- Reliability - Handling - Acceleration (especially at low speeds) - Finish --- my car still looks almost new!

- Interior fixtures are cheap with some rough edges. - Turn indicator handle is stiff and clunks when moving up or down. - Seats are low for a tall person!

Bought this car brand new in 1998 and have been happy with it overall (now have 82K miles on it). My previous cars were 83 and 87 Honda Civics and an 88 Toyota Corolla, so it was a leap of faith that I bought American, but so far I have not been disappointed. Overall, this car has required LESS maintenance than the Civics and Corollas and has more power and very positive handling. Here is a list of my repairs, other than regular maintenance (I had a 30K service at 52K miles ($230) and several "6K" services for around $100 each): 1. Replaced battery after 3 years at around 40K miles. 2. Replaced OEM Firestone tires with Michelin Weatherwise tires at 55K miles. These tires are good in rain, so-so in snow. Also got alignment. Total = $400 3. Fixed detached windshield washer (probably due to snow freezing lines) at 68K miles. About $50. 4. Upper engine mount had to be replaced (caused entire car to rattle) at 68K miles - $200 5. Replaced leaky right-rear brake cylinder at 68K miles (~ $200) 6. Battery replaced at 8 yrs, 82K miles ($120 including diagnostics - alternator, starter, diodes good still) 7. Resurfaced front rotors at 82K miles (braking was uneven due to non-rounded rotors). $150 Total cost of non-preventative maint. over 8 years: approx $1000 Total cost of preventative maint =~ $500 Recently got tires due to my dissatisfaction with the Michelin Weatherwise tires (about half their tread was left, but they don't do great in snow). Got Yokohama Aegis LS4 tires for $300. So, in summary, no car is maintenance free and I consider my Saturn to be relatively reliable compared to my previous cars! Handling is great - very firm steering and acceleration is more than adequate. This is the kind of car where you can feel the road and hear it.. not meant to be a luxury car! My old civics/corollas had numerous problems with brakes, axle boots, transmissions, oil burning, you name it and I recall spending thousands on each one after getting past 30 or 40K miles!!

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1983 Honda Civic 1987 Honda Civic 1988 Toyota Corolla 1989 Honda Accord

- Good gas mileage. - Seems to retain oil levels well past 3000 miles if you dont get to changing it until around 4 or 5000 - Great handling and smooth ride - Quiet engine and drive

- A bit cramped in the back for any adult passengers - Eats tires faster than the rated mileage on them - I am still a bit concerned over a manifold issue of the engine intake system at less than 65,000 miles.

Reading through the Saturn reviews on the Sl series it looks like the general users have about a 50-50 opinion on them. So here is my 2 sense. I bought this car over 2 years ago and other than oil changes every 3-5000 miles, I have not had to do anything much to it. So I guess maybe I bought one of the 50% manufactured with quality??? I did replace the tires at 50,000K but I was told that Saturns are notorius for "eating" tires and you will never get the full mileage rating of a tire out of it when on a Saturn. Dont know if that is a myth or not. I did have an issue with it this week for the first time. I have approx. 64,890 miles on it. It was bought with under 300. It has some problems starting and catching spark. Turns out the battery tested bad and the battery cable was corroded. The "Service Engine Soon" light also started coming on frequently. I thought maybe something about it being cold outside. Turns out there is a "small leak" in my intake manifold gasket. This is causing the engine to ever so slightly misfire and that trips the SES light. Nothing major other than the annoying Service Engine Soon light comin on right? Maybe. But does it sound a bit premature for a manifold gasket on an engine to have a problem with less than 3 years use and under 65,000 miles to any of you mechanics or car buffs? I am not sure. I am finding out though that not just Saturn, but GMs in general have been notorius for manifold gasket leaks. Who knows. Other than a recent $200 repair for battery/cable/diagnostic with a $217 estimate to replace the manifold gasket leak issue, I have had no stress

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First car was a 1986 Pontiac LeMans. One word. Junk. French import made to be sold as Pontiac. More trouble then worth. Bought for $4800. Put $3500 in work over owning for 2 1/2 years - 1989 Ford Mustang. Fabulous car. Never had an issue. Bought for $4500. Put maybe $1500 in it over a period of 4 years. If I had $3000 to overhaul some body work and engine, it would still be around - 1992 Chrylser LeBaron. The anti-christ of vehicles. Bought for $4300. Was dead with a burned out tranny under 1 year of ownership and estimated $2500 repair. Engine leaked oil all over. Had 52,000 original miles on it, but after almost 10 years. probably had dry rot on every gasket.

The glove compartment, never fell apart once. Piece of ....!

Everything but the glove compartment.

First things first, this is the biggest bucket of bolts Jalopy, and when I do say bucket of bolts I do mean bucket of bolts because everything in this car rattles to an extreme. It actually depresses me that I still own the piece of .... The transmission is a flaming piece of crap. The check engine light is on so much I am starting to get a sunburn. The trunk no longer opens, the tail lights.. oops I mean what tailights, they are shot! Power windows- non existent. Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall the car is always HOT. This car is like Frankenstein because it has so many other parts on it, it is ridiculous. I have spent over 2000 dollars on this car in the last six months. Don't you love when you wake up in the morning and your car wont go into reverse. Recently the car had an unknown object on the bottom scraping the streets, it sound like we had "just got married cans" on the back of our car. Oh and the best part it squeeled like the devil was stabbing at from hell. Here is what is funny, if you buy this car, in the warranty you need to ask if it comes with a bus pass because you will always be on it. PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS CAR!!!

Nice, cheap, and so far trouble-free plastic car : ) (I'm at 50,000km right now) Great on gas.

Not for tall people. DH (6'1") can barely drive it, he's so cramped. Usually I drive and he's in the passenger seat, which is fine because the steering column isn't in the way of his knees. Back seat isn't much good except for cargo space or small children. And yes, it's noisy. I don't care, though. I know I didn't buy a Honda. I didn't pay for one, either. I have a small leak in the trunk, too.

I purchased my Saturn SL new in Oct '02. I've been pretty happy with it. It's got its shortcomings, but I can forgive a lot when I think of what I paid for it...that figure is in Canadian $, and it included taxes, freight & licence. It's a five-speed...no trouble there at all. It gets me where I need to go and I've had no mechanical problems at all in the nearly two years I've owned it. As for the service, I really don't know because I haven't needed any. I get my oil changes & other maintenance elsewhere.

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I bought it after driving my mother's 97 SL1 for a while. That was another trouble-free car, except for an alternator problem which was an obvious factory defect, but that the dealership (same one) refused to cover.

Plenty of power. Big trunk. Great gas mileage. Dent resistant body panels. Safety ratings.

Small interior, especially in the back. Finding an honest maintenance worker.

Overall, the car is good for the price. Acceleration, braking, safety ratings, etc. I bought the car new about 2 years ago and the only problems I have had are dealing with one particular saturn dealer and the small space in the back seat. Dealing with the dealer was easily solved by going to a different saturn dealer. The car performs well as an "out of the box" 4 cylinder too, not really any complaints from the engine compartment. Trunk space is good too. All in all, if you're looking for something economical and easy on maintenance this is the car to have.

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1986 Honda Accord 1982 Ford Escort 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix

It runs is all I can say

workmanship, customer service, call Saturn Corp this past Friday., they keep apology to me, all they can do is forward a complaint, and that is it.

lack of customer service, Saturn will not help me at all, with the paint, they can't even verify if its been hit or not. Also can't even tell if its been repainted or not. This car has less than 40,000 miles on it. This car is crap, owned since 9/12/03 already have spent $868.14 on this car so far for repairs, and now have to have the rear door replaced due to paint peeling along with another window regulator put in, this is the second time, for that I have paid this for the opposite door. This car was bought used, at first loved it now hate it. The car is falling apart a little at a time, Saturn Corp, is no help at all. If anyone else has had problems with their paint peeling I would like to know about it.

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1999 Honda Civic EX coupe

Pick up and go is decent for the engine size. Dent resistene doors Good gas mileage Thats about where the strenghts end.

Engine design is VERY VERY poor. Poor quality of car. VERY POOR RELIABILITY! Less than adequate service by technicians.

This car has been an absolute joke! I purchased the car back in 2002, and it had about 47000 miles on it at the time. I had problems before I got to 51000 miles. My left front strut was leaking, my intake manifold gasket was leaking, and both of these were supposed to be covered under warrenty, but Saturn tried to back out on paying my $800 bill. I had to fight with them to get them to pay it. I was on my third set of rotors by the time I got to 79000 miles, not due to my driving, but due to Saturn's extremely poor design. While I do have to admit that the car gets excellent gas mileage, that's compensated by the fact that I have to put about a quart of oil in every two weeks. When I asked Saturn about this, they said it was "normal." I had to have my nut on my transmission replaced after it started banging into reverse hard enough to knock your teeth out. The charge for this $400. I had a problem with my check engine light coming on twice a week for about a month and a half. Everytime I would take it to the dealer and they would ask me, "are you sure you put your gas cap on tight?" After comvincing them that I am not stupid and can put a gas cap on, they finally looked into it and determined that my coolant temperature sensor was bad. Did it really take a month and a half of me being at the dealership every Monday and every Friday to figure this out? The people at the dealership were extremely friendly when I purchased my car, but the service department left much to be desired afterward. When I took my car in because when I used the "low" setting on my windshield wipers, they still functioned on delay, the service rep stood right next to my car and watched in happen, but when the technician looked at it three different times, it supposidly "would not duplicate the problem." Convienient that it strated doing it all the time and when I use my turn signal just AFTER my warrenty expired. I have much better luck taking my Saturn to the local GMC dealer who also services Saturns, and I get much better more honest service. Everything on this car rattles! I'm waiting for my door to fly off while I'm driving down the road. While the dent resistent panels are nice, I think I'd trade them for having something that didn't sound like it was going to shake apart. The car pings like it screaming in agony while being tortured to death. I consider myself a very car savvy girl, and I take very good care to make sure that all routine maintenance is done, but it still sounds terrible. Dealer response, "it's normal." As far as size, it's fine for me, (I'm 5'3) but my husband gets mad everytime he sits in my car and his head hits the ceiling. Back seat is fine for short people and kids, but forget trying to get average height adults in comfortably. I have to say that for being a 1.9L and only having 124 horses, the car actually has quite a bit of pick up and go. Nothing to rant and rave about, but definataly suprising. In short, I don't recommend Saturns to anyone unless they love headaches. I recommend buying a nice used Honda instead. My parents old 1983 Pontiac (with 215000 miles) is more reliable than my Saturn. As soon as my car is paid off, I'm getting rid of it.

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1983 Pontiac J2000 1997 Pontiac Grand Am

It gets great gas milage - I'm averaging 30 to 35 mpg, with both city and freeway driving. (nice change from my '92 bonneville, which got about 14 mpg). I like the way the car handles, and the brakes are fantastic so far. The seats are fairly comfortable, but I wouldn't want to take it on any long trips. The dent resistant side panels are great, and they WORK. Also, the car looks pretty slick for a dorky Saturn, and I'm just happy to finally own a car that doesn't look like it was pulled out of a junkyard.

Since day one, the ignition has locked up 1 out of every 4 times I try to start it. I jiggle the key back and forth a few times, and then it starts. Well, last week I went out to start it, and the key wouldn't go into the ignition. I could force it in about a quarter of an inch, and then I'd have to pull as hard as I could to get it back out. We called the dealer, and they said they'd never heard of this happening with a Saturn before, but we'd have to come in and probably get the ignition re-calibrated. A couple days later I had a friend look at it. All he did was push on the key-hole with his thumb, and whatever was jammed up inside unjammed, and now the key goes in just fine. Other than that, the only problems I have with it are minor. The interior looks and feels cheap, but what do you expect from a cheap car. I can't stand the flimsy visors; when I move them around, they feel like they're about to snap in half, and neither one has a mirror on it. There's no ashtray, and no power anything (which may be a good thing, I've heard about a lot of problems with power windows and locks on Saturns). The factory stereo is not very good, but the speakers are alright. Acceleration is decent for a car with a small engine, but poor with the AC on. All things considered, I would buy a Saturn again.

Overall, I like the car. I bought it with about 65k miles on it just over three months ago, and have put about 3,000 miles on it since. It had new tires at the time of purchase. Have had only one "major" problem, which was easily fixed. There isn't much space inside, which is fine for me because I'm small, and I like the fact that my short arms can easily reach all the radio controls. But some of my taller friends feel a little cramped in it, especially in the backseat. It has a pretty good sized trunk for a car with such a "cozy" interior.

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1989 Dodge Omni (loved that little car, unfortunately I crashed it.) 1992 Pontiac Bonneville (what a piece of junk, absolutely EVERYTHING went wrong with it.)

Gas mileage.

Very unreliable.

After 50k miles this terrible car has cost me thousands. Here is the list. Brakes, clutch, clutch cables, battery, fuel line crack, engine cooling fan, alternator, adding oil every few weeks and ignition switch. I have 60k miles on it. I will NEVER buy another Saturn.

Inexpensive to run Very reliable (at least my model was). My '98 Envoy was in the shop 3 times for every time the Saturn made a trip there.

Underpowered, especially with the AC going or 1 or more other adults in the car. Able to compensate somewhat with manual transmission. The whole 'rain on the interior when you open the door' situation. Crappy stereo with even crappier speakers. The thing could have been a 2-seater for all the rear legroom it offered. My kids were fine back there, but I rarely made adults sit there unless they were practiced in the art of yoga. Low to the ground. No big deal when I bought it at a spry age 30. At 37, it became a real pain to get in and out of -- I would have to turn completely to the side, get both my feet under me and rise up to get out. When getting in I would have to slide my ass in at just the right angle or I'd bang my knee painfully against the steering column. 100% worse when I was wearing all my cop gear. Virtually no head room. I sometimes found it difficult to even wear a ballcap while driving.

Bought this car when my wife forgot to change (or even check) the oil in her Tracker for 20,000 miles. Then she wanted to know why her car was belching out black smoke. And we still owed over half on the thing. Oy vey! Got a great deal on the Saturn back in '97 when we bought it because it had hail damage on the roof, trunk and hood. So much for dent-resistant panels (only on the sides, I found out). No big deal to us, since we planned on driving it into the ground. It only had 20,000 miles on it at the time. A very reliable car for the 7 years we owned it. Sure, it was base -- about as base as you can get -- but it had AC and a stereo, my only two necessary luxuries. Trips to the shop were not outrageously expensive and comparable with what I was paying to have my other vehicle worked on. I think the most expensive repair was when I had the exhaust system replaced for about $400. No major engine problems to speak off -- at least none that I can recall. But once it hit about 125K, it started eating oil. The last year or so of its life I would check the oil every Monday and usually put a quart in every 2 weeks or so (about every 800 miles). One of the plugs started fouling at about 140K and the mechanic suggested a $900 repair job. I told him to stuff it and just kept spare plugs and a plug socket in the trunk. If the engine started sputtering, I pulled over and replaced the plug. The mechanic said I'd be doing it every week. In reality, it was about every 3 months. The most annoying problem began at around 100K. Rust began to form right at the front of the roof along the windshield. No big deal for a while until water started leaking in during downpours. The body shop I consulted said it would be about a grand to fix it. I said screw that and covered the affected areas with clear silicone caulk. Didn't do much for the looks of the car...but let's face it; if I were overly concerned about looks I wouldn't be driving a 95 Saturn SL. The repair didn't take and got progressively worse. By the end of its life, the car would leak in just about any rain. No big deal if you live in the desert. I live in Wisconsin. We're not exactly Seattle, but we get our fair share of precipitation. In the end, I would check the weather forecast in the morning and try to avoid taking the car out of the garage any time the forecast included anything more than a drizzle. The vehicle gave up the ghost last week. Final mileage...167,000 miles. My overall opinion is good. A cheap car that got great mileage and lasted to almost 170,000 miles without any major repairs. I could have done a lot worse. But once it hit about 160,000, things started to go fast. Parts of the interior began breaking off. It began bur

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'81 Audi 4000. God, I miss that car.