2005 SATURN ION — Complaint #691478
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:FOG LIGHTS filed October 8, 2008
NHTSA complaint #691478 (ODI reference 10244723) concerns a 2005 SATURN ION and was filed on October 8, 2008. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 17, 2008. The vehicle had 44,075 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Texas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:fog lights, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same SATURN ION cohort independently describe similar exterior lighting:fog lights failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2005 SATURN ION shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL*THE CONTACT OWNS A 2005 SATURN ION. A MONTH AFTER PURCHASING THE VEHICLE, THE POWER STEERING WARNING INDICATOR ILLUMINATED ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL. THE CONTACT ATTEMPTED TO TURN THE STEERING COLUMN, BUT WAS UNSUCCESSFUL. SHE TURNED OFF AND THEN RESTARTED THE VEHICLE AND THE STEERING COLUMN RESUMED WORKING. SHE STATED THAT THE STEERING COLUMN LOCKED ON THREE OCCASIONS WHILE DRIVING. THE DEALER STATED THAT THE CAUSE OF THE FAILURE WAS AN ELECTRICAL ISSUE AND THEN REPAIRED THE VEHICLE. THE MANUFACTURER STATED THAT THEY WOULD NOT REIMBURSE HER FOR THE COST OF THE REPAIRS. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS UNKNOWN. UPDATED 12/10/08 *CN THE FOG LAMP WAS CRAXKED. UPDATED 12/16/08.*JB
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 691478 |
| ODI Number | 10244723 |
| Date Filed | October 8, 2008 |
| Failure Date | May 17, 2008 |
| VIN | 1G8AL52FX5Z |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.