We bought this Saturn Outlook new, because we really liked the looks and feel of this car. I have lived with bad coils, clunking steering, battery going dead for no reason, but the transmission failing is the last straw. Even though this car is now 6 years old, it only has 51K miles on it.
My wife went to use it yesterday and came back immediately and told me I needed to give her a ride because her car was "sputtering". I gave her the ride came back home and was thinking it was another coil problem, even though I just replaced all 6 last year. Instead, I find that the motor runs great but the transmission acts like there is no 3rd gear. I put it in manual and find that I could force it to shift and once past second gear it will shift as normal, but makes an awful noise. My intention was to take it to a dealer not in our town since they have burned me for the last time, but instead to drive about 13 miles to another dealer. After driving it to work I thought better of that.
I called a local transmission shop and told them of the problem. He was familiar with it, and quoted me a repair of $3800. This shop has a good reputation around town. I also went to the dealer that I loath, just in case there was chance this would be covered under warranty. Of course they have never seen this before, the original warranty is expired and even the extended warranty I purchased has expired on time. The service manager did some looking in GM world and told me there might be some help from GM if it was the wave plate, but they would have to check it out first. If it was something different the repair was all on me.
He quoted me about $5200, and I had been reading about $1200 worth of "help" from GM. I can do math, and have been down this road once before with this dealership and I know how this would have turned out. So I cut my losses and went with the local shop with integrity. He offered a better warranty than GM did. Not that it matters to me because this car will be gone soon and traded in some non GM product. I have owned mostly GM vehicles in my life but now I am done. Unfortunately my son just bought a Chevy Traverse thanks to me telling him how much I liked the Saturn. I am sorry for that now.
We bought this Saturn Outlook new, because we really liked the looks and feel of this car. I have lived with bad coils, clunking steering, battery going dead for no reason, but the transmission failing is the last straw. Even though this car is now 6 years old, it only has 51K miles on it.
My wife went to use it yesterday and came back immediately and told me I needed to give her a ride because her car was "sputtering". I gave her the ride came back home and was thinking it was another coil problem, even though I just replaced all 6 last year. Instead, I find that the motor runs great but the transmission acts like there is no 3rd gear. I put it in manual and find that I could force it to shift and once past second gear it will shift as normal, but makes an awful noise. My intention was to take it to a dealer not in our town since they have burned me for the last time, but instead to drive about 13 miles to another dealer. After driving it to work I thought better of that.
I called a local transmission shop and told them of the problem. He was familiar with it, and quoted me a repair of $3800. This shop has a good reputation around town. I also went to the dealer that I loath, just in case there was chance this would be covered under warranty. Of course they have never seen this before, the original warranty is expired and even the extended warranty I purchased has expired on time. The service manager did some looking in GM world and told me there might be some help from GM if it was the wave plate, but they would have to check it out first. If it was something different the repair was all on me.
He quoted me about $5200, and I had been reading about $1200 worth of "help" from GM. I can do math, and have been down this road once before with this dealership and I know how this would have turned out. So I cut my losses and went with the local shop with integrity. He offered a better warranty than GM did. Not that it matters to me because this car will be gone soon and traded in some non GM product. I have owned mostly GM vehicles in my life but now I am done. Unfortunately my son just bought a Chevy Traverse thanks to me telling him how much I liked the Saturn. I am sorry for that now.
- Butch C., Antioch, CA, US