Two problems related to brakes failed have been reported for the 2004 Saturn ION. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
The Saturn Ion recalled ignition was replaced, but the problem continues to happen. On 3/20/15, I was driving on the freeway in rush hour traffic. The car turned itself off, and the brakes went out. I steered the car to the shoulder, and managed to bring it a stop eventually with the emergency brake and changing gears. I took the car straight to the dealership, per instructions from gm customer service, but haven't been able to get satisfactory information from either the service center at the dealership or gm customer service so far. The new ignition failed, causing the car to turn off while driving and my brakes to fail. This caused a serious safety risk. The recall failed to correct the ignition problem for my vehicle.
The contact owns a 2004 Saturn Ion 2. While driving 25 mph, the contact attempted to turn the wheel and it locked. The brakes failed and the vehicle crashed into a pole. The air bag deployed, but the driver was injured. Saturn stated that the vehicle is not a defect. The vehicle was destroyed. The current and failure mileages were 45,326.