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Saturday, March 25, 2006Love my Saturn update...The other day, I noted some problems with our Saturn and Saturn's service. This is a brief update to that post. At least one more update should follow. Hopefully, a happy one. I spoke to the service manager about a week ago. He agreed that however good their intentions, things certainly looked bad and that they should do something for us. He suggested that they would work to make sure I got my money's worth out of the repairs, and asked if I would like to trade in the car. I said that I would be interested, if I was going to actually recoup the money put into the car and suggested I'd hope for at least a trade-in value of $4000 since that's what we'd put into the not-so-hot transmission repair plus the things like new brakes, new hoses and the like that came up over the last year because if not I couldn't really afford to drive Saturns anymore. He said someone in sales would be in touch and they'd make sure they did right by us. Last Friday, I spoke to the general sales manager and he said he'd get some info to us toward Monday. I volunteered that we couldn't really do anything till this Friday or Saturday, but would appreciate a heads-up on where we stood and what to prepare for. I've left the gentleman a couple voice mails. I haven't gotten any calls back. To give credit where credit is due, the service department has been exceptionally good about making sure we have transportation while this is going on. And they've been very helpful about other questions that have come up. I also contacted Saturn's main customer service center in the midst of this. They have left two very concerned voicemails for me, but when I call the number back I get ads for Saturn and assurances that my call is very important to them. Which brings me to this assessment at the moment: Saturn is not necessarily a bad organization. Their intentions seem to be good, their people seem to be well-meaning when you talk to them. But in the attention to detail and follow-through departments, this is not the Saturn I knew two years ago. Mickey Kaus has been suggesting that there's an internal campaign to bring Saturn fully into the GM fold, rather than letting it be the something special it started as. It feels like that campaign is underway and has been having some success. As I told the service manager, if I wanted friendly shrugs and more bills, I could have bought a Ford. I did not add how many people have told me I'm an idiot because however well Saturn had started, it was an American company and if you didn't have money to burn on repairs you had to buy Japanese. We have a nice loaner from Saturn right now, so I can't complain that they've stranded me - unlike the other night in my freshly fixed but unsafe to drive car. But I'm not feeling the assurance I once felt that if you had a problem all you had to do was go to the dealership and all would be taken care of. My call to Saturn this morning went to voicemail and hasn't been returned in the last hour. But fair enough, Saturday mornings can be busy. We're going to go out and look into things ourselves a little later today. Tonight, we'll update you on whether, should you read under your breath, the "Love my Saturn" should be pronounced with sarcasm or enthusiasm. I hope, sincerely, that it's the second. 
posted by gbarto at 11:39 AM |
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