Complain about a product or service

Saturn Airbags

Valeria of Federal Way WA (01/25/07)
I was pulling into the driveway of a gas station this morning and the side airbags on my Saturn LW100 deployed.

I called Saturn and they told me to bring the car in so they could evaluate it. I was told that they would not pay the $1700 to repair the airbags and that there was structural damage on the underside of the car that was the cause for the deployment.

This may have been caused from hitting a speed bump. They said that it was a my fault. I had not hit a speed bump that morning and the incident may have been months ago. This makes no sense to me.

Ter of Philadelphia PA (12/05/06)
i bought a 2001 Saturn ls back in 2002..i took very good care of my car....in july of 2006 i was driving down street where i lost power in my car...i had to have it towed to the dealership where i was told the the timing chain went in my car...i have 79,000 miles on it...they told me it would be easier to replace the motor for about 3,000...i do not have it...they say my warranty expired in January of 2006...so basically i am screwed....my car is sitting in my garage unable to drive and still making a car payment....i went on the website to find out the the saturn ls...have timing chain problems..this is under consumeraffairs.som...ther is a whole list of saturn cars with this problem....tell me where do i go from here......i am a very disappointed saturn owner

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Shelly of Fairmont WV (11/06/06)
I was traveling 50 MPH and a deer jumped out and I hit it head on. I was so scared, I pulled over to get out of the road and the police came and took a report for insurance purposes, which I was thankful that the police was close by. I had 2 passengers in the car, one was in the front seat and my 7 year old daughter was in the back seat. The airbags of my 2002 Saturn SL1 never deployed. As I was talking to the manufacturer of Saturn, he said he would send out an airbag packet with information of my airbags and restrictions. Please, restrictions? these airbags should have deployed at 50 MPH head on collision. Saturn gave me a reference number to use if the airbag information packet did not answer my questions.

Anthony of Miami FL (08/29/06)
Leased a brand new 2005 Saturn Vue V6 in May 2005. It has been brought to dealer, body shop, and service 4 times for failure of brakes, power steering, transmission, and as of a recent accident  impact front end at 40 MPH with a car that ran a light, the airbags did not deploy. Saturn sent a product specialist out and they said everything was working fine. The angle of impact was not enough. Other than the police report, witnesses, and insurance adjuster all agreeing that the entire front of the Saturn was smashed direct frontal collision, they will not speak with me. Also the interior paint on the dash is flaking, rubber around the windows is dry rotted, and the car is falling apart. It has just over 12 months and 24k miles of use.

No airbag replacement, even though they did not deploy in a head on accident at 40 MPH, no assistance with breaks failing to work, 4 weeks loss of time while Saturn spent doing an investigation. I have been paying my lease, insurance, and no use of the car. It is falling apart and they will only give me an address to send in my complaint. No information will be released as it is proprietary they say. I have lost 100s of hours of work to deal with all this mess, my family grew up on GM employment, loyal American Car buyers, and now I will never buy another GM car again. This has left me so disappointed in our auto market, no wonder foreign auto makers are killing us. When are we going to get our act together. I was loyal to Buy What America Builds. This will never happen again. Sorry for believing. Now everyone I know will know do not buy a Saturn. They act as if I am the enemy.

Ian of Waterbury Center VT (03/09/06)
I am writing about my Saturn "issues" and how their car/airbags almost killed me. I am an 11-year veteran of two branches of the U.S. military, father of two sons and married. I own a Saturn 1999 SL 4DOOR Automatic. I had taken a trip 1/4 mile down the road to pick up milk and snacks for the kids for the next day of school. Upon returning home, I was listening to a National Public Radio broadcast on the war in Iraq. I was very interested in this so as I pulled into my driveway, I instead of turning off the car, sat and listened to the broadcast.

Five minutes later, the broadcast was over and I proceeded to gather my milk from the back seat to the front seat (passenger side) in order that it be easier for me to grab. I am disabled with one bullet lodged in my back next to my spine that cannot be removed. I released my seatbelt, and leaned slightly forward to turn the car off. Just as I turned the key, BOOM! I wasn't sure what had happened, I was surrounded by white powder, and my head hurt, my back was in pain and I noticed as I lay in the seat that my air bags both drivers and passengers had deployed, hitting me full force in the face while I was leaning into or towards the steering wheel.

My wife even saw me enter the house, in a "daze" as she puts it. I went straight to my bed, clothes on and collapsed. The next morning I awoke, with a killer head ache, my whole body felt like it had been kicked,and my already injured back was really screwed up. I called the insurance company as well as Saturn.(after I left the hospital) (probable concusion, possable damage to my neck and back) My insurance company sent a person out immediately to inspect the car at a facility, I gather to get it on a lift, and check all possable causes, including driver error.

Answer: Insurance company concluded that the air bag deployment was not of driver error, but "mechanical failure". Saturn to sent their "specialist" out to inspect the vehicle. I had a lawyer who agreed to represent me on a "if we win" basis and the fact that "I'm a disabled veteran" as he stated.

Saturn's answer: Driver Error! The computer is what they based their evidence on, even though the person from Saturn admitted that the computer was outdated and they couldn't really pin down any "time frames", but that it had indicated a sudden loss of speed, eg. indicating that I was lying and that I had hit somthing, or slowed down so quickly that it released the airbags. My lawyer at this point thought that they were very wrong as his pictures and my pictures and the insurance companies pictures showed no damage to the vehicle!

The air bags deployed in my driveway, at a stand still and my lawyer revealed that the computer Saturn was "investing all their stock in" was wrong, and that it could pick up increases/decreases in acceleration, but had no "time frame" so the sudden stop in theory could of been from a month ago, a year ago, or even from the previous owner. I had bought this Saturn from the Saturn dealer located on Shelburne Road here in Vermont and am still paying on this car loan. The insurance company would not cover the cost of bag replacement let alone my hospital bills claiming it was mechanical failure and hence not their problem, and Saturn claimed that it was "driver error" and would not cover replacement or reimbursment for no vehicle or anything! As my lawyer speculated that if they did so this would indicate guilt on their part.

Eventually Saturn issued a decree stating that they had no intentions of any acceptance of responsability, and because my insurance company (after a very comprehensive investigation) deamed the deployment a "mechanical error" not "driver" they were not responsable. So, at 32 years of age with two children,on a meager disability income I was told that no one would cover the air bags which were as much as the cars value! At the time it had less than 75k miles on it. My lawyer worked for his father who in turn decided not to represent me unless I had money because "Saturn was going to DRAG this out" as reimbursment would count as an admission guilt and may effect other current cases similar at the time.

Not able to afford an attorney now I make payments on this car, with no airbags, and this is our only vehicle, as we are unable to buy another. My lawyer said that it was very obvious as did the insurance company that it was mechanical failure, but because I did not have a retainers fee he could not continue to "eat man hours". Since the accident I've documented thru my doctor complete loss of feeling on my entire right side of my body. All I asked of Saturn, and Im being honest here. All I asked of Saturn (mostly because I felt lucky to have not been driving at the time or that my boys were not in the car) was that Saturn replace the air bags. Absolute refusal.

Now I live in more pain than ever before, and it directly corrolates with the deployment of these bags into my face from inches away, I pay for a car with no safety devices, and my family is stuck as the "middle party", nable to fight this giant with no representation. My lawyer suspects that Saturn knowing of my predicament  partly pushed non replacement knowing full well I could not battle them in court.  I'm really upset that a humble request to simply fix what they should of was not only turned down, but I was actually referred to as "lying" to my lawyer from the advisor from Saturn.

I have read other horror stories of the same content, only they were driving with a child in the car, stopped at a stop light and the same thing happened, same make and model.

Damages: Subsequent extreme back pain, neck pain, irratic loss of feeling on my right side, concussion, loss of vehicle for over three monthes, no safety features eg. airbags, frequent nightmares or "flash backs" of the explosion of the bags, travel to and from lawyers, photos, emergency room and subsequent treatment for pain and sleeplessness, the toll of no vehicle in a rural state with no transportation for a family of four (with two children), loss of my wifes job due to unavailability of tranportation, and again, the increased pain after this altered my back forever, as a slipped disk was found after this incident and subsequent increase of pain medication to enable me to move. These issues have not gone away, Im still paying on the vehicle as well. In the end, due to my disability, hospital bills not covered due to no insurance coverage due to their ruling that it was Saturns faulty equipment, eventually bills went to collection, loss of my wifes job and no transportation led to living off from my disability income alone which in turn led to losing our home and moving into a trailer! To much to write.....I can't write any more.

Andrea of Poughkeepsie NY (11/6/01):
Last week I was in a car accident with my Saturn. It was a front impact accident that totalled the car and yet my air bags never deployed. I hit my head, although I had my seat belt on and thankfully was ok, no thanks to my faulty airbags.

Janie of New Castle DE (2/13/01):
On 2/2/01, my '93 Saturn SL2 was involved in an accident. It was a chain reaction collision, my car was the 3rd one hit from behind and forced into the back of a 2000 Ford Expedition. All 3 passengers in my car sustained injuries. The hood of my car became disloged and smashed into the windshield. The insurance company claimed my car a total loss since the engine frame was bent. The driver of my car sustained knee injuries, concussion and glass in his eye. I contacted the Saturn company to ask why the driver's airbag did not deploy and was told that deceleration causes the airbag to trigger. When I went to the towing company to see my car, I noticed that the cover on the airbag had separated from the steering wheel enough for me to put my fingers in the space.

I am extremely upset about this since I purchased the car with the thought that the airbag was an added safety measure. The man who was injured will have to undergo orthoscopic surgery on his knee, and is having vision problems. I am extremely upset knowing that something I expected to protect me or any driver of my car DOES NOT WORK! If a car gets slammed hard enough into another car to cause the engine frame to bend, shouldn't it be hard enough for an airbag to deploy? If this is the way an airbag is manufactured and equipped in automobiles, then something is seriously wrong and should be changed.

Nancy of Bay Point, CA, writes:

Last August, my stepfather and I were coming home from a vacation headed west on Interstate 40 and came into Needles, California going about 70 mph (the speed limit is 75). All of a sudden we had a blowout, the car spun out of control then fishtailed, and we flipped the car 3 times into the center ditch.

We landed on all four tires, we had our seatbelts on, the airbags did not deploy, my leg went through the windshield decapitated my right big toe, several cuts and bruises.

Ambulances came, rushed my stepfather and me to Colorado Medical Center where we received treatment and were released that evening.

The whole side wall of the tire was completely off like it wasn't even there, which I don't understand. They were brand-new tires from the factory, the car was only ten months old at the time. I believe the tires were Firestone.

As a result, I have been suffering from severe panic attacks. I lost about 50 percent mobility on the right side of my neck down to my lower back, I have a numb toe that was supposed to fall off but has attached itself and also must deal with the scars from the glass which still bleed from time to time.

Economically it has been a disaster. I never received a dime of compinsation and never received my extended car care warranty refund because Triad Financial took that from me stating that they did me a favor by collecting it for me, I was not informed of this at all the money was supposed to be returned to me, stated in a letter from Triad, now they refuse to refund my money, saying it was due to them.

Meanwhile, my insurance has already paid off the car. I did not receive any money back as far as the cash down payment of $2,000. I believe that saturn should stand behind their "We are a company for the people, and will help out a Saturn customer."

Wwell, i haven't been offered anything or any sort of offer to replace the car I lost. Or some of the money I lost, I feel like I just gave away all i had and got nothing in return for my pain and suffering and of course the loss of my brandnew car.

Like many consumers, Nancy is being much too nice. She and her stepfather should find the meanest personal injury lawyer in town to go after Saturn, Firestone and everyone else who is potentially at fault for their grievous injuries.

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