Transmission Gear Slipping problems of the 2007 Saturn Aura

One day prior to the incident (7/5/14) we noticed a transmission slip slightly when accelerating from what I believe was 2nd to 3rd gear. On Sunday (7/6/14), while we were driving the vehicle to a repair shop it would no longer shift at all. We had to push it off the road and have a tow truck take it to the nearest gm dealership. Once diagnosed it was discovered the transmission wave plate had failed and would cost $4200 to replace the transmission. There is currently a TSB (technical service bulletin) on this issue, but no recall. I know there must be substantial issues with this since my mother's Saturn Aura with the same transmission had a wave plate failure 3 weeks ago, although her's was still under powertrain warranty and thus covered. We currently have a case # with gm customer service, but have yet to receive any resolution from the dealership or gm/Saturn corporate.

Parked car and was leaving vehicle with keys in hand. Vehicle started rolling backward. Got back into car, reinserted keys and made sure gear shift was in park position, which it was. Has happened numerous times since. No problem getting into other gears or feeling like transmission is slipping. I did look up on this site and saw there is a recall notice for similar problem with other Auras, but my VIN is not included.

Our transmission started slipping and jumping between 40 and 50mph and attempts to stall out. In reverse, the vehicle will barely move without the transmission slipping and making horrible noises also attempting to stall out. The vehicle has less than 50,000 miles! this is ludicrous! the danger is that the vehicle could stall out at any time while driving, therefore, placing the driver in an unsafe situation with the potential of being struck by oncoming traffic; rear ended, etc. I spent hours this morning researching this issue extensively, via numerous consumer forums, and discovered that this is an extremely common issue with this particular vehicle. Gm's response, in one forum, was to have the system software upgraded, thereby fixing the problem. This apparently did not solve the problem in almost all posted cases but is the apparent "go to" response. I believe if there are hundreds of consumers experiencing the same issue with the same vehicle, and that issue is potentially dangerous, the manufacturer (gm) is responsible to correct the issue at no charge to the consumer. I do not believe it is a coincidence that so many vehicles "randomly" have the same dangerous transmission failure issue. When contacting gm's customer assistance department this morning, I was instructed that the local dealer (which they tried to contact with me on hold to no avail) would provide the software update free of charge (that's the standard solution for first time complaints apparently). After that is completed, and if it doesn't solve the dangerous transmission issue, we're basically on our own to replace a faulty transmission. Something must be done about this issue before someone has to die or get seriously injured by a faulty transmission failing for action to be taken. Thank you.

The contact owns a 2007 Saturn Aura. The contact stated that the gear shift only shifted into neutral. The contact had the vehicle inspected by a mechanic and was informed that the vehicle needed a new transmission. The contact stated that the transmission had been slipping for several months and progressively got worse until the transmission failed. The contact stated that no warning lights ever illuminated on the instrument panel. The failure mileage was 81,000 and the current mileage was 86,000.

I purchased this Saturn with 32k on it, two days after having the vehicle it started overheating and the air conditioner went out. I contacted the dealership because it was still under factory warranty. It took them a week to fix the vehicle because they had to completely rewire a few things. One month after that happened, I noticed when I turned I felt a popping in the floor board on the driver side. I again contacted the dealer and they had me bring the vehicle in and stated something was loose in the axel shaft and they ¿fixed¿ the popping by tightening it up. Three months following the above events, I noticed the popping started again. I took the vehicle to the dealership and they replaced the front ball joint, rack, and pinion. I drove away from the dealership and immediately had to turn around and return the vehicle because the problem continued. At that point they had the vehicle for five months straight. They say they replaced everything from the steering column down. Every time I called for an update they always had a different answer. I have replaced the rotors on this car 3 times now and it only has 60k. The service airbag light continues to stay on. The dealership says they replaced the airbag coil but yet it continues to come on. Now the transmission is slipping constantly in 5th and 6th gear. This car has been the worst car I have ever owned. I will never purchase another gm product again. I have had nothing but issues with this car since the day I brought it home. My husband was called to deploy to iraq and we had a 2 week old baby so we had to get a bigger car before he left. We only had 3 days when he was called up to leave (he was inactive reserve and was called up). I did not have time to research this car before we bought it. If I could do it all over again I would never even consider this car. Reading into it now, it seems a lot of people have had the same issues with this car.