Saturn of Cerritos

4/16/2010 took my 2004 Saturn Vue in for a check engine light. It was $95.00 for inspection. I o.k. 'd this. The fuel cap was without a seal and Victor told me the air would get into the fuel system and should be flushed out. I agreed to this. When I left the bill was for $443. and some change. I asked a couple of questions and found that I was in trouble with other repairs I did not agreed to or even knew were being done. I decided to take this problem to Auto club 38 point inspection since I am also having a dispute with an Independent auto repair shop with Auto Club approved site. Auto Club is helping me with this dispute.

Now back to Saturn. The 38 point inspection from Auto Club showed that the one repair that Saturn did without my authorization was not done. The inspection showed that I still needed the Brake fluid flush. I did not need this because my brakes are just a year old and had all the stuff for them done by Saturn of Huntington Beach last year. So now I need to speak with the Service Manager Jeff H. and Owner Ken C. who is the owner of Kia by Hyundai which will be moving across the street from where they are now and become a complete KIA dealer in June 2010.

I have to make an appointment to have the Brake Fluid flush done all over again per Victor C., the Service Advisor. We argued over the telephone about my other repairs that were not requested or Authorized since he kept telling me if they were done I authorized them. I highly disagreed with him. He at times became insulting saying I did not know what I am talking about. I stated insulting me will get you no where young man. The other repairs I did not authorize are Clean Throttle Body Bore, Inspect Throttle Body, Brake inspection at $105.00 on less than a year old new brakes, pads, rotors etc. C. said I ordered all these items to be repaired. I have been taken again.

This is not the Saturn I have always loved to go into and not be taken by the Service Advisors. This Throttle and Brake repairs are just the biggest rip off of a customer. Victor C. is very unfriendly about the whole idea that I even have any type of complaint. I have now two repair shops involved in one little bitty Saturn Vue. At least I have Auto Club behind me with the Auto Club Authorized repair shop. This has been time consuming. Now I must start with Saturn and I have a very bad work schedule at this time since most companies have cut back on time spent at work. I have a very big split and must come home to go to sleep and then wake up and go back to work.

I arise at 2:00 am, so I need to attack the Saturn's problem in between my job and the other repair facility. Now with Saturn. But I am willing and able to tackle it the best I can. I just need help along with way. I am an old Senior Citizen but have a very highly maintained Saturn Vehicle. That's why I know I have been taken. In the end of this one check engine light I ended up with over 400 dollars worth of repairs that I did not authorize. With both repairs shop taking me I have to take one shop at a time. The economic damage is I have been taken for approx $200.00 above what I needed done to my Saturn when I went for the check engine light which turned out to be a seal on my gas cap. Replaced gas cap paid for $95.00 for that inspection which was very high for a gas cap. Paid that and then all the other repairs were done without my knowledge while I waited for the car at the Saturn of Cerritos dealer (which is really a KIA dealer).

I have a 2008 Aura that has had brake issues since I've had it. I have been in several times for the brakes making a loud screeching noise when u stop. I was told the brake pads were sanded 2xs and also repalced just here recently... This past Tuesday Oct6,2009 I was back at Saturn of Cerritos for same issue. Only this tiem the noise was louderr. Mind you, I was told the "New" pads Saturn came out with would "fix" the problem..Well, Tuesday, I was told a "different " story. The new pads did "nothing". But they would ck my brakes. Nick or Nate finally came out and told me basically, the brakes were "fine" but there was "NOTHING" they could do about the noise...This DID NOT sit well with me. Especially when I have my daughter driving this car too. Saturn knew these cars had defective brakes on them when they sold the damn cars...

Also, Saturn of Cerritos wanted to charge me $86.00 just to have my car looked at. Since when do they charge a fee to bring your car in before one even gets any type of work done? I am extremely disappointed with the service of Saturn and for any future purchases that I had planned will definitely make me hesitant in choosing Saturn. What can be done to solve these issues?

I purchased a 2004 Saturn and I have alot of problems with the back brakes. It has been in the shop at least five times for the back brakes. They have turned the drums so often that they are now not turnable. I have 22k miles on this car and they say they can no longer turn the drums and it is my resonsiblty to replace the drums and brakes. How can drums go out so fast when they are the only ones working on the brakes. No it is my expense to replace the drums. This is not normal wear and tear. I feel they are completely responsible for this problem. They have a female advocate named Gena trying to help me but she does not know anything about cars. I believe I have a legitimate complaint about Saturn of Cerritos. Their 100% customer satisfaction is baloney.

I bought a used Saturn Vue, 2005 with less than 16,000 miles last October. Beginning of March, 2006, the fan didn't work anymore, so I couldn't get warm or cold air blowing into the cab. I thought that the car was still under warranty because of what I was told in November by Saturn Headquarters, some things were under warranty, so I called to make an appointment to have it evaluated.

First, they alled me at 6:42 Am for permission to work on the car and charge me, which was weird, as I had written down $0.00 for cost. Then they wanted to charge me $92 to look at it and tell me that the blower motor needed to be replaced for about $350. The inside mirrow has LCD display for N,S,E,W, and temp, but the temp doesn't work, so they wanted to charge me $244 for a new mirror. When I refused to get this done as I didn't want to pay all that money, they let me take the car home without putting all nuts and bolts back into place and fasten them, and some switches got put in the incorrect place also. I ended up paying $52.00. Needless to say, I was totally frustrated.

In the meantime, my husband took the blower motor out, checked it and it works great, both directions. We replaced the resistor and the switch ASM and then it worked for a while. We found out that the connectors are not working well. BTW, when my husband checked all these switches, that's when he noticed that the people at the Cerritos Saturn didn't put things back together as they were supposed to be done, and when I took the vehicle home, the same night, he saw that the cover wasn't put on and that screws and little pieces were still on the floor matt. We spent under $100 to get the car fixed to the point where we still need to work on the connectors, but otherwise, everything, except for the temp display works. Why did they want me to buy a new blower motor when it wasn't necessary? Why didn't they put everything together the way it was supposed to be? I thought that Saturn had great customer service, that's why I chose a Saturn after 20 some years of Fords.

Randall said that all warranty was void as it had a salvage title. But, when I had talked to headquarters, they explained that I had some warrenty left on it due to low mileage and being new. Who is right?

BTW, we found out that the car had a little fender bender, no engine damage, no mirror damage; therefore, the blower motor was not damaged and should be under warranty and the same with the mirror. We saw the pictures of the minor scratches, butit fixed up professionally before I bought it. Please, let me know what my rights are. My faith in this Saturn dealer is very small right now, so I'd like to know from you, what I can do. I also had to wait for quite some time for them to find the key to my car when I picked it up. It cost me 2.5 hours of my husband's and my time for more aggrevation and no fixing. My husband spent a few minutes to test the blower motor to find out that there was nothing defective.