L-Series Reliability

[born again]

Recently I signed up to an automotive site called TrueDelta. This site is run by Michael Karesh who is contributor to the auto blog site "The Truth About Cars" and is also a significant contributor to this site ("mkaresh" ~800 posts). Currently there is TrueDelta data for for the S-Series, ION, Vue, Aura, Outlook. But apparently there are insufficient numbers of L-Series signed up to collect data.

I am asking all who frequent this site to go to www.truedelta.com and register their car. I suspect that part of the problem may be the frequent re-naming of the cars and the inconsistent naming for the same car over the six years of production. For this reason, register as "L-Series".

If we do this and get sufficient numbers, we can get an idea of how our cars compare to others for reliability.

[cavalier]

The only thing I need to do to compare the reliability of my LS1 is to look down at the odometer, which shows nearly 217,000 largely problem-free miles on the clock.

Of course, any survey done on the L series pertaining to reliability is going to be majorly skewed as a result of the timing chain issue, which so many have experienced.

One across-the-board known "defect" like that (OK, GM only owned up to the fact that it was a "defect" in the 2001 models, although the same part was used in the 200-2002 models) will totally foul up any such-said survey.

[L100andSW2]

Just signed up. Still not enough yet to plug into an L-Series survey. It says, "New cars are added to the survey around the beginning of each month." So will check back.

[born again]

Michael PM'd me that the 2001 and 2002 are fairly close to a quorum.

[mkaresh]

The 2002 has been added to the survey. The 2001 is still a few cars short, and the 2000 is about 2/3 of the way.

To help get your year included:

Car reliability research

[mkaresh]

Updated results have been posted for all other Saturn models except the Relay. Hopefully we'll be able to include the L-Series in the next update. A few more participants for each year would be very helpful.

[skywolf]

Woot, my 2002 made a difference!

[midway]

My 2000 L 3.0L is registered.

[GrumpyOldMan]

My 2004 L300.2 is now registered

[mkaresh]

Thanks, guys. Due to your participation we'll have some stats for the 2001 and 2002 with next month's update.

Sample sizes will be small, so additional particpants would be very helpful.

Car reliability research

[mkaresh]

We have updated our reliability stats for the Saturn L-Series based on owner experiences through September 30, 2012.

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2002: 99, worse than average

2001: 92, about average

Very small sample sizes, so these reliability stats are not precise.

We'll have further updates in February and May. We'd love to provide more precise stats and cover more model years--just a matter of getting more owners involved.

For the details, and to sign up to help improve this information:

Saturn L-Series reliability

[pierrot]

I just added my car to the survey. It will help if more 2000 L-series owners will get signed up.

[mkaresh]

We have updated our reliability stats for the Saturn L-Series based on owner experiences through December 31, 2012.

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2002: 86, moderate

2001: 87, low

Very small sample sizes, so these reliability stats are not precise.

Thank you, once again, everyone who has been helping. We'll have further updates in May and August. The more owners participate, the more comprehensive and precise these will be.

For the details, and to sign up to help:

Saturn L-Series reliability