2005 Saturn Ion problems
NHTSA has received 755 complaints about the 2005 Saturn Ion, and 36% of them involve steering. Next are electrical system (31%) and engine (5%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 755 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Steering 36% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 49 and 5
- Injuries and deaths
- 29 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 61,000 miles 586 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 73 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 77 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 126 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 89 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 79 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 60 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 30 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 20 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 16 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 7 |
| 200k+ miles | 9 |
What the data shows
Of the 586 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 61,000 miles. For steering specifically, the median reported mileage is about 68,000 miles (240 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 49 complaints mention a crash; 5 complaints mention a fire; 29 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2005 ranks 5th most-complained-about out of 5 model years of the Saturn Ion with enough data (372 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 3 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
My husband was driving my 05 saturn ion 2 quad coupe home from work on the interstate.traffic stopped , came to complete stop vehicle behind did not brake and rear ended my vehicle at roughly 50+ MPH causing him to hit another vehicle in turn causing a 6 vehicle accident. The air bags did not deploy causing his head to hit the steering wheel and the driver seat broke in half with him in it landing on the back seat.
I was attempting to change lines on md I-97 north bound from the slow right lane to the fast lane left lane. When a car in the fast lane speed up which never allowed me to change lanes, I continued to travel in the same slow right lane. Within 1 minute after that action of the attempted lane change, I experienced the steering wheel shaking erratically and trying to pull to the right. Although the car was going straight, the steering wheel kept pulling to the right.
Front directional sometimes work and sometimes don't. At times it is left side other times right side. Both 2003 & 2004 model years of saturn ion have identical problem which has been recalled but I have a 2005 and dealer and saturn corporate say they can't help until 2005 is added to recall.
I was turning into sam's club and the power steering quit working. The car was very hard to steer and, because I was turning a corner and this happened unexpectedly, I almost hit the car that was waiting to exit the sam's club lot. I then parked the car after struggling with the steering wheel to turn into a parking spot. I went shopping, came back and, when the car was restarted, I had my power steering.