Two problems related to noises during shifting have been reported for the 2008 Saturn Aura. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2008 Saturn Aura based on all problems reported for the 2008 Aura.
Takata recall ?? I was driving home, heard a loud noise in back of car, did not know what it was. Got home, went to back in garage & reverse would not work. Put in drive, very sluggish movement. Was able to park, but next morning, husband was unable to shift any gears to work. Car was towed, told transmission.
I pulled into a parking space, put my car into park(2008 Saturn Aura)turned the key off took the key out of the ignition and exited the vehicle, the car started rolling backwards as I had parked on a slight hill, the car rolled backwards and almost knocked me down as I had not closed the door yet. The car rolled approx 15-20 feet before I could re-entered the vehicle and apply the parking brake. I tried to restart the car as it was now part way into the street and blocking the sidewalk. The car would not restart, the shift lever was in the park position. When I shifted the shift lever from park down to drive and back to park it felt like it was not engaging all the way into the park position, just before the lever got to the park position there was a little resistance and it felt like something was making it not go all the way into park even though the selector was at the park point in the column. I opened the hood and looked around & noticed the shift cable casing just before the mounting bracket was broken. I was able to push the rod by the mounting bracket where it connects to the transmission slightly and heard a click noise. I re-entered the vehicle and it started it as it was now engaged fully into park. I put the car into drive and drove it 4 blocks to my house and parked it in my driveway where I shut it off, applied the parking brake, opened the hook and manually pushed the rod into the park position. I feel that the 2008 Saturn Aura should be recalled as this is a highly dangerous condition and I've been reading that many people have been having this exact same problem with many different year Saturn Aura's. I have found the 2009 Aura's have a recall. Why not 2008? I feel that every Saturn with this style shift cable should be recalled and cable replaced ! not to mention, there should be a redesigning of this cable so this doesn't happen again.