Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum and want some insight and guidelines on a Saturn SL or SW. I need to buy a car within the next week before my next school semester begins. I will be driving an average of 50 to 70 miles for 4-5 days a week, and 20 miles a day for the other 2-3 days. I have $2000 cash and live in the LA area. I need a car that can handle this mileage (hwy mostly) and will be gas efficient and easy/cheap to maintain and repair. Should I be looking at Saturns or is this a bad idea?

After scouring craigslist for the past few days, I have a list of potential Saturns I would like to buy. I don't have a car right now (saved up through summer for enough money to buy one) so borrowing a car and driving around is going to be tough. I'd like to get a lot of my car shopping "homework" done before I get out to inspect the cars...

I asked the sellers over the phone for the usual suspects of an unreliable car, such as

• does the car leak or burn oil?
• do you have to add a quart or two every few weeks?
• what were some of the last maintenance or repairs done to the car?
• does the car ever overheat?
• how does the car idle?

If Saturns have good gas mileage and are easy/cheap to repair, what else should I be asking the seller and what other specifics should I be looking for when I inspect the vehicle?

What are the "good years" and the "bad years" and what models are the best from a reliability standpoint?

The ones I have found range from 1996 to 2001 and are all under or around $2000.

I appreciate everyone's input and help. Thanks!

 

In my opinion your questions are good ones, the answers are probably going to be cadged a bit. The Saturn S cars have proven to be a reliable and enjoyable car to own, if you like owning a car and I do. The company is Kaput, GM will supply bits and pieces for while and dealer service if needed. This is going to drive the prices down.
Right now decent S cars are showing up. The best ones are not going to be on Craigs list just because the people who probably took the best care of them don't deal with Craigs list. But nothing wrong with looking.
The engine has a reputation of oil consumption unfortunatly but Oil is cheap. Living in the S.W. myself, owning a Saturn and dealing with a service fleet my suggestion would be buy one with the lowest mileage you can find and change the oil to something heavier that will deal with L.A. heat which will also help combat oil consumption in the long run. 'Specially if it doesn't burn oil yet. And my 1994 doesn't.
I use now and did when I was in L.A. 20W50 which is a legitimate heat related alternative although getting hard to find, 10W40 seems to be easy enough though and I would use that too.
There is a sensor on the engine on the drivers side of the cylinder head that is prone to failure giving false indications of overheating or failure of the electric fan causing actual overheating. Read the forums for references. Depending on the years, there are one or two. Change them when you buy the car, try to find brass rather than non-brass (plastic?) for reliability purposes.
Also have the transmission serviced if the mileage is anywhere around 100,000 miles + as a precaution.
The cars are easy to work on, satisfying to drive and own. The sun roof is an SOB to keep operational, I like mine, I've spent a ton on it. I would not recommend one with a sun roof unless you like one and pain. Any car 10 years old+ is a gamble and the more mileage the bigger the gamble.
As a friend of mine once said while running a wrecking yard and rebuilding Saturns for his rent to own market;
I love Saturns, they are easy to repair, last for ever and will run 400,000 miles when I sell them.