Smart move. I hate hybrids, but why should I stand in the way of capitalism. This also tells you something. THIS HYBRID-HYPE isn’t all its cracked up to be.

Nobody is going to buy these. Gas prices are down and it is embarrassing to be seen driving an Imported vehicle. The Volt is going to make much mroe economic sense and environmental impact when it arrives. It will polute the earth much less because it won’t be rusting into the ground 2 years after comes out from the factory. The Volt like any GM will last 10 times as long as some POS Honda will

^^^not so sure about that buddy, maybe a truck but gm lost it’s car quality sometime during the 60’s

Based on reviews from auto-pundits Insight drives pretty much like Civic. For a hybrid it is not bad, for non-hybrid it’s not to bad either. If it is in Civic price range with similar interior volume, it may sell. At least it will give competition for Prius and choice for environment conscious among us.

Valenburg; 2007 Honda Accord and 2007 Saturn AURA. Which one has the timing belt and which one has the timing chain? Answering that, which one has lower cost of maintenance?

Perception gets you every time.

Zcar – Depends on which one needs to be replaced…..

dont tell me that the aura is more reliable because we have one in the dealer all the time! what good is the engine when you cant steer the DAMN THING!!!!!!!!! and it defininetly has not had a low cost of maintenance at all!!!!!

there is nothing wrong with timing belts! they are cheaper to repair. you can do it yourself!!
super expensive to repair a timing chain, and you can’t do it yourself!

The belt on a Honda is good for 60 thousand miles. The car however, won’t. A timing chain will last the life of the vehicle.

Saturn Aura is better than Accord, eveyone knows that

Buy American. Buy GM

well if they move production here they’ll save on costs of importing that grille off of old fusions.

Which one tends, historically, to last longer? Anyway, hybrids and electric vehicles suck. Volt, Insight, Prius, etc. they all suck. You’ll see the environmental impact when all these hybrids go to the boneyard.

Nothing will replace the sound of a V8 with headers. Furthermore, Honda needs to bring out a V-8!

idrinorbarsaku, I’m sorry for your trouble with your AURA, friend. Lemon law your car. I’m sure that this is an isolated incident.

idrinorbarsaku, dont get me started on Audi and timing belts. $6,300 in repairs, snapped timing belt 15,000 miles before the recommended change for one. Not to mention the average cost of changing the timing belt runs about $1000-$1200 as the whole front end needs to be taken off of the damn car. If only it was a chain. Or designed like an american car.. so you dont have to rip off the whole face.

zcar, your comments are totally irrelevant…V8??? Do you know that the total price to replace a timing chain can cost a couple thousand bucks??? I’m guessing you might know that a timing belt costs about 30 bucks, and you can do it yourself in less than 5 minutes!

NMOFGM,
everyone knows you are pretty much the dumbest person alive!

we actually tried to talk to them(dealer) about our aura’s problems and they got all pissed at us or something like it is our fault! Is there a limit of how many miles you can drive before the lemon law is no longer affective? our has about 27000 miles and the steering knocks whenever who turn the steering, or start to accelerate, or go over bumps. it is SO LOUD!!!

thats why i got worried about saturn being sold, because if our own saturn dealer struggles to fix it, how can another dealer fix it any better?!?!?

Again, depending on the car, you cannot do it yourself in less than 5 minutes. Im sure the timing chain dilemma runs parallel with timing belts, there are cheap fixes and expensive fixes, and a timing chain will last longer. Like i said it will cost you $1200 or so routinely on an audi to replace the timing belt, which should be done to stay on the safe side by 80,000 miles. Timing chains under normal conditions are designed to last to 140,000-150,000 miles. Granted if you load up your car with aftermarket parts you will see a drop in the life of both, but they are both an issue of design as a whole, not as prefererence of timing method.

A4, my dad had an audi a6 company car back in 2001. the timing chain lost the connecting pin or something while we were driving to toronto. it ended up costing $4XXX in new chain(that shipped from germany because they did not stock them), and also for labor. Luckily for us, it was only a company car that audi pays for. My 2006 jetta had a timing chain and I didn’t have a problem for over 39000 miles. No I have an 08 passat. hope it goes just as well…thats all i ask because its a lease…as well as our ****ty AURA XR!!!!!!!!

Depending on the state you live in. Go to the dealer and ask for a lemon law book. When you do, and it qualifies under lemon law…HURRY AND PUSH HARD LIKE THE BIGGEST A-HOLE! Saturn loves to stall you out so the lemon law is no longer valid.

A4,
i agree with your last comment.
Whats really dumb is that some companies…aka…AUDI…VW…MERCEDES…BMW…caddy…and others, have policies that voids your power train warranty if you change your timing belt yourself……WTF????

and, generally, if your car is rwd/awd, the timing belt/chain will be towards the front bumper. if it is fwd, it will be on the left/right side of the car.

so, in our case, it is no longer valid?

Thanks all the same Honda, but since I know how to drive a standard transmission I’ll just take one of your regular old Civics that might actually still be fun to drive.

As for the V8 comments. I’m not buying this Hybrid-Hype. Apparently because of the source of this article, no one else is either. Americans want power and speed. At least that’s what I want.

Congressmen that receive money from Greenpeace and the Sierra Club want you to drive tiny little cars that don’t offend anyone. That’s why gas is so expensive, that’s why several years ago congressmen were attacking the SUV.

i will never buy a hybrid! mainly because they are all BORING, SLOW, and have a higher chance of technical problems.

Every Saturn I have ever road in or drove honestly seemed unroadworthy.

Thanks, but I’ll hang onto my 2 Hondas (1 @ 260k, the other at 190k miles) and simply replace the belt as recommended.

A timing chain does not make a car.

idrinorbarsaku, once again I’m sorry for that sh***y experience with your AURA, but the same thing can and has happened at many import dealers as well.

Still not a big fan of hybrids, I don’t think they make that much economic sense.

NMOFGM

60k miles out of a honda? There are people in their old NSXs racking up 300k and still going trouble-free. Timing chains are more durable but when something goes wrong they’re a b*tch to replace. My friend replaced his cause it broke in the first 20k miles in his ion. He now wishes he had bought a used civic.

yeah, no doubt, **** can happen to any car on earth. but, we keep on falling for gm cars based on what they look and always end up getting screwed! the only gm car we(my dad, i’m done with gm) will ever consider is a suburban/tahoe/avalanche

Enough already. First the timing belt on Hondas last 105k, not 60 and if you knew your sh*t you would know that 4 cylinder Hondas have Timing Chains not belts. Fact other then GM trucks, Honda, Toyota, even Nissan cars last A LOT longer then any GM product of late. While you are import bashing, keep in mind your precious Big Three are closing US plants and moving production overseas, mainly to Asia, and Latin America. The only manufacturers that are opening plants in the US, and Hiring US Workers are what you call Import companies, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes, ect. Also, Honda is the largest Exporter of cars back to Japan. Don’t wine about where the profits go, because most of these companies are publicly held, so the profits go to the shareholders where-ever they are., usually pension funds. And by the way, all you Buy American folks, where was that tv set you watched the Super Bowl made on, or the Microwave you reheated your dinner in? What about your Nike sneaks, or Work boots, or tools for that matter. The shirt on your back was probably either made outside of the US, or the fabric was. Face it, not much is still made in the US. Do you only fly airlines that use boeings?, and only buy gas from companies that sell US fuel, even if it costs more then the stuff from the Middle East?
Get off your High Horse of Buy American Only, unless you can prove to me that everthing you own was completely made and assembled in the US. It aint possible any more. So grow up!!!!

Honda manual suggest changing timing belt after 90K miles. I did it on several Hondas. I also had GM car that never made it thus far, at least under my ownership. It was POS breaking from 4K miles and GM dealer stunk even worse. Yes, the change of timing belt is expensive, but it is less costly then replacing every wearable component of GM car after 5 months after purchase: brake pads, warped front rotors, never ending saga with locking rear wheels during braking (non functioning ABS), broken rack and pinion and list goes on.

Wow, I stirred a pot with the timing belt/chain thing.

+1 enough bs. Accord 4-cylinder engines have had timing chains since 2003 and Civics have had timing chains since 2006.

enough bs
THANK YOU!!!!

@enough bs

“Do you only fly airlines that use boeings?”

Yep, I only fly Southwest.

Right there with you, Payton.

@enough bs

Thank you… that is all.

I should stayed with 4 cylinder like my 1993 accord. My V6 2008 accord have a timing belt and consumes/burns one quart of oil per 1000 mile.

I saw this at the detroit Auto show, its a nice idea, but WHY does it look EXACTLY like the Prius? Thats not good.

Hmmm, if sales get big enough, they’ll build it in the US. Well, if they built it in the US, I’d buy one. Who’s gonna blink?

If it’s going to be a Prius-knockoff that’s 20% LESS efficient, I woant a 20% knock-off of the Prius price
I have no problem with you trying to run with the big dog
Just have a sound strategy
Competition is good
Prius is better
DrFilll

Hondas and Toyotas don;t last the life of their timing belts. It’s a known fact that japcrap is cheap, unreliable and low quality. Everyone would rather drive a GM vehicle anyways so this POS is merely a waste of bandwidth. This is a GM fan site. let’s keep it that way.

What’s good for GM is good for America. Do the right thing and buy one today.