general problems of the 2004 Saturn ION

Was guaranteed that nothing was wrong with it. I originally got a 2007 Ford escape by trading in my vehicle and 500 cash. They wanted me to put down an additional 900 down which I ended up not being able to do. So they offered to put me in another vehicle that was cheaper and I would not have to put any more money on. The 2004 Saturn Ion I received on 08/23/2016 not only had clutch issues which I said I would fix, but the battery light kept coming on and they assured me that nothing was wrong with the car mechanically. We did not even make it down the road before the vehicle broke down and had to have it towed. So now the car sits in my yard and I am out my original vehicle and the 500 cash I used originally plus towing charges and a vehicle I have to pay on that I cannot drive. I want them to come get the car and give back the 500 I wasted on two junk vehicles. I also had issues with the 2007 Ford escape. I was pretty much stuck taking this vehicle since I live two hours away and had no other way home.

While driving home from work my car died in the middle of an intersection. The a/c went off first then everything went off. I put car in park and after several tries the car started again. My ignition also gets stuck in the acc position(even after two ignition recalls) on a regular basis so glad I wasn't fighting that at that problem at the same time. Called gm dealer they said there is no recall but bring it in, they won't provide a loaner car but will give me a ride home because I live within 10 miles.

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.

Car went for recall 7/7/14 about 3 times after the first recall I contact general motor to ask what have happend why tyhe car need to go back in again for the second recall Chevrolet sayd that they did not perfom the job right once again I contact general motor in deceber they send me a letter telling me and comes back with the same problems driving the car in the freeway car stop could not get out because car lock me inside the key did not want to come out after the recalls the car still have problems with the ignition.

Driving on the florida turnpike northbound on my way to work on may 6, 2014, going about 55 mph the car turned off while in the center lane. I had followed all the procedures that gm instructed for recall #14v-047 using the key without ring our additional keys. I have been dealing with this issue since the day of purchase back in 2007. I have presented this issue to the dealer numerous times. Fortunately, I was able to stop the car safely, remove the key, placed it back in the ignition and the car started.

Tl-the contact owns a 2004 Saturn Ion. The contact stated that in the mornings the vehicle will not start. The vehicle will start after many attempts. This failure has occurred every day over a period of four months. The contact received the recall notification related to nthsa campaign id number 14v047000 (air bags, electrical system), however parts are not available. The vehicle was taken to independent mechanic who could not diagnosed the vehicle. Vehicle has not been repaired. The manufacturer has been notified of the problem. The approximate failure mileage was 94,127. Rg.

I used to own one of the gm vehicles in the news lately regarding the ignition switch issue. I want to make sure people are looking at the ignition switch issue correctly. My vehicle was stopped at a red light when the engine simply shut off. This happened twice in the years I had owned it, but I don't remember the key being moved to the accessory position as is indicated on many of the new reports. I thought it weird, but thought I may have banged something, let the oil go far too long, or needed new spark plugs. Additionally, if you search online you'll find many instances where the car owners of this vehicle frequently have a key switch issue where an attempt to turn on the car randomly will activate the anti-theft system when trying to turn on the car despite having a perfectly valid and well used key. Gm probably has an internal note about this and it might relate to the parts that need to be fixed/recalled. Finally, I once did have my key come out of the ignition while the car was still running. I was trying to turn the car off quickly and the key just came out without going all the way to the off position. Perhaps I had a faulty ignition switch, but I want to make sure the investigators see this to ensure the proper fixes are applied for our safety.

Turned vehicle on after sitting for about 8 hours in parking lot, the car revved up to about 4,000rpm which is unusually high. I waited for the car to calm down and when it did, I put the car into gear to drive. My car lunged forward and without pushing the gas pedal, my car accellerated and eventually made it to 40mpg through the parking lot before I had to hit my brake to avoid a collision. This as occured intermittently over the past year; approximately 3 or 4 times a month.

This car will not start on cold days. When you try to start it starter ingages and quits. Then you have to wait 10 to 30 mins for the car to start. I found out that Saturn has faulty ignition switches and they have no recalls on this why? this is a safety hazard. Please make this a priority to have these switches recalled.

For the second time the ignition lock cylinder broke. Today we unable to turn off the engine. We had to remove fuses to kill the engine and disconnect the battery. The first time it happened we were stuck in the grocery store parking lot because the key would not turn to start. In both cases we had to break the ignition lock in order to remove the lock cylinder. With the cylinder removed we can use a screw driver to start the car. The screw is much more reliable.

The contact owns a 2004 Saturn Ion l3. The contact stated that after removing the key from the ignition, the vehicle failed to shut down. The contact stated that the battery cables were manually disconnected so the engine could shut down. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The manufacturer was not contacted. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 142,750 and the current mileage was 142,800.

The contact owns a 2004 Saturn Ion. The contact stated the vehicle intermittently would not start. On numerous occasions, the contact would have to push the vehicle until it started. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure and the vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 107,000.

Traveling up a steep hill in a residential area, the power cut out. All dials dropped to zero. Warning light indicators flashed and then turned off. Power steering cut out. I had enough forward momentum too get the car to the side of the street and out of traffic. After turning the key to the full off position I restarted the car and continued to work. I have not had that exact problem repeat itself since.

Our 4 cylinder 2004 Saturn Ion has had unintended sudden acceleration problems for several years. I am a patent holding software and hardware engineer and I can state absolutely after observing the behavior over at least 4 years that this is a software issue and/or a sensor issue and not a sticking mechanical control. It is not necessary to even touch or move the accelerator pedal in order for this to occur. Under certain conditions of temperature and humidity, either some sensor malfunctions or some connector becomes intermittent or the software misreads something. At startup the engine runs at an unusually high idle (~800 rpm), and as soon as you put it in gear, the car lunges forward or backward hard and you have to put it in neutral to avoid having it run away with you - all this without touching the accelerator pedal. When you put the car in neutral the engine runs at between 3,000 and 4,000 rpm on the tachometer for a few seconds and then slowly drops back to an idle (~800rpm). As soon as you put it in gear again, the car lunges once again - throw it in neutral - 3,000 - 4,000 rpm, slowly recovers. After two - three minutes the engine stabilizes and the problem is gone. Please note this is all without touching the accelerator - ever! this happens when the vehicle is cold and usually during high humidity or rainy conditions. It is so unpredictable that I have never sought help from a dealer. It is not repeatable in a way that the dealer would be able to diagnose since it happens fairly rarely (sometimes a couple of times a week - sometimes once a month) and inconsistently. If I was an inexperienced driver and if this was a more powerful car, I would no doubt have had a serious accident by now. I have learned to pay attention to the motor when I first start the vehicle. If it sounds like it is idling a bit fast then I know it will try to run away with me when I put it in gear so I just wait for it to idle down to normal before putting it in gear.

The contact owns a 2004 Saturn Ion. The vehicle would not start whenever the temperatures outside were low. The vehicle has not been diagnosed by the dealer and there were no prior warnings. The current and failure mileages were 63270.

This issue has been a long ongoing problem for me, with this car. I do not know the actual dates of the occurrences but it has been frequent enough that I have developed a method for starting my car that if I do not feel rushed, I can get the car to start most every time. If the key is inserted into the ignition and immediately turned to the full on positing in an attempt to start the car, it will, on occasion, turn over once and then go completely dead. If the attempt is repeated, the auxiliary lights will come on but the engine will not turn over. I had my car towed to a garage and replaced the battery, two different times before reading about a potential passlock issue with Saturns. When I do have the problem now, I have found that waiting roughly 8 minutes(10 minutes to be safe), for the car to reset itself, which is an incredibly long wait, will generally allow you to start the car without further ignition difficulty. I have also discovered more recently that if I put the key in the ignition and turn it to the auxiliary mode, pause in this position for about 5 seconds(until the indicator light in the shape of a padlock turns off), then attempt to start the vehicle, it will start without issue every time.

My 2004 Saturn Ion will not start on cold days. I live in vermont so there are plenty of cold days. It usually takes me about 10 minutes to1/2 hour to get it started, if it starts. When it finally starts I have to leave it running so the engine will warm up because if I don't I have to start the process over again. This is a huge inconvenience! everyone I've brought it to doesn't seem to know what the problem is. I love my car but could definitely do without this problem!.

On several occasions I have had to bring my car to the dealership because I would lose complete power to my car while driving. I would not get any warning lights or sounds, it would just lose complete power. The service department at Saturn of danvers has not been able to find the problem with my vehicle. I have been in loaner cars on two different occasions while they tried to duplicate the problem. This is an intermittent issue. I have lost power at low rates of speed and also on the highway. This is a real safety issue for myself and others on the road. On Thursday, August 21, 2008 my car lost power on I-95 n in woburn, MA while driving, several vehicles had to avoid hitting my vehicle and other vehicles. I notified the Saturn corporate office and they had john cachurski (sp) contact me, he stated I would need to return their loaner car and get my car because they can not help me because they can not find the problem. An online search found several other people throughout the country with my model/year with the same issue without resolution from their dealerships. This is a huge safety issue that needs to be resolved. I would appreciate some help to try to get my vehicle up to par.

I am 75 years old and this is the only car I have and I cannot rely on it to start when I need it. On several occasions, I have been headed to a doctor appointment and go to start the car and it will be as much as 30 minutes or more before it starts. It is criminal for Saturn to know of this problem and not issue a recall to correct the problem. I do not know when they realized the problem and fixed it, but I'm on a fixed income and I put out a lot of money for this piece of junk! I thought Saturn was a good company but I see now that don't really care about their consumers. I am very disappointed in them.

Power steering continuously goes out while driving. Found others online having same problem. Restart the car and it comes back on most of the time.

The contact owns a 2004 Saturn Ion. Whenever the contact attempts to start the vehicle in cold weather, it fails to start. On occasion, he must allow the vehicle to rest for 15 minutes before it will start. Other times, he must jumpstart the vehicle in order for the engine to start. The contact has not had the vehicle inspected by the dealer or a repair shop. He found a recall online pertaining to the failure, but it was unable to be found on the NHTSA web site. The manufacturer was aware of the issue and stated that no recall was issued. The failure mileage was 70,000 and current mileage was 95,000.

Vehicle randomly won't start. More frequently during cold and/or damp weather, but not always. Vehicle will either do absolutely nothing or start to crank and stop or after repetitive tries, start and run very rough then cut out. I have lost count of the number of times this has occurred to me. In most cases I have left the disabled vehicle sitting for a day and tried again the following day to have it either start up like nothing ever happened or start, run rough and eventually smooth out. Many of these incidents have occurred in my driveway and just caused me to be late for work and inconvenienced. Twice it has left me stuck at work scrambling to find someone to pick my children up from day care. And tonight it left me stranded in the cold during the midst of an ice-storm at 11 pm. . . And again, late for work. These are not old vehicles experiencing this problem and after reading the vast complaints, it is certainly not an isolated problem. Something needs to be done, the consumer should not have to pay for an obvious manufacturer defect. I will be contacting Saturn in the morning to attempt getting it repaired.

I purchased vehicle in 2004 brand new. The car continues to have a high idle creating a very dangerous driving situation. I must reset the battery once a week to restore it to normal. It seems to be fine for a week and high idle comes back. I have difficulty starting the car in the cold winter months. I must turn the headlights on to warm up the battery before trying to start car. Saturn was no help. Now I am stuck with a lemon! help!.