Denton, TX Saturn owners
 

I would like to find Saturn owners in Denton, TX.
Where do you take your cars for repair?
Do you have a mechanic who makes house calls?
Is it getting harder to find a mechanic to work on your car?

Any forum members in TX nearby that can help a woman out?

You may just have to start calling some shops and (shudder) GM dealerships to see if they have "technicians" that are familiar with the Saturns. Good luck.

It is in general harder to find a mechanic that is in essence exactly that! A mechanic. An independent self operator, not an employee of a tire store. Having done that type of work for my self and at age 74 not sure what I would do if I had to find one. A GM dealer that advertises the ability to work on a Saturn is going to be expensive no matter how that is addressed. A good mechanic? look in the yellow pages of your phone book and make phone calls. You may even find one on the internet. But the chain tire stores that advertise repairs are rarely a competent source of good mechanical repairs. Sorry fellows for dissing those that might be good, the bad ones have turned me off on your type of store.
Go to an auto parts store, O'Riely, NAPA, CARQUEST or others and ask the counter people if they have a recommendation might be the best chance. Try to ask the owner or manager rather than the counter person present when you walk in.

Indeed, honest, true "mechanics" are becoming harder to find.

And those that have worked on and understand Saturns (esp S cars) is even harder.

Go to a shop that's not familiar w S series saturns and their quirks and you can end up with a runaway bill, a whole bunch of new sensors, and no solution to the problem you brought it in for.

GM Authorized Saturn Service Centers may have at one time in 2010 had a pseudo trained Saturn "tech" on board, but that is different than the former Saturn tech who worked for Saturn for 19 years and can diagnose issues by sound with his eyes closed without being told the issue.

Some GM dealerships are now actually refusing to work on Saturns, period. My guess is lack of OEM and aftermarket parts availability compounded by complete lack of knowledge/experience in the tech area.

1) Kill your brand.
2) Make sure the remains die off ASAP by refusing to service your own brand.

Sounds like a business model constructed by a 4 year old after waking from a bad nap.

No wonder I have a 2014 Ford Escape in my driveway.

First non- Saturn since 1992.

The internet is a good source for figuring out who to go to. Im sure you can rind reviews for mechanics in your area somewhere, so you can weed out the guys that throw parts at problems and real mechanic that knows how to diagnose. Even if they are not intimately familiar with the car if they care and actually do a little research while diagnosing they will be fine.

Ten days and no replies. One time user?

I guess I can't say 1st non-Saturn 'cause for me, the 94 has been paid for, for a long time and kept on for a variety of reasons. Most of them directly related to liking the silly car.
Having to replace my T&C in a hurry after the accident I ended up with a 2015 Dodge Caravan which is full of the latest technology. And the first thing noticed? The Automatic transmission (electronic controlled of course) with a performance and economy button that starts the transmission out in a higher gear when set on economy and either short shifts or skips shifts to keep engine rpm down.
Funny! The same button is on the consul of my 94 and it works the same way.
I've got my Saturn where I can work on it everyday to wet set sand the body for prep for primer.
Now after 22 years it is the plastic parts that are giving the most problem. Heat and UV has caused them to dry out and be brittle or distort and no longer function. What was a great design to beat rust, itself was a poor material to with stand heat and UV.
And those familiar with AMC and the plastic valve cover that leaked like a sieve almost before the warrantee ran out, the plastic cover on the 2.6L V6 under the hood of my caravan hides all the danged plastic used on the top of the engine that lives under the hood. Almost the entire front and top of the engine is a large black plastic housing serving as the portion of the engine that holds the oil filter, the top of the oil pump, an intake manifold and other misc. parts. Frankly it's ugly and I am sure as time passes a source of oil leaks, but time will tell.
But to give credit where credit is due, it features variable cam shaft technology, has almost twice the HP and gets slightly better gas mileage in town pulling a car that weighs more than the T&C did. I don't know what it will do on the open road, but I am growing to like the thing.

I have been working w her via daily PMs -- she is not a 1 timer. And is new to forums.
No bashing of Violet, please

I'm not bashing. I didn't know about the PM's. Sheesh! You could warn someone. LOL

Sorry Rube.

Didn't mean to be harsh -- you could not have known

This thread brings up a question in my mind. That is, a new owner of what might be a serviceable S-car looking for some place to take it for service.
When I was seriously looking to purchase a Scan tool that would work with the level of logic used in the S car. That is apparently a variation of pre-OBD-I the scan tools available specifically exempted the S series Saturns.
I finally solved that problem by purchasing a used Snap On Scan Tool.
That said, what is the odds that a service provider today is going to have a Scan Tool that is able to read older cars. "Specially" one that is now about 25 years old and is no longer being manufactured as a brand.
The purchase made sense for me as I have the S car which is apparently a pre-OBDI level logic and a modified AMC Spirit which uses a 1995 Jeep Cherokee based system which I believe to be a full blown OBDI level vehicle.

No problem, derf. Just busting your chops a little bit!:D

As a creaky old lady in her 70's who is alone and owns a 2000 Saturn SL1 as her only car, I find your remarks both helpful and discouraging. Keeping the car seems like a mistake. When I bought it in 2003, the teacher who taught high school auto shop classes was a Saturn mechanic. I relied on him for car repairs, but he is gone. Since then what I have heard most often from mechanics is "can't get it to do what you say it is doing," or some phrase that means they have no clue. Some places are willing to fix something that is not the problem. Now several places just refuse to work on it. Perhaps it is time to turn it into a greenhouse. Ford Escape, huh? I'll have to take a look.

Now, Now, Violet,

Let's not get down on ourselves or the Satty just yet. Your 3rd Gen S car is a baby w 9x,xxx mi on it.

I had a 95 SC2 w 236K on it when I gifted it yo my nephew. Has its issues but still going.

I drive a 97 SC2 w 251K on it.

Pretty much everything has been replaced at least once except for the fuel pump, brake master cylinder, Power brake booster, tie rods, CVs, and 3 wheel bearings. And the EvAP stuff.

It was paid off 15 years ago, and any repair I make that costs $350 and lasts 1 month is the same as having made a car payment. I'd keep this 19 yr old car over one 10 years newer because I know exactly what has and hasn't been done to it, how to start it in -15F weather in WI, and I know exactly what it can do on the road and what it cannot do on the road...dry, wet, or icy.

I have been in ditches, I have been in the edge of a farmer's field on top of a pile of small logs, only to have 5 good samaritans stop, block the road, and basically lift my car off of the log pile as I rocked it until I got back onto the blacktop I have driven 100mph on unpopulated WI county highways, just because.

Treat it well and it should do the same

Violet, I sympathies with your position and find myself in the same place as my Mother In Law who now has to deal with her Husband as he slides slowly into Alzheimer's or something that appears similar forcing life style changes unplanned for and unwanted while dealing with what is now a 25 year old car of a more popular brand still in production and beginning to require maintenance above and beyond simple routines items.
The loss of the local mechanic, a person once depended on to keep things operational but now gone and replaced by someplace where gasoline can be purchases if you pump it your self and you can get a 6-pack of beer and a sandwich or a candy bar. But get your vehicle repaired? Unthinkable!
A well used but serviceable vehicle appears to have become a throw away item. After hearing a counter person tell a woman that her $600.00 brake repair on her Buick represented the top of the line repair knowing full well mediocre parts were installed and maybe correctly and they probably would work, but a deal? Not even close! I still do my own work and at max, $250.00 worth of parts would represent top of the line components for my purposes, but again I do my own repairs and could do brakes for under $100.00 and use mediocre parts and they probably would work.
I do not have a suggestion for you and yes, it is a difficult position to be in.
I wish I had a better answer for you and for my Mother in Law other than try to purchase a newer car in good condition to forestall the need for repairs for as long as possible.

Although I am not in good enough physical shape to pay personal visits to the parts stores to ask for the names of mechanics, I did phone all of them in town today. Most said they had no names. Only a couple gave me names. So now I have the names of two potential mechanics, but one of them does not speak English, and that is all I speak.