When I first bought the Ion, I was blown away by the instrument panel (which is really cool, in my opinion, and allows for a smaller steering wheel which I actually like) and the color panels (an option they don't really push anymore) and so on. Nothing major mechanically has gone wrong. The engine has never failed me, and it's never gotten stuck in the snow so bad it needed to be pulled out. The only reason we bought this car is because it is a stick shift. The auto trans is incredibly boring.

That said, the car gets increasingly less intersting to drive as time goes on. Little things have gone wrong; speakers falling out of the door, a leak in the window that the dealership still hasn't been able to fix, cramped backseat (wtf are the cupholders doing by everyone's knees like that? It's loud and the carpeting has started to wear away. The interior paint has started to peel, but the exterior remains great.

Those polymer panels are actually life savers. I'd be in so much crap right now if it weren't for those. But having gone to the body shop a few times, they're very sensitive paint wise.

And there are oddball aspects of its design that should have sent up alarms somewhere. For instance, a really bright orange light shines in your eyes at night if you're on cruise control. The mirror's wires (if you get the auto-dimming one) are ugly. The fold down seats a) do not fold flat and b) are released by handles only found in the trunk and only smack dab in the middle of the trunk. There are no "oh Sh**"(OS) bars to grab onto. My shift knob (the actual thing I use to shift gears) has broken three times. The external mirrors are not painted and stick out like a sore thumb. The cruise control buttons are starting not to work. One of the seat-belts in the back randomly fell off once and disappeared.

All that and I've had the car for two years. We're selling it.

BUT! Nothing mechanically has ever gone wrong, anything that moves hasn't stopped moving, but anything that's supposed to stay still doesn't.

The service I've received has mostly been good. They won't, very often, tell you what went wrong with the car for your own edification. When I ask 'what was the problem?' often I'll get 'it's been fixed' as a response. Only to find that it actually hasn't been fixed. Sometimes I need to go to a two dealerships to get someone who knows what to look at/for.

In conclusion, I don't want to completely badmouth this thing. It is, overall, fun to drive. Do not get it in automatic. It's got a smooth sporty clutch, and good to excellent handling (probably mostly due to its nice wide wheels). I've seen some awsome tricked-out Ions. If you've got crap to haul around, the QuadCoupe is a bit sexier and much better for cargo. And, overall, you do get a lot more for your money than you would a Honda; Saturns do pack a lot of bang for the buck.
Amount Paid (US$): 20K
Condition: New
Model Year: 2003
Model and Options: AC, Leather, Sunroof, Upgraded Mirror