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For at least the past two years, my wife and I risked our lives. Every time one of us sat in the driver's seat of our 2006 Saturn Relay, we trusted the seat belt. It's a trust that's been shattered. Unfortunately, General Motors hasn't done anything to rebuild our confidence in their product.
On Monday, Oct. 11th, my wife was traveling in the minivan with her sister and our two boys to an orchard for a day of apple picking. While driving, she heard a "click" and felt her seat belt loosen. Initially, she thought it had come unlatched. Instead, she was stunned to find the entire anchor plate had popped out from under her seat. She went from feeling securely protected by airbags and a taut seat belt to feeling intense unease.
She was uneasy. After receiving a phone call from her, I was downright paranoid. Why? Well, my wife and I were in a nasty car accident during the summer of 2006. The accident broke her back, which fortunately healed well. I was bruised and in shock. Our first son, then an infant, was thoroughly protected in his car seat. Ultimately, our 2004 Saturn VUE was totaled. But it saved our lives. It made me a big believer in the life-saving capability of working seat belts. At the same time, losing my wife or kids in a car accident became my worst fear.
So, when it came time to purchase a new vehicle, we bought our Relay. It had improved protection: side impact airbags, reduced-force front airbags, and electronic stability control. We bought it primarily for its safety features. I thought I had done enough research. I thought I could rely on the Saturn brand. I invested in the vehicle because I was a loyal Saturn owner. For example, I still drive a 1996 Saturn SL2. It's still going strong with over 193,000 miles on the odometer.
The Saturn Relay was the most expensive vehicle I ever purchased. It became my worst investment.
Since then we've had numerous problems. After reading a number of posts on Edmunds.com, I gather that other Relay owners share my experiences. Incidentally, the Relay is the same vehicle sold as a Chevrolet Uplander, a Buick Terraza or a Pontiac Montana SV6. Here's my list of complaints:
- Our Relay was in the shop three times to fix a leak that caused a wiring connector to short out. That, in turn, caused the vehicle to stall periodically.
- There have been numerous electrical annoyances including flickering headlights and warning messages that appear/disappear at random.
- The automatic sliding doors periodically refuse to close. On other occasions they close, but a warning message and chime indicate the door is not secure after we start driving.
- A few months ago I was using the cruise control, and the vehicle started to rev oddly. It automatically kicked the vehicle out of cruise control.
But nothing was more egregious than  the seat belt problem. Fortunately, my brother-in-law was available to help my wife. He diagnosed the problem, took some pictures, and bolted the seat belt bracket into its proper place.
It appears that the seat belt anchor bracket and seat itself share a bolt. In this case, the bolt was not threaded through the anchor bracket, only through the seat bracket. The only thing securing the seat belt was the force of the seat weighing down on the anchor bracket.
My guess is that in a serious accident, perhaps even in a minor one, the anchor bracket would have worked loose. I can just envision it whipping around the passenger cabin. I don't want to think about what would happen to the driver, most likely my wife, without the protection of a seat belt.
Editor's Note: Read more in Part 2 of this three-part series tomorrow on CR4.
Photo courtesy of Hans Drews, used with permission.
This post is a consolidation of various posts found on the author's personal blog at thisordinarycitizen.wordpress.com. The author is grateful to CR4 for graciously providing the opportunity to share this story on their website.
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Re: Saga of the Unsafe Seatbelt – Part 1
