2007 Saturn Vue Hybrid: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 2007 Saturn Vue Hybrid
On the 2007 Saturn Vue Hybrid, the failure owners report most often is ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure, and the reports cluster around 110,000 miles. Across every failure mode on this year, half the dated reports were filed before 97,500 miles. Overall it scores 61 out of 100, high risk for a 2007.
High risk for a 2007 — 330th riskiest of the 365 2007 vehicles we can rate. 44 owner reports; no fleet size estimate, so rates are unavailable.
What owners report breaking
Owners have reported 11 named failure modes on the 2007 Saturn Vue Hybrid, and the three most-reported carry 64% of everything filed, so the trouble here is concentrated rather than scattered.
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure leads with 11 reports and with the middle half of reports between 51k to 120,000 miles.
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault follows with 10 reports, median 90,000 miles.
No-start or intermittent start failure follows with 7 reports, median 65,000 miles.
By system, the reports fall mostly into electrical (18), airbag (15) and engine (8).
The mileage the reports cluster at
31 of the reports on the 2007 Saturn Vue Hybrid came with an odometer reading, and half of those were filed before 97,500 miles.
Cumulatively, 52% by 100,000 miles and 90% by 150,000 miles of the dated reports had been filed.
The busiest stretch is between 90,000 and 100,000 miles, which alone holds 19% of the dated reports.
0% of the dated reports were filed below 36,000 miles, so this is mostly a story about older, higher-mileage cars.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
How reports accumulate
Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
- Dashed the median reported mileage
Severity, and what it costs
Across the named modes, 1 mentions a crash. Those are the words owners used in their own complaints, and NHTSA does not verify them, but they are the closest thing in this data to a measure of what a failure actually did.
The average severity weight across every report on this year is 3.64, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.
What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure at $250–$1,500, airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault at $300–$1,600, no-start or intermittent start failure at $200–$1,800 and seat belt or retractor failure at $200–$900. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.
18% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures.
Every reported failure mode
| Failure mode | System | Reports | With reading | 25th | Median | 75th | Per 1,000 | Typical repair | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure | electrical | 11 | 10 | 51k | 110k | 120k | — | $250–$1,500 | High |
| Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault | airbag | 10 | 5 | — | 92k | — | — | $300–$1,600 | High |
| No-start or intermittent start failure | engine | 7 | 4 | — | 66k | — | — | $200–$1,800 | Moderate |
| Seat belt or retractor failure | airbag | 4 | 1 | — | 115k | — | — | $200–$900 | High |
| Other electrical problem | electrical | 4 | 3 | — | 129k | — | — | $250–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure | electrical | 2 | 2 | — | 98k | — | — | $700–$3,000 | High |
| Starter failure | electrical | 1 | 1 | — | 130k | — | — | $350–$1,300 | Moderate |
| Brake line, hose or caliper failure | brakes | 1 | 1 | — | 90k | — | — | $250–$1,600 | Critical |
| Airbag inflator rupture | airbag | 1 | 1 | — | 155k | — | — | $0–$0 | Critical |
| Other engine problem | engine | 1 | 1 | — | 68k | — | — | $300–$4,000 | High |
| Other fuel system problem | fuel | 1 | 1 | — | 129k | — | — | $300–$2,200 | High |
| Unclassified problem | other | 1 | 1 | — | 129k | — | — | — | Moderate |
No fleet-size estimate is available for this year, so only raw counts are shown. Repair costs are typical independent-shop ranges for the failure, not figures from these reports.
How often, against how many were built
There is no usable estimate of how many 2007 Saturn Vue Hybrid were built, so this page reports counts and not rates. 44 reports on a car that sold in millions and 44 on a car that sold in thousands are not the same finding, and without a denominator there is no honest way to say which this is.
No fleet-size estimate is available for this year, so only raw counts are shown.
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The odometer reading is the one the owner gave.
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Check engine light came on immediately after driving off the lot. Severe electrical/computer issues. The hybrid battery was not functioning properly. The hybrid battery was replaced but we have continued to have electrical/computer problems. The radio quit working and had to be replaced. The ignition switch/core had to be replaced. This we paid for out of pocket even though gm knew about similar ignition issues with saturn vue's and other cars. We are still experiencing problems with the ignition. The car completely shuts down while driving. The key will fall out of the ignition while driving. Gm has refused to do anything about these issues. The dashboard lights all come on at random times. The airbag light has continued to illuminate at random times despite our bringing it to gm's attention from the moment we purchased the car. We replaced the airbag sensor but the problems have persisted. Gm says there's nothing wrong with the airbags despite the airbag light randomly coming on. Recently the hybrid battery has stopped functioning properly again. We feel totally unsafe driving this car and gm doesn't seem to care. Gm should pay…
Check engine light came on immediately after driving off the lot. Severe electrical/computer issues. The hybrid battery was not functioning properly. The hybrid battery was replaced but we have continued to have electrical/computer problems. The radio quit working and had to be replaced. The ignition switch/core had to be replaced. This we paid for out of pocket even though gm knew about similar ignition issues with saturn vue's and other cars. We are still experiencing problems with the ignition. The car completely shuts down while driving. The key will fall out of the ignition while driving. Gm has refused to do anything about these issues. The dashboard lights all come on at random times. The airbag light has continued to illuminate at random times despite our bringing it to gm's attention from the moment we purchased the car. We replaced the airbag sensor but the problems have persisted. Gm says there's nothing wrong with the airbags despite the airbag light randomly coming on. Recently the hybrid battery has stopped functioning properly again. We feel totally unsafe driving this car and gm doesn't seem to care. Gm should pay…
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
I bought this SUV in feb of 2015. It had 92.000 miles on it at the time. I paid $8k. It has been nothing but trouble since I bought it. First, the steering was bad. Apparently it's a common issue for gm vehicles to have a rack and pinion issue. It needed to be regreased, which was an easy fix, and the dealership didn't charge me. The next month I moved from mn to ga and when I got down here (it's hot) realized the AC didn't work. I took it in and was told that the AC compressor was bad and needed to be replaced at the tune of $1200. I decided to be sweaty all summer. But I didn't realize that the seized up AC compressor was threatening my entire serpentine belt. So I got that fixed at the end of the summer. Just a week after that fix, my brakes went out. The car jerked and squeaked and it was generally so bad that I was having trouble getting the car to move. The grinding sound was so loud it was embarrassing. I took it in and the rotors and calipers and one bearing needed to be replaced. $850. The remaining problems are: airbag and cruise control. The driver's side airbag light has been blinking on and off for months, but…
I bought this SUV in feb of 2015. It had 92.000 miles on it at the time. I paid $8k. It has been nothing but trouble since I bought it. First, the steering was bad. Apparently it's a common issue for gm vehicles to have a rack and pinion issue. It needed to be regreased, which was an easy fix, and the dealership didn't charge me. The next month I moved from mn to ga and when I got down here (it's hot) realized the AC didn't work. I took it in and was told that the AC compressor was bad and needed to be replaced at the tune of $1200. I decided to be sweaty all summer. But I didn't realize that the seized up AC compressor was threatening my entire serpentine belt. So I got that fixed at the end of the summer. Just a week after that fix, my brakes went out. The car jerked and squeaked and it was generally so bad that I was having trouble getting the car to move. The grinding sound was so loud it was embarrassing. I took it in and the rotors and calipers and one bearing needed to be replaced. $850. The remaining problems are: airbag and cruise control. The driver's side airbag light has been blinking on and off for months, but…
No-start or intermittent start failure
Tl* the contact owns a 2007 saturn vue hybrid. The contact stated that the engine failed to start. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the ignition switch was replaced but the failure continued. In addition, while driving at an unknown speed, smoke was emitting from the windshield wiper switch. The switch was replaced however, the steering wheel would malfunction making the steering wheel difficult to turn. The contact crashed into another vehicle and the air bags did not deploy. No injuries were reported. The cause of the failures were not diagnosed. No further details of the crash were available. The manufacturer was notified. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 66,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2007 saturn vue hybrid. The contact stated that the engine failed to start. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the ignition switch was replaced but the failure continued. In addition, while driving at an unknown speed, smoke was emitting from the windshield wiper switch. The switch was replaced however, the steering wheel would malfunction making the steering wheel difficult to turn. The contact crashed into another vehicle and the air bags did not deploy. No injuries were reported. The cause of the failures were not diagnosed. No further details of the crash were available. The manufacturer was notified. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 66,000.
How it ranks in the 2007 field
The score at the top of the page, placed among its peers. The zones are the same thresholds the scorer applies, read out of the scorer itself, so the picture and the band word cannot disagree.
Scores are ranked within the model year, never across years, because an older car has had longer to accumulate reports.
- Left fewer and less serious reports
- Right more, or worse
- Marker this vehicle
Where 2007 sits in the model line
High risk for a 2007 — 330th riskiest of the 365 2007 vehicles we can rate. Because the ranking is against the same model year only, age cancels out of it.
Within the 2007–2009 generation specifically, 2007 is the strongest year at 61 and 2008 the weakest at 64.
Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.
Within the 2007-2009 generation, 2007 Saturn Vue Hybrid scores best at 61 and 2008 Saturn Vue Hybrid worst at 64.
Where to spend the inspection money
The mileages below are where the first quarter of reports for each mode had already been filed, which makes them the point at which a fault is worth looking for rather than the point at which it happens: ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure from about 51k.
On a 2007 Saturn Vue Hybrid with more miles than that on it, the useful question to put to a seller or a mechanic is whether ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure has been dealt with, and if so with what parts and at whose expense. A car that has already had the repair is in a different position from one that has not.
None of this is a diagnosis. It is a list of what other owners of the same model year reported, ordered by when they reported it, which is a good place to point an inspection and a poor place to stop.
What this page cannot tell you
44 owner reports; no fleet size estimate, so rates are unavailable. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.
Of those 44 reports, 31 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 70% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".
Named failure modes come from matching phrases in the complaint text, so a badly worded complaint can land in the wrong bucket. The effect washes out across hundreds of reports and does not wash out across five.
And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.
Questions this page answers
What are the most common problems with the 2007 Saturn Vue Hybrid?
The most-reported failures are ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure (11 reports, median 110,000 miles), airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault (10 reports, median 90,000 miles) and no-start or intermittent start failure (7 reports, median 65,000 miles). Counts come from owner complaints filed with NHTSA, which are voluntary, so they show what owners bothered to report rather than every fault that occurred.
At what mileage do 2007 Saturn Vue Hybrid problems start?
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure is the earliest failure mode to show up, with a median reported mileage of 110,000 miles and a quarter of reports before 50,000 miles. Across all failure modes on this year, the median report sits at 97,500 miles.
Is the 2007 Saturn Vue Hybrid reliable?
It scores 61 out of 100 on our risk index, which is high — 330th riskiest of the 365 2007 vehicles we can rate. The score is a comparison against other 2007 vehicles, not a prediction about any individual car, and it is built from complaint rates, severity and how early failures appear.
Which year of the Saturn Vue Hybrid is best?
Within the 2007–2009 generation, 2007 scores best at 61 out of 100 and 2008 worst at 64. Same body, same engines, different luck.
Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.
What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed