AtWhatMileage
Adas · 4 owner reports

Other speed control problem on the 2002 Saturn Vue

1 crash 1 of the 4 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.

Only 4 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 4
With an odometer reading 4
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 25%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $250–$2,000
What it means when it happens Critical
Rank among this year's problems 13th

When other speed control problem gets reported

There are 4 reports of other speed control problem on the 2002 Saturn Vue, 4 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 13th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 4 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 104,500 miles — —

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Of these reports, 1 a crash is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.

Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 40,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 140,000 miles.

By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 12; the 2002 has 4. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

Median
  1. 2002 (this one) 105k
  2. 2003 Saturn Vue other speed control problem 38k
  3. 2004 Saturn Vue other speed control problem 138k
  4. 2005 Saturn Vue other speed control problem 73k
  5. 2006 Saturn Vue other speed control problem 84k
  6. 2007 Saturn Vue other speed control problem 72k
  7. 2008 Saturn Vue other speed control problem 97k
  8. 2009 Saturn Vue other speed control problem 107k

Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Dt: the contact owns a 2002 saturn vue. The contact states while driving the RPM gauge jumped from two to seven or eight. Then dropped back to two. This caused the vehicle to go into neutral. The contact stated it happened so fast that there was no time to react. The vehicle has been to the dealership at least six times. The consumer did not know what the service dealer has done, but they stated that they could not duplicate the problem. The consumer contacted the manufacturer, and they did extended the warranty on the vehicle for another year. *ak

15,000 miles NHTSA complaint 553383 filed 2005-09-08

Tl*the contact owns a 2002 saturn vue. While driving 25-30 MPH, the service warning light illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to several different independent mechanics and each of them stated that a throttle body connector was needed; however, the dealer stated that a diagnostic could be performed for the third time at their facility in order to assist with the repairs. The failure mileage was 123,000 and current mileage was 125,000. Updated 07/29/08 *bf updated 08/07/08

117,901 miles NHTSA complaint 677760 filed 2008-07-11

I have a saturn vue 2002. I took into a saturn dealership for repairs in july 17, 08. Saturn repeatedly told me the part was coming. On aug 3, 2008, they asked me to pick up my vehicle, I was informed that the part was not available and would not be in until the 18th of august. Now saturn is stating the part may not come in until the end of september. My throttle body system needs to be replaced. My car will simple shut off while I traveling, I may be going 65 miles per hour and the vehicle will completely shut off with no warning. At times the vehicle will simply not start. *tr

106,000 miles NHTSA complaint 683130 filed 2008-08-14

Also reported on the 2002 Saturn Vue

Other electrical problem

26 reports median 70k

Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure

17 reports median 70k

Other powertrain problem

15 reports median 34k

Other engine problem

13 reports median 67k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 4 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 4 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does other speed control problem happen on the 2002 Saturn Vue?

Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other speed control problem on the 2002 Saturn Vue?

4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

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