Saturn vs Honda?

[TarzansKat]

Hi there Budget Boarders!

Here's the dilemma. DH and I know we'll need another car soon. Both ours are paid for, but his is over 10 years old and has over 100,000 miles on it. We know it's only a matter of time, as we've had to replace brakes and transmission recently. We have spent at least 1500-2000 on it in the past two years to keep it running. At the time, we considered that better than financing a whole new vehicle.

My car is a 4 dr Saturn, which (sort of) comfortably fits me, DH, DS in car seat but not much else. My car has been properly maintained, has about 80,000 miles on it, and runs very well. It's about 6 years old, so I expect at least another 4 years out of it, if not more.

The idea was for me to get a new or new to us car and to give my Saturn to DH to drive. Since I work part time, and my mom watches DS while I work, I have him in my car the majority of the time, and would prefer something with a little more room (in case we'd like to add to the craziness of our family ). I'm not concerned at all with resale value, since we drive our cars until they die.

I have been lusting after Saturn's Vue, the compact SUV ever since they released it, but was turned off by the 3 out of 5 rollover rating. Well, this year, they got rid of the plastic paneling in favor of actual steel, and the rating went to 4 out of 5. Also, their safety ratings are very high. It's hard for me to justify this car though, since it's a big want. I've also looked at the Honda Accord, which I know has gotten excellent safety ratings. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with either and could help me out here. Gas mileage, driving, safety, etc.

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to give you background. I also feel like we've just gotten a handle on some crazy student loans and I really don't want to take out a huge car loan, but I know we'll need something bigger in the near future. What would you do?

Thanks in advance!

 

[wlwilliams9]

Personally, I would go with the Saturn, as it is made in the USA! While you might find a Honda "made" in the USA, the profits still go to foreign economies and our own economy needs all the help it can get! JMO!!!

 

[TarzansKat]

Personally, I would go with the Saturn, as it is made in the USA! While you might find a Honda "made" in the USA, the profits still go to foreign economies and our own economy needs all the help it can get! JMO!!!

That's a good point. I never thought of it that way, and our economy could certainly use a boost! Way to justify my "want" purchase

Seriously, thanks for your two cents. Every opinon helps.

 

[Relish]

My advice would be to feed your lust for the Vue by getting to know the package you want and hunting the used ads for a good price on a used model with the steel frame. BUT, don't buy it until you actually need the bigger car.

Buying the family car before you need it does two unhappy things 1) raises all ownership costs (financing, insurance, gas, etc.) and 2) it starts the clock running on the life of the car. If you are driving it to the end, then starting 1-2years early means its done that much sooner.

Keep your car until you are half way through that possible future pregnancy, by which point the steel framed Vue will be coming off lease, and available for a good deal.

I don't see in your post how your Dh uses his car, but you can probably get a good deal on a car for him that will be less expensive in overall costs than the Vue. Don't give up on the Vue entirely, it just isn't the car that seems to need replacing right now.

 

[DiznEeyore]

Actually, the VUE had a 4 out of 5 in '07, IIRC. Anyway, that's what I have, and I *love* mine!! And I love that it's plastic, because it means I won't have to worry about living in salty Michigan. This is the 3rd Saturn we've had and we've been nothing but happy with them.

We also have a 10yr old Honda Civic -- in fact, dh just informed me it rolled 100K miles today! It's running great, too. We bought it used a few months ago after we got sick of fixing dh's Ford Escort ZX2 over and over.

Being from Detroit, we had a hard time at first going for a Honda, but it was the right price and dh needed something more reliable. I doubt we'd buy foreign new, but I know for others that's not as much of a consideration.

Anyway, I my VUE, and plan to drive it 'til it dies!!

 

[lovemygoofy]

We have the old body style saturn vue and love it. It's about 3 years old now and has almost 50k miles on it already. We travel long road trips in it because my 6'2 husband says he would like to be able to straighten his legs out after being in a car for 8 hours and my little saturn ion he just can't.

Our vue gets pretty decent gas mileage but it didn't at first. It took proabably 5k miles or so to break it in for better mileage. I'm guessing we get around 19-20 in the city maybe just a little less but not much.

As your child gets older do you plan to car pool for activities or have more babies? Do you do long road trips? Do you just need the space? I hate sitting on top of each other in a car like in my little ion especially in road trips.

I haven't really looked at the new vue as I'm planning for the Saturn Outlook myself but does the new Vue have side curtain airbags? Also one big drawback now for us is tires for the vue. I just replaced the tires on our vue to the tune of $800+ but they were goodyears. Have you checked insurance rates?

 

[Jaycey'smom]

I love my Honda. I have had 2 accords and 1 civic in the past 10 years. My first accord had over 250K when I sold it and I still got $2500 for it!! My civic is a 1986 and it still runs!!! And my current Accord has over 100K (yes I drive ALOT!!) and runs great! We also have a 2007 Ford Taurus and a 1996 Chevy Caprice(DH's Baby ) and I like to drive the accord the best. So I would go for the Accord. They are very reliable and get great gas milage.

 

[rcpae]

Up front here is my biased opinion. HONDA My DH works for Honda in Ohio at the plant that makes the Accord. Great car!

 

[snowbunny]

Honda is a much better car. Reliable, never in the shop, starts and runs.

To those who say patronize American car manufacturers: happy to just as soon as they make the better cars (or even as-good-as Japanese cars), and that includes not buying cheap parts from China to put in Chevys and Fords. US auto executives are the last living dinosaurs on the planet.

 

[CowboyCO]

Personally, I would go with the Saturn, as it is made in the USA! While you might find a Honda "made" in the USA, the profits still go to foreign economies and our own economy needs all the help it can get! JMO!!!

Honda Accords are built in Marysville, Ohio and 75% percent of the parts are made in North America.The overall reliability of the Honda, according to Consumer Reports is excellent. The Saturn Vue is not so good...

 

[i3utterfli82]

I have a VUE and LOVE it!! I will always buy a Saturn. When this one is paid off I'm getting the Outlook.

 

[corndog]

Personally, I would go with the Saturn, as it is made in the USA! While you might find a Honda "made" in the USA, the profits still go to foreign economies and our own economy needs all the help it can get! JMO!!!

Normally I would say go with the Honda since it's not made in the USA, but in this case it is. The Accord is made in Marysville, Ohio. But a Honda made anywhere is better than any General Motors product.

 

[TarzansKat]

This is why I love the DIS! So many different opinons and all helpful!

To try to answer some of your questions. My DH primarily uses his car to go to and from work, which is less than a 20 minute commute, so his car does not need to be anything fancy. Hence the idea of us getting rid of his old car, and him taking my current Saturn instead of getting him a car.

Perhaps I didn't do my research correctly, but I didn't know last years had a 4 out of 5 rating. Sorry about that! Thanks for the positive posts on the Vue. My husband is 6 feet tall, and we are so uncomfortable on longer trips in my car which is the SL2...I think similar to previous poster's Ion.

And glad to hear someone likes the Accord too. I think my want for the Vue also stems from I would feel safer in an SUV, even if it's a compact one. I recently had a bad experience slipping on black ice in my car...I know it could happen in any car, but that got me to thinking about the safety ratings for my car, and let's just say they're not so great. That makes me feel kind of bad about pawning it off on DH, but his car's ratings aren't much better!

However, it runs, and I'm a very safe driver, so I do see the point about keeping it until we really need to expand. My only concern there was taking on a new car payment and new baby expenses all at once since we have talked about my staying home if we decide to add to our family. It wouldn't actually be staying home, but just not working day time hours and getting a part time (perhaps retail job) at night so I'm not shuffling two kids back and forth to my mother's, then going to work, then back to mom's to pick up, etc. Anyway, I'm rambling, that's a whole other topic. Thanks for listening, and keep the good opinons coming!

 

[mnasmom3]

American cars aren't all American. My '08 Saturn Vue has a sticker in it that says 30something percent of it is from Mexico.

BTW....I love my Vue. We also have an '07 Saturn Aura that dh loves and I hate.

 

[Tink113]

This is a no brainer! Well, for me anyway... I worked in an auto shop for 8 years as a service writer. Saturn is JUNK!!!!!! Let me say that again, Saturn is JUNK. Don't care about the bells, don't care about the price.... you will pay a ton in repairs.

Honda's barley need more then an oil change and the other fluids check until 105,000 miles. Pay no attention to the owner's manual! You can't tell me that every car and every condition is the same. It's not. Things will need to be done, when they need to be done....not just cause the car hit 30,000 miles!!!

I have had my Acura (Honda Brand) for 6 years and have never done much to it. Great car and really holds the value....unlike a Saturn.....

If i didn't make it clear, BUY THE HONDA!!!

 

[DiznEeyore]

This is a no brainer! Well, for me anyway... I worked in an auto shop for 8 years as a service writer. Saturn is JUNK!!!!!! Let me say that again, Saturn is JUNK. Don't care about the bells, don't care about the price.... you will pay a ton in repairs.

Yeah, I guess all of us who have driven Saturns for 100K-200K miles have been driving junk and didn't ever know it! Silly us!

OP, my dh is 6'3" and he loves driving our VUE. It's very comfortable for him, way more comfortable than his Civic. We had an ION that we traded in towards the VUE (yeah, that must've been JUNK too -- I made money on that trade-in ) because our ds was getting too tall to comfortably sit in the back of it. Plus, now I cart him and his teenage friends around and we have no legroom problems.

We all LOVE our JUNKY VUE!!!!!

 

[simonkodousek]

We've owned GM products for many years, and are just trading in our 1999 GMC Yukon for a 2008 GMC Acadia. The Yukon has been flawless; the only problem was the dealer. Anyway, I would go for the Saturn. Personally, I would much rather have an SUV than a sedan because of the safety and overall comfort (I'm 6').

If you REALLY want a reliable car, I would check out the Honda CRV. It is a small SUV, about the same size as the VUE without the price.

 

[ceecee]

We've been thinking of what to buy when our Olds Eighty Eight bites the dust...it has 190,000 on it now (mostly highway and gets 22 mpg) We haven't put much $ in it at all, my newer Ford Windstar is another story. So DH really wants a Honda or Toyota due to the reliability. I really want to buy American and thought of the Vue as well, disappointing they only get 19 mpg, I thought the sticker said 24 when I looked at them. Good to know Hondas are made in US, but still profits are probably not staying here.

 

[DiznEeyore]

If you REALLY want a reliable car, I would check out the Honda CRV. It is a small SUV, about the same size as the VUE without the price.

So the new VUE is more expensive than the CRV? That's interesting. The '07 CRV was more than our VUE. Of course our VUE is a bit bigger than the '08, too.

 

[DiznEeyore]

We've been thinking of what to buy when our Olds Eighty Eight bites the dust...it has 190,000 on it now (mostly highway and gets 22 mpg) We haven't put much $ in it at all, my newer Ford Windstar is another story. So DH really wants a Honda or Toyota due to the reliability. I really want to buy American and thought of the Vue as well, disappointing they only get 19 mpg, I thought the sticker said 24 when I looked at them. Good to know Hondas are made in US, but still profits are probably not staying here.

Yeah, unfortunately the newer VUE doesn't get the mileage the older models get for some reason. I do a mix of city/hwy driving every day and average about 23 mpg.

Also, I just read that several recent Toyota models have had a lot of recalls. They seem to have slipped in quality in the last couple of years for whatever reason. At least Honda doesn't seem to have that problem.