I've had my '01 lw300 now for a year (it's going in tomorrow to Saturn
for the NY state inspection). Got mine with 40K miles having come off
of a lease. Paid about 10K for a loaded car that originally went for
23K. All told, no complaints and the car is fun to drive.
I did have a few hiccups - while under 60 day waranty, noticed that
the traction control/ ABS lights did not com on at engine start
Dealer wound up replacing the Body control module (one of the
computers). Also had to replace the canister vent solenoid at 50K
miles. That I did myself with the help of a code reader and the
factory service manual (
www.helminc.com) Manual was $140 and the
soleniod was $20.
While in the shop tomorrow I'm going to ask whether they can reprogram
the liftgate latch to stay unlocked until the doors are locked.
Currently liftgate stays unlocked for 2 minutes or until the first
time it is opened. The other item that is slitly disconcerting is the
cruise control. I was going the other day at about 50mph on a flat
road with the cruise control on. Tach showed about 1500 rpm and it was
in top gear with the torque converter locked up. (so far so good). The
road took a slight rise and the speed started to fall off then BAM,
torque converter unlocks, transmission downshifts 2 gears and rpm goes
to 5K. It plastered me against the seat back but tapered off when it
got back to 50mph. Not exactly the optimal control algorithm but it
hasn't shown any fault codes. Will let Saturn figure this one out. In
the mean time, I just use cruise control on level ground.
Oppie