Scared

[mciarcia]

Good day everyone.

I just bought a 2007 Relay, and reading some of the threads here is making me absolutely frightened.

Are they really that bad?

My wife and I loved the ride, and it was nice. Are there any good experiences? Or did we just buy a piece of crap.

I'm feeling ill, reading all this stuff.

[seadub2]

Like many things mechanical and electronic, the definition of "crap" can be linked to the service offered after the sale. Things go goofy, and my Relay has had plenty of that. The problem I've had is with the stealer's service department. Case in point: I complained at length about the poor handling of my Relay from the get go, right off the showroom floor; it's insatiable need to always pull one way or the other, and I'm not talking about torque steer; the constant rattling from the front end; noises concurrent with feeling in the steering wheel, etc. I took the van in three times to have it checked out, and each time I got a "no problem found" or "unable to duplicate problem" on the invoice. All under warranty, mind you.

So, right at 36,000 miles - right after the warranty expired - I needed new tires. Bought a good set of rubber and purchased an alignment - always to that when I get a set of expensive tires. When on the alignment rack, the tech states he cannot align the front end due to a bad left front tie rod end. He stated he sees this all the time with Relays, Uplanders, Montanas and the Buick Terraza, all of which come off the same line in Dorraville, Ga.

I was, to say the least, a little perturbed. Three trips to the steeler for warranty repair and they, as they say, didn't find anything wrong.

Same goes for the lousy power door. Same goes for the traction system fault light, which turned out to be the harness rubbing against the transmission case. Found that one myself and fixed it with a zip tie holding the harness up and away from the tranny.

Now I have this "Service Theft System" indication. It appears to be the Body Control Module (BCM) and the steeler wants 90 bucks just to run the diagnostic. From what I've heard the whole BCM will have to be replaced, to the tune of $300 for the module and another $200 to switch it out.

And finally, the gas mileage; the van is horribly under powered. It could use a bigger V6 or even a V8. I'm lucky to get 18 on the highway. Funny, I spoke to a fellow driving the Pontiac Montana and he gets, as he says, 26 on the highway. Go figure.

I paid a lot for the van and have not been very impressed with it at all. Basically it's just standard GM junk under a fancy name. If I had it to do over, I would have never chosen the Relay.

C.W.

'05 Relay II, 51,000 miles

[RobertJ]

You've been a member of this site since June 06 and didn't know about the Relay problems before you bought it?

I think like with any car you could be just fine, but it would have been prudent for you to have researched the vehicle before you bought it. Good luck either way.

[steffy628]

I encourage you to read this thread:

http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=114033

Yes, there are satisfied Relay customers out there..I'm one of them.

Another positive thought for you...you bought a 2007 model...which would be the 3rd year of production of this vehicle...many of the issues may have been addressed/resolved by then. If you look, you'll see that many of the complaints come from the 2005 model...which was the first year.

Spencer

[kg6mvb]

My 2005 Relay had only minor problems over 3 years and 37k miles. The major problem for me was the dealer. It took six trips over a three month period to get a problem fixed with the radio and fighting with the dealer that yes I really did have XM from the factory. It wasn't that it was a difficult problem, the dealer kept getting the wrong part! If they could have just looked at what they removed at the beginning. My major complaint was that it was a bit underpowered. Other than that it was a very comfortable ride when taking the family out, especially on long road trips.

The only reason I no longer have the Relay, it was a lease.

Good luck and hopefully you have one of the good ones.

Tom

[4littlemonkeys]

I have a nightmare van (and it's not about the service after the sale...it's the van).

Anyway if you bought a 2005 I would tell you to get that back to the seller and get your money back.

You bought a 2007...I think you have at least some amount of hope that it will be okay.

Did you buy it new? If you bought it used did you ask why somebody would want to sell it so quickly? I always get suspicious of very young used vehicles.

[mciarcia]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the information.

First thing: I did research it, on the other sites like Edmunds, Consumer Reports, and in all honesty? It is a saturn. I didn't really 'expect' anything too major. (You know???... ) And the deal came up quick, so I didn't have a lot of time to look into a lot of user reading. In all honesty, every vehicle has people that hate one thing or another about their vehicle. So it is tough to always read user groups, because it can be quite slanted.

Anyway, I bought it from the dealership, and it was a good dealership last time I bought my saturn, but this time it wasn't as pleasant.

I really enjoyed test driving it, and tried a few vehicles, and the relay felt the best. It was so quiet. (Comparing it to other domestic vehicles, freestar, grand caravan, uplander)...

It has the 3.5L engine, which I've read is a good engine.

I guess I am nervous, but I hope that it will be ok.

I guess that's all there is that I can do.

Any 'gotchas' that I should watch for while it is on warranty?

[CANOE_VUE]

I know how you feel, those other posts ARE scary.

Fundamentally, when you are buying a car, you are buying an engine and a transmission, i.e., the stuff that makes the car go from point A to point B. Based on what I've read, and from my experience, the Relay has a very high quality engine and transmission.

We've enjoyed our 2007 Relay. The vehicle seems to sit in the sweet spot between performance and practicality.

I have this thought, probably wrong, that with more and more manufacturers exiting the building of vans, that our vans might not see too much drastic depreciation over time.

[mciarcia]

CANOE_VUE, I think/hope you are right. One thing I noticed when looking at vans, is that the Grand Caravan comparably equipped was more (by approximately 10-15% than a GM product) and yet, reviews were similar, and owner satisfaction was similar. I found that quite interesting.

I wasn't about to go and spend 10K more for a Sienna or a Honda.

So, in the end, this was the best deal for us. I just hope that we don't end up with any major problems with the van.

I feel really bad for those people who are having problems. It is quite upsetting, and I do feel their pain.

I hope you all have the best of luck with your Relay, and I will be selfish, and hope the same for me.

Thanks everyone.

[JonLawHastings]

If this is any consolation or whatever, since I got my 06 Relay back from the dealershop to weeks ago, I've been so happy with its performance. It's running better than it did when I first bought it new. It really is amazing.

The other piece of good news I discovered was that I did buy into an extended warranty plan when I first bought the van. 5years/72,000 miles. I feel a LOT better about my 'Millenium Falcon' now.

We leave for California from Massachusetts in a week. The Relay shall guide us. I even found a cool icon that looks like my white Relay for my GPS unit. It's like the scene in National Lampoons Vacation where Clark tries to show the kids the trip outline on the video game with his truckster.

Anyway, Have a good one everyone!

[Daveak]

We bought our 2006 Relay new in Feb 07 and got a great deal (they needed to get rid of it and we needed a larger vehicle) from the dealer. Aside from an initial problem with flickering lights and a battery that had to be replaced because of several repeated times the battery went dead (problem was fixed but it took at least 4 trips to the dealer in 6-7 months), we love the vehicle.

This is our 3rd Saturn, and yes we know it is not a real Saturn, but we love it anyway. It is a Relay3 AWD with all the options and trimmings. We could never have bought a new 7 passenger vehicle for even close what we paid for it, so that makes it even sweeter for us. We have put just over 10,000 miles on it in the 16 months we have owned it and I have no worries about my wife and kids out driving alone in the van. Of course it dos have OnStar

This site always worries me a little, but I feel people come here with a problem to solve and happy owners are busy driving their great Saturn, ahem, GM cars around and don't need to spend a lot of time here searching for help.

My only current complaint are the stock tires that came with the van
no good - they will be replaced as soon as I have enough wear that I can justify it with my wife.

[tmc]

You gotta remember too, most people don't initially go to an online forum to praise a product, they come with problems in which they want fixed. It's like many things in life, everyone has different experiences with everything, and depending on where you get your information, you're going to get different points of view.

I know plenty Saturn owners on this forum give a lot of praise to their vehicle, but I am sure most of them initially found this forum through typing 'problem with my saturn' on google. I'm sure plenty of people have really enjoyed their Relay, but they haven't had the need to come to a forum to declare that.

Feel confident in your choice and go from there, I just today bought an '04 Saturn Vue and heard from almost everyone on this forum (before I bought it) that the transmission is a p.o.s and to avoid the vehicle. I basically just made sure I had everything under a solid warranty and went with my gut.

If ya looked around (not necessarily on the internet, but even at local dealerships) and still enjoyed the vehicle, know you made the right choice.

[michael_downs]

Glad you have a RELAY. My wife and I have a 2005 Saturn RELAY. We got it in June of 2005. It is awesome. I have posted other things about how much we love our van. In fact I have even started some threads about positive things that people have liked about the RELAY. Positive trips that people have had. Please check and read those stories. There are people out there that do love them.

Just remember like anything else...what ever car you have... you can have problems or ... not have any at all. Sometimes you only hear of the problems. It's one thing to have a problem and post it and seek advice...but it's sometimes kind of sad to read about the same problems over and over again.

Would love hear more about anything you have done positive with your van as you continue to use it.

[seadub2]

Interesting replies to the original post.

I don't want to come across as the harbinger of horrible all things Saturn, but the guy did ask an honest question, and I replied with an honest answer.

I won't and cannot say my Relay is the worst vehicle I've ever owned; far from it. What I will say conclusively is the experience with my Relay to date has not lived up to the hype surrounding the Saturn name, their dealers, their service departments and their sales people. I tried, again honestly and in good faith and at my expense, to have problems with my van fixed under the warranty coverage provided by Saturn, supported by the salesperson and pontificated by the service manager upon receipt of the vehicle. When the time came to put their money where their rhetoric is, they simply dropped the ball -multiple times. Now that the warranty is out, they want the big bucks to run diagnostics and repair. This is not what I expected with I dropped over 25 grand on this van. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

To be fair, if I had to rate my satisfaction with the Relay (1= totally dissatisfied, 10 = completely satisfied), I'd give it a 6 1/2.

C.W.

[john95SW2]

Originally Posted by tmc

You gotta remember too, most people don't initially go to an online forum to praise a product, they come with problems in which they want fixed. It's like many things in life, everyone has different experiences with everything, and depending on where you get your information, you're going to get different points of view.

Very true...Wolfman put it in perspective one time and what seemed like an enormous reliability issue was less than 2 out of every 10 sold....(if I remember & got the facts right I think he was talking about the Vti Vue) that still means that there are about 8 out of 10 that are OK....

Like buying anything...buying a car is always a crap shoot...you never know what you're going to get...sometimes the "best" are bad and sometimes the " worst" are good....a little luck goes a long way. Drive & enjoy!

[JonLawHastings]

My 2006 got me across country. Mind you it took three different transmissions at 24,000 miles to make sure we got across. so many issues with this thing, but for some reason. I love it. It's like my CHRISTINE only it kills me and not others.

[davidsky]

Originally Posted by john95SW2

Very true...Wolfman put it in perspective one time and what seemed like an enormous reliability issue was less than 2 out of every 10 sold....(if I remember & got the facts right I think he was talking about the Vti Vue) that still means that there are about 8 out of 10 that are OK....

I'd never want a car that had problems 2 out of 10. 2 out of 1000 would be more like it.

[davidsky]

Originally Posted by mciarcia

I wasn't about to go and spend 10K more for a Sienna or a Honda.
Thanks everyone.

I doubt it was 10K and you get it back either with higher resale value or peace of mind. The Relay is the worst car sold in the last 10 years.

[BobbyP]

I just drove a 2008 Chevy Uplander minivan the past 2 days and it was fine. It didn't have the power doors. It had the 3.9L V6. I couldn't get more than 23 on the highway at 65mph. Turns out that was the EPA rating.

I don't know why it didn't sell better.

[montrealvue]

Originally Posted by BobbyP

I just drove a 2008 Chevy Uplander minivan the past 2 days and it was fine. It didn't have the power doors. It had the 3.9L V6. I couldn't get more than 23 on the highway at 65mph. Turns out that was the EPA rating.

I don't know why it didn't sell better.

Ummm, did you look at the front end on that thing? That nose is just.......I dunno where to start. The good news is its defunct, dead, DOA, gone soon....