Regarding our 2000 Saturn SW2 station Wagon. No doubt the same defective, rusted out door handle coil spring applies to ALL model Saturns.i
WARNING:- ANY OF YOUR SATURN CAR'S DOORS MAY FLY OPEN AT 70 MPH OR ANY SPEED..
Saturn door springs wear out prematurely and break. This is NOT visable.at all.. This causes the door to APPEAR TO BE LATCHED. However, breakage of the handle return door spring in the door's interior will result in the door being UNLATCHED and the door flying open while driving down the highway and most certainly when you make a turn. Any items next to the door , including your computer or a child who THINKS his seat belt is secured or is "secured" in a defective Saturn seat belt (don't rule that out) will also end up on the street at ANY speed!.Luckily, there was no one in my rear seat and my computer stayed on the seat when my left rear door flew open on a right turn.
I sent this notice to Saturn Corp. They said that their DEFECTIVE SAFETY DOOR LATCH SPRING (my terminology) is not covered under any safety warranty and since my car's warranty has expired and a worn safety latch spring breakage comes under "NORMAL WEAROUT"
I told them that
"The coil spring on my home's front screen door has lasted FOURTY YEARS and if it broke-NO ONE WOULD DIE!! What's your coil spring door latch failure excuse?!
Needless to say- they did not reply.
Saturn refuses to replace its defective door handle return spring at its own expense- which is no doubt, quite minimal. Saturn can not even afford to send out a one sentence warning notice in their regular correspondence with owners.
a QUALITY door latch spring lasts forever in most cars.
The best thing you can do is a temporary fix i.e. Duct tape the handle to the car's door so the handle can not be pulled out-especially by little kids who are unaware of the sitiuation They will have to use another door to enter and exit.
Car parts have been known to start breaking after 11 years and death and injury statistics start to mount. If my car is any example and there are hundreds of thousands of those springs out there- we can expect a big disaster in the making and begin very soon..
I have alerted NHTSA (safecar.com) about this.
Saturns "SAFETY OFFICE" email address is:
snipped-for-privacy@saturn.com
The National Highway Traffic Safety Agency which takes consumer complaints, direct complaint email address is:
snipped-for-privacy@telesishq.com
Mike Corman
snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com