them helped make up our minds. One more thing - the ride and the solid feel made the CR-V a dream of the past.
If you folks are interested, our VUE is the FWD Honda powered version. The only options were the 6-way power driver's seat with lumbar support, driver and passenger heated leather seats, 17" machined alloy wheels, front window tinting and floor mats. Nothing extra in the radio department, just the basic CD player. With the $1000 discount the vehicle cost, before documentation costs were added, was $23,305. We also opted for an extended warranty, which naturally upped the ante somewhat.
Hello All. In February of 2002 I purchased a Saturn Vue AWD. In August of 2002 I had to have the front left strut replaced, with 10000 miles on the car. Then again this month I had to have the front left strut replaced with 29000 miles on the car. The question that I have is has anyone else had the same types of problems? And if so what has your dealership done for you?
Zapcat (post 2769), you wondered if our price of $23,305 included the destination charge? Yes it did. That $23,305 was our bottom line price before the $97 documentation fee and the extended warranty we purchased.
How come you guys south of the 49th parallel are driving 2004 Vues off the dealers lots? I can't even get a 2004 brochure let alone see a new Vue here in Ottawa.
Is this part of the revenge for our Iraq position?
When we bought our '04 VUE the dealer didn't have any VUE-only brochures. They had the Saturn '04 brochures which included the VUE line.
They still have 3 or 4 on the lot. A couple of 4 cyls. and I believe 2 V-6's. If you can make it to my dealership in West St. Louis County Missouri by tomorrow, I bet they'd sell you one.
There is tons of official 04 VUE info on a site I can't mention due to edmunds rules. Try google searching "2004 VUE Specifications" and see what comes up first. Then click around that site.
Saw an V6 FWD 04 today when I got my oil changed. I like the new interior bits, tailgate and the new wheels. Very nice overall and the new engine numbers of 20/28 are in fact true. I would like to hear if people in fact do get that kind of mileage out of the 3.5.
Thanks for the info. I always have had a bad habit of Post Purchase Activity to see if I missed anything by buying too soon.
drivven
Thanks also. I will skip the trip to Missouri as its about 2400 km. The sales person at the Saturn dealer says that California gets new models 6 months before the rest of civilization. Sort of a test market? Have you heard of this?
I looked at California dealers' Web sites and only one admits to having a couple of 2004s in stock.
Rocketbob. I'll ask at my dealership to see if there's any preference nationwide.
By the way, we had our front windows tinted at the legal limit for Missouri -35% and they came out pretty dark. The car definitely looked like a black hole, in fact it wasn't even pretty. We added pin striping, door cladding, and Tennessee lowering blocks (mudflaps) and now it looks pretty good.
For those of you interested in mileage for the new V-6, we'll be glad to provide some figures when we get a few tankfuls run through it. My wife does a good combo of highway and city travelling, so they should be good representative numbers. Stay tuned.
Hello. For all of you who own the 2004 Saturn Vue V6, do any of you have any back or neck pain at all after driving your Vue? I am driving a leather interior Vue. I am shorter and wondering if this is why the seat does not provide me enough neck support. Any advice or common problems? Also, what about the wind noise from the mirror? Did you all have your mirrors replaced yet? Thanks
Our 2004 V-6 VUE, equipped with the leather interior only has about 60 miles to its credit. So far my wife, the primary driver, has no complaints about the neck support from the seat/headrest arrangement. I'd say the seat is a lot more firm than the seat of her '95 Plymouth mini-van, but so far no signs of discomfort. We'll let you and the forum know if anything like that develops. She is just shy of 5' 7" in height.
As for noise off the mirrors, this is interesting. We've really not had it on a serious highway trip yet so we've not encountered any noise per se from the mirrors. Will let you know about this too. You can actually get smaller mirrors for it? I did notice driving in our subdivision the other night that the mirrors can actually obscure some of the vision area to the front quarter. Of course this was magnified by the issue of our tinted front windows - which we are still trying to decide if we like.
sorry to hear of your strut probs....my 2002 has left front strut replaced once; sway bar has been FOUR times. I love my VUE but smell a lemon. To Saturn's credit, they extended my warranty at no charge. Sounds generous; but there's supposedly no fix.
Just arrived here at this discussion...I was wondering what your car buying experience was? I am considering buying a vue (V6, FWD). I like what I'm seeing in the car although I have yet to test drive one. I have a Mitsubishi Montero now and would like something smaller and less expensive (frankly).
Our Montero buying experience was miserable and I'm really dreading getting a new car because I just don't like the whole process. I've heard that the saturn experience was better but this was many years ago (like 10 years ago when they were first starting out). Has it changed? Thanks!
Saturn dealers are the best. No pressure, very laid back. I never fear going into one for a test drive. Last time the guy let me go on my own with a VUE which is rare here in the big city.
I agree with dindak - the Saturn dealers are by far the best to work with. We also got to take test rides without sales people with, and were told "take as much time as you like". No pressure sales pitch. No back end pressure, and we got good trade value without having to haggle.
I'm not aware of any consumer rating group that doesn't rank Saturn at the top or near the top in dealership satisfaction.
Contrast that with the @#%$%* Honda and Toyota dealers. They are scoundrels (at least they have been for me in all but one of my attempted dealing with them). One time a Honda dealer told me to my face that I was "stupid" for considering anything else, then walked away from me! I guess I was supposed to hand him my wallet and not ask any questions.
In the Spring of 2000 I went to a Saturn dealership looking for the L300 station wagon. I wound up not getting a Saturn at all but bought a Mercury Sable S.W. I had a real bad experience at this Lincoln-Mercury dealership but the car was a much better value than the the Saturn station wagon. I'm talking about equipment, safety and insurance.
At the Saturn dealer the atmosphere was indeed relaxed with no pressure. I felt that I actually was dealing with straight forward people except for the idiot salesman who among other things told me that oil change intervals on Saturn vehicles were every 30000(thirty thousand miles).
Three years later I still want to get a Saturn, this time the Vue. My purchase experience was so bad at the Lincoln-Mercury dealer that it diminished the value choice I made in buying a Mercury.
By the way, for those of you who didn't yet read it. I recommend "Confessions of a Car Salesman" in Edmunds.com. To me, this piece is a masterpiece and full of great advice.
Comments
It was a AWD 25k without sunroof, mileage 19/25 regular gas.
Ride was good with 17" wheels.
No torgue steer with AWD.
The new gauges look great.
The A/C was strong on the second setting.
The engine was very smooth and powerful.
They should sell well.........
tcams76 : How does the dash and center controls look vs. 03. Also, any changes to the exterior?
The interior though quiet could use a few more upscale touches IMHO.
The exterior looked the same save the new 17" wheels.
The new 3500 motor was a good fit in the engine bay and didn't appear crammed.
Perhaps in a few years we will get another Vue, I don't see ever needing anything larger. It's a perfect size!
Thanx for the comments.
I think you said you tested the vehicle. How did you fine the noise level vs the 3.0L models?
Thanx for the posts.
Job well done.
but, I did notice that the antenna is the same as last year.
The price was 26k plus with leather and sunroof.
The interior looks a lot better with the leather option. I just opened the door and could feel/see the difference.
Mileage on the sticker was 20/28.
Too bad about the antenna, I was hoping they would go with an integrated window design. Oh well, I can live with it.
Thanx again for the posts!
I saw a 2004 on the local lot last night. It was a fairly loaded up frond wheel drive model. Mileage is impressive at 20-28. Looks like the interior has been done up a bit better also. I will have to sit in one next oil change.
julians : Chevy will definitely not be getting the Honda engine. The 3.4L in the Equinox that vue42 is speaking of is actually coming from China (of all places). It will be a more traditional OHV truck engine (rated at 185hp) so it should still have lots of grunt.
Still happy with the 3.0L. I think it's more than enough power. 3.5L seems like over kill on a vehicle this size.
More to follow later...
Did you try an AWD?
Any questions you may have let me know
Intrigued with the Honda V6 .. my sis has an Odyssey and she tells me the acceleration is pretty good. I can't imagine what it would be like in a vehicle that weighs several hundred pounds less. Wifey might just get a ticket or two!
BTW, mileage for the AWD version of the V6 is 19 city and 25 highway, which I don't think is too bad. Optioned up the way the wife wants it (sunroof, leather, 6 CD changer, curtain air bags, other misc), the MSRP is just north of $27K.
Will continue to lurk to see what folks think of the '04 V6 VUE's. Thanks to all for the truly informative posts!
Painted door handles - Whoopie!
Engine - Sounds just like a Honda when you fire it up. Power is extremely smooth and linear. There is no point where you feel like "ok VTEC just kicked in". VERY quiet compared to the 03 V6. The acceleration is very good - although surprisingly not significantly better than 03. Could be just the butt dyno is off because it sounds quieter. It does have way more torque off the line than I expected. The FWD version I tested could light up the 17" factory tires VERY easily. In fact if you are making a left or right turn you anything more than 50% throttle will cause loss of traction. There is tourqe steer but it is less than the 03. As for acceleration at speed, there is a LARGE amount of midrange punch but it is rather uneventful. When you hit it at 55 the engine just quickly, quietly, and smoothly spools up as you are thrust back in your seat. I was unable to get into a situation where I could drive faster than 85 - but 85 comes in a hurry and the VUE is pulling just as strong at 85 as it does at 35.
Soundproofing - wind noise sounds the same. Engine noise much less. Road noise sounds like less, I don't drive a VUE every day so I can't be certain.
Steering wheel - MUCH improved. Finally a 3 spoke steering wheel. Looks exactly like a CTS steering wheel, feels good.
Steering - MUCH improved. Better "on center" feel, and better feedback.
Ride - same.
Interior - dash looks much nicer. Not a Lexus but even I can tell it is more pleasing to the eyes. The cloth interior is quite ... interesting. Some odd patterned cloth where you sit surrounded by cheap looking and cheap feeling pleather. I've seen worse vynal - but not by much. Seems like leather will be a very popular option.
Power seat - no clue. The one we have is manual seat.
Stereo - this VUE had the MP3 6 disc player. I need to research it further but the stereo sounded so nice I thought it had to have the advanced audio option. It didn't. I don't know if they changed speakers or the head unit is better but bottom line the sound is better by quite a bit. The MP3 player is not advanced in the sense that you can't search through folders. Everything reads as if it were on the root level. However it is very easy to use - and of course you can put 150+ MP3 songs on a single disc so with the 6 disc changer you could have a lot of music at your disposal. It would be nice if there were a remote for lazy passengers to use - there isn't. Still - for a factory unit I was impressed.
Overall - this will take a vehicle that is easy to sell and make it even easier. I imagine more people will compare it to the Pathfinder and Highlander than the CRV or Escape. The 04 reminds me of a Lexus RX300. Not as pretty or comfortable of an interior - but very smooth and quiet. I did get to drive it a little through a twisty road with a couple switchbacks. I was imagining what the Redline VUE would be like with a 1" drop and sportier suspension. X5 on a budget?
I really liked the 3.0 VUE. The refinements, upgrades and new engine sound too good to be true for virtually the same price.
MP3 and alloys will be the only options needed if I went for a FWD model as ABS is now standard.
Have you got many or just the one? I have not seen on at the Saturn dealer here. You are right, this VUE will sell even better.
The dealer where I got my L300 from does not show any '04 VUE's in their inventory. Are we to assume that your dealer has one in stock and that they should start showing up in greater numbers over the next month or so?
Unlike dindak, we'd probably get one totally loaded - AWD (necessary for Colorado winters), leather, sunroof, 6-CD changer (though no need for the MP3 stuff), power seats.
However, we are not cross shopping the vehicles afk_x suggested -- right now, the short list is the VUE and the Subaru Forester XT. We considered the Highlander for a brief moment but the wife commented that it looked too "minivan-like" on the inside, which pretty much equates to the kiss of death.
;-)
Lots of snow here some winters but the FWD is enough. I live in the Toronto area and the roads are always cleared quick.
We've not driven it but 12 miles so far. At least that's what the odo says right now - a total of 12 miles!!!! Needless to say, we don't want to really jump on it yet because it could use some sane driving for a while, at least until the bearings get some kind of wear pattern in them.
We test drove an 03 in May and were impressed with it, but this is far and away the better vehicle - quieter and smoother power curve were the two most noticeable features. Will keep the forum posted as we progress through the life of this vehicle.
Actually, were were within $200 of buying a used CR-V on Saturday the 20th. But we decided to cool our heels until Monday and maybe relent then and cave to the dealer. But we talked to our son over the weekend and he's in touch with the local Saturn dealer and informed us they had the 04's in so we toured the lot on Sunday, saw 4 of them and went in Monday to test one. Guess we got hooked.
So far it's the perfect vehicle for my wife. She's been piloting a Voyager for 9 years and amazingly it still has the original tranny, but she was ready for a change to something more modern and not quite as big (long). The VUE seems to be the perfect fit. It's jet black with the 17" wheels and looks pretty good. No fancy external accessories yet, but we did get the front windows tinted so it looks like a regular Mafioso mobile.
Hopefully this will be a great replacement vehicle for her and if everything positive that you guys say about the make comes true, we'll really enjoy the vehicle. Thanks for all the comments we've been reading, most of them helped make up our minds. One more thing - the ride and the solid feel made the CR-V a dream of the past.
I'm most envious of your purchase.
:-)
Component Description:
34. SUSPENSION:INDEPENDENT FRONT NHTSA Number: SB633446
Bulletin Number: 02T36
Bulletin Date: MAY 2002
Vehicle: 2002 Saturn VUE
Summary:
SUBJECT REGARDING FRONT SUSPENSION STRUTS AND FRONT STABILIZER BAR LINKS SERVICE
driving 2004 Vues off the dealers lots? I can't
even get a 2004 brochure let alone see a new Vue
here in Ottawa.
Is this part of the revenge for our Iraq position?
Are there any web sites with tech specs etc?
They still have 3 or 4 on the lot. A couple of 4 cyls. and I believe 2 V-6's. If you can make it to my dealership in West St. Louis County Missouri by tomorrow, I bet they'd sell you one.
Thanks for the info. I always have had a bad habit of Post Purchase Activity to see if I
missed anything by buying too soon.
drivven
Thanks also. I will skip the trip to Missouri as its about 2400 km. The sales person at the Saturn
dealer says that California gets new models 6 months before the rest of civilization. Sort of
a test market? Have you heard of this?
I looked at California dealers' Web sites and only
one admits to having a couple of 2004s in stock.
By the way, we had our front windows tinted at the legal limit for Missouri -35% and they came out pretty dark. The car definitely looked like a black hole, in fact it wasn't even pretty. We added pin striping, door cladding, and Tennessee lowering blocks (mudflaps) and now it looks pretty good.
For those of you interested in mileage for the new V-6, we'll be glad to provide some figures when we get a few tankfuls run through it. My wife does a good combo of highway and city travelling, so they should be good representative numbers. Stay tuned.
Thanks
As for noise off the mirrors, this is interesting. We've really not had it on a serious highway trip yet so we've not encountered any noise per se from the mirrors. Will let you know about this too. You can actually get smaller mirrors for it? I did notice driving in our subdivision the other night that the mirrors can actually obscure some of the vision area to the front quarter. Of course this was magnified by the issue of our tinted front windows - which we are still trying to decide if we like.
Any comments?????
Our Montero buying experience was miserable and I'm really dreading getting a new car because I just don't like the whole process. I've heard that the saturn experience was better but this was many years ago (like 10 years ago when they were first starting out). Has it changed? Thanks!
I'm not aware of any consumer rating group that doesn't rank Saturn at the top or near the top in dealership satisfaction.
Contrast that with the @#%$%* Honda and Toyota dealers. They are scoundrels (at least they have been for me in all but one of my attempted dealing with them). One time a Honda dealer told me to my face that I was "stupid" for considering anything else, then walked away from me! I guess I was supposed to hand him my wallet and not ask any questions.
I don't see why dealerships have to be so rude.
Now I just need to get down there to test drive. I will have to see if I can fit all our kids in the back seat--
a Mercury Sable S.W. I had a real bad experience at this Lincoln-Mercury dealership but the car was a much better value than the the Saturn station wagon. I'm talking about equipment, safety and insurance.
At the Saturn dealer the atmosphere was indeed relaxed with no pressure. I felt that I actually was dealing with straight forward people except for the idiot salesman who among other things told me that oil change intervals on Saturn vehicles were every 30000(thirty thousand miles).
Three years later I still want to get a Saturn, this time the Vue. My purchase experience was so bad at the Lincoln-Mercury dealer that it diminished the value choice I made in buying a Mercury.
By the way, for those of you who didn't yet read it. I recommend "Confessions of a Car Salesman" in Edmunds.com. To me, this piece is a masterpiece and full of great advice.
Enjoy your Vues!