Totaled Saturn Vue XE

[oldfiredude]

Well I have read many complaints about weight of the 08 Vue.
What ever they did to increase the weight is all worth it, all the ruggedness they built into the 08 Vue saved my wife's life.
Firday night 2200 Hrs.
My wife was returning to our home in Big Bear a mountain community in the San Bernardino Mountains, she went off the side of a mountain road, fortunately she was not at a point in the road where she could have gone down 200 to 300 feet, she went over the side where she only went down 20 feet through bolders, rocks, brush and small trees, the car did not roll over two tires were blown severe front and rear damage, under carrige damage, "all" airbags deployed seat belt worked perfectly all doors were able to be opened. The only thing I did not like is the electric button on the rear hatch. After the firefighters disconnected the battery (cut the battery cable)you cannot get the rear hatch open. A great feature that I did notice when I arrived on scene was the emergency flashers had automaticly turned on after the airbags depolyed which made the car very visible even though it could not be seen directly from the road.
Other than seatbelt bruises some minor bumps and scratches sore shoulder she is fine.
My thanks to the good people who stopped to help the emergency personal
and thanks to Saturn for building a strong tough vehicle.
Ofd

[mikec]

Wow. That's amazing. I hope that your wife is OK. Are you going to get another Vue since this one is totaled?

[mannyaplus11]

Your wife will be sore for the next couple of weeks. Take good care of her.
I know the area, very rugged.
Glad she is okay, It could have been a much worse outcome.

[Warren]

The important thing is that your wife is ok. A smashed car can be replaced, a life partner cannot. As you said, thanks to Saturn for building all of us a great vehicle that in addition to all of its other tributes, is one tough little vehicle.
Hope your insurance comes through ok so you can get another Vue.

[Bunshaw]

Wow, that's truly amazing she was able to walk away with only a few scratches. I'm glad she is fine and hopefully she will have a quick and uneventful recovery. I'm not familiar at all with that area but is it typically icy/snowy or is that road just really twisty? Just trying to figure out how she left the road in the first place.

Many complain about the gas mileage and weight but when the safety cage allows them to walk away from an accident they won't be concerned about that anymore either. You're right about the rear hatch too, without the battery the hatch won't open unless someone can crawl around to the back and get to the trim piece to release it manually.

[bryanm326]

Glad your wife's ok. I've heard the same complaints about the weight here at the dealership, but one of the reasons I own the 08 XE Vue is because of the safety features. The stabilitrak already saved my butt last winter. I like the solid feel of the vehicle. The newer manufactured 2008 Vues are also receiving the five star crash rating for the driver side front.

[onefunkar]

5 star for vues made after 12/07. redisgn of side curtain. didnt come down in time to fully protect rear passangers.

[bryanm326]

I know about the side curtain airbags in Vues built after 12/07 because I had to deal with a customer regarding that issue. I'm referring to the newest drops of the 2008 Vue "Front Driver" rating. It was 4 stars, the newest are 5

[spencerb]

Was OnStar active?

You see the ads, but I've always wondered how they respond in real life.

[mrgto]

Originally Posted by spencerb

Was OnStar active?

You see the ads, but I've always wondered how they respond in real life.

I was going to ask the same exact thing.

[saturnd00d]

Glad she is ok...and I'm glad that the Vue allowed her to only walk away with minor injuries instead of major ones, or worse.

[oldfiredude]

Answers to some of the questions:
OnStar was active: My wife had left the vehicle in a dazed condition and did not hear the OnStar person. My son responded to OnStar when he went down to retrive my wife's purse and other belongings, this was approximately 30 to 40 minutes after the accident, they did have the car's GPS location. He told them 911 had been called and emergency personal were on the way.

My thoughts: OnStar should have called 911 immediately when they had no response from the driver!
The time gap was unacceptable! When all air bags deploy and with no response from the driver should be an indication that something serious happened.

All has gone well since the incident! The insurance company came through and we were able to get in on the employee pricing and $2500 rebate.
This allowed us to get a few more options than we had on the original.
We drove home another 2008 XE AWD 8/29/08 "Same Color"
Ofd

[mrgto]

Originally Posted by oldfiredude

Answers to some of the questions:
OnStar was active: My wife had left the vehicle in a dazed condition and did not hear the OnStar person. My son responded to OnStar when he went down to retrive my wife's purse and other belongings, this was approximately 30 to 40 minutes after the accident, they did have the car's GPS location. He told them 911 had been called and emergency personal were on the way.

My thoughts: OnStar should have called 911 immediately when they had no response from the driver!
The time gap was unacceptable! When all air bags deploy and with no response from the driver should be an indication that something serious happened.

All has gone well since the incident! The insurance company came through and we were able to get in on the employee pricing and $2500 rebate.
This allowed us to get a few more options than we had on the original.
We drove home another 2008 XE AWD 8/29/08 "Same Color"
Ofd

Yea, if Onstar didn't call 911 if no response from driver...that is concerning. I hope you write a letter to them explaining that it is unacceptable.

[nrmlspeed]

Any follow up from Onstar about the unacceptable response time? That is complete BS. Whats the point of having it if they cant do their job? I'd like to hear about similar stories and the response time. I am currently in the 1 year free promotion with the new VUE and love the Onstar package but this is a bad mark on Onstar's record. Do they have a reasonable excuse?

[oldfiredude]

I have been in contact with OnStar for the last two days!
We have determined after verifying my cell phone records and OnStars computer alert time of the incident, we have come up with a 13 minute discrepancy. This means that there was a 13 minute delay in calling 911!
We, OnStar and I have agreed that that is not acceptable and that 13 minutes could be the difference between life and death, and if an error occured it needs to be corrected!
OnStar has started a case action and will launch an investigation which could take up to 3 weeks and they will notify me of their findings.
They are very concerned and very cooperative!

I will post results
Ofd