Other electrical problem on the 2008 Saturn Vue
2 crashes 5 fires 1 injury 8 of the 46 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.
When other electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Saturn Vue report other electrical problem at a median of 92,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 57,500 miles and a quarter after 122,500 miles, from 34 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 147,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 132,084 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
24% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16,216 miles | 58,100 miles | 91,607 miles | 122,500 miles | 148,300 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, 2 a crash, 5 a fire and 1 an injury are 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2009, at a median of 50,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 92,500 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 68; the 2008 has 46. 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.
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.
My 2008 saturn vue xr has had numerous issues with the instrument panel. In may 2010, the entire instrument panel (speedometer, RPM, odometer, radio, etc.) went out while I was driving down the road. I took it to the dealership where they replaced a computer component in the instrument panel. Now in july 2010 (2 months later) I was driving down the road and looked at my speedometer which said I was going 80 MPH. I was clearly not going 80 MPH, so right away I knew something was wrong. I stopped the car and even when the car was completely stopped the speedomter read 30 MPH. It even stayed on 30 MPH when I turned the car off. I took the car back to the dealership and am being told that they need to replace the exact same part that they just replaced two months ago. Clearly this part is faulty and it is a definite safety concern when you are driving down the road and are unable to tell how fast you are going. I have seen other complaints on this website regarding a similiar issue. *tr
While driving our 2008 saturn vue all the instrument panel monitors disappeared - didn't know what gear, speed or gas gauge etc. Took it in to the dealers' where they figured it was the computer- as they could not reset it. After many days, this was not the problem so they put the original one back in. After talking to several friends who had a similar problem with a 2008 chevy blazer, they discovered that it was fluid in the throttle box -when we mentioned this to the service manager, the problem was quickly resolved! Another time the engine light came on - we discovered that the problem was simply that the gas cap has not been replaced properly. Seems it is very sensitive. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 saturn vue. The contact stated that while starting the vehicle, it would begin to shake and stall. In order to stop the vehicle from shaking, the contact would shut it off and restart it. A system warning light would illuminate on the instrument panel whenever the failure occurred. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer where the computer was updated and the battery was replaced. The failure continued. The vehicle was taken to another authorized dealer where the computer was again updated. The failure continued. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 60,500.
Also reported on the 2008 Saturn Vue
Other powertrain problem
Other steering problem
Other engine problem
Complete transmission failure
Other body or interior problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 46 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 electrical problem happen on the 2008 Saturn Vue?
Across 34 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 92,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 57,500 miles and a quarter after 122,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2008 Saturn Vue?
46 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.0 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