Help! - Need some Advice....

my wife talked me into an extended

closed (Saturn of Medford, NY) 8 months

a bit further away and I'm having a

either direction and a slight whistle

the new Saturn dealer ran my VIN and

now also defunct and also out of business.

car is only covered to 36K.

Authorized Extended warranty service

a higher monthly bill/loan, and I'm

time of the sale, but you don't get the

responsible for picking up the warranty should

Hi, IYM, Sorry to hear of your problem. Have you contacted Saturn Customer Support to ask them about this? I forget the number but it should be in your owner's manual.

First, call your X-tended Warranty company yourself, cut out the middlemen and get the facts straight from them: What type of warranty you purchased, what exactly it covers and doesn't cover and dates & miles of coverage. Also, ask them if what you are trying to fix is covered.

Second, if you are covered, go straight to the Service Manager or Store Manager and calmly explain your situation (remember, you attract more flies with honey). Explain to him that you have already called your extended warranty company and you should be covered (if such is the case).

Third, if they still refuse to provide you with a viable solution, explain to the manager that you intend to call Saturn Customer Service and file a complaint against them. This is a last resort only and should resolve your problem hopefully. Saturn Extended Warranties are useable at any Saturn dealer and should be honored, that is unless you don't have a real Saturn Warranty somehow.

If you bought the Saturn warranty it is honored at any Saturn dealership. If you bought a third party warranty and they no longer exist then you got "a big problem". If you buy an extended warranty always make sure you get the one from the manufacturer.

Assuming this is a third party warranty: Keep in mind you didn't buy anything from Saturn. Saturn sold the car to a dealer who sold it to you. The dealers is an independent business and that is who you bought the car and warranty from. The dealer you bought the car from paid for the warranty at the time you bought the car. Saturn corporate wasn't involved in the transaction and didn't make any money off of it. They can't give your money back because they don't have it...

A similar situation would be if you bought an HP printer from Office Depot with a third party warranty. If Office Depot and the third party warranty go out of business your are left holding the bag. HP will still fix your printer for you but you have to pay.

This really sucks and it has to be causing more people than you grief. You might give your atty. general office a call and see if they are aware of anything regarding this situation.

Steve B.

OK - I have a feeling it's a third party warranty, as when the new dealer checked, he ran the VIN and could tell me that it wasn't with Saturn itself. I'm really pissed because the original dealer never said anything about a third party. It's my fault I guess that I didn't look carefully at the name on the sheet when I signed, but when your buying, there's so much paperwork from different organizations (banks, etc) that I must have missed it.

Now that said, what if the dealer was still in business but the warranty company was out? Is the dealer liable to do something? The reason I ask is that Saturn of Medford was owned by "DCH Auto Group", which owns a lot of dealers including 2 other Saturn dealers. Wonder if one of the other DCH owned Saturn dealers is liable to cover me....They always advertised "3 Saturn locations", although the other 2 are nowhere near me. Guess I should start there....

IYM