Ha. Just got back my Sahara from Shimano. Yep, I think the series is a lemon, in general. I bought mine new from a sports shop on ebay. It seemed to work fine at first, but if I ever cranked on it for an hour or so (throwing spinners, for example), the reel would eventually gum up to the point it was difficult to crank.

I sent it back to the shop with an explanation, and they emailed me asking for $10 repair cost and then sent it back to me ("fixed."). Same thing kept happening.

So I looked up Shimano's warranty info, and sent the reel in with a note explaining the situation. I figured if they asked for repair fee I'd tell them to keep it. They didn't, though, and just sent me a new reel last week. It hasn't been tested yet.

Funny thing is I still have Sedonas from 10-15 years ago that work fine compared to that Sahara. I've heard other people have had problems too.