Buying Used Saturn

Hi Ken,

We bought our L-series wagon this past winter through Saturn. It had just came off of lease, 2 years old with 40K miles. original cost of vehicle with all options was about 23Kilobucks. We bought it for 10K. I didn't get the extra warranty since I'm fairly handy. Warranties are like throwing the dice... Car is definitely fun to drive. Not as much space as my previous minivan but better on gas. I may add a trailer hitch and get a utility trailer for hauling logs and the like. Good luck with your search. Oppie

I've got a 97SW2 with 128k and its been a practical car with few maintenance issues. Make sure you get one that's been well maintained. Poorly maintained Saturns suffer from oil burning, worn timing chains, and lots of annoying problems.

My biggest annoyances are the fit and dashboard rattles. I'm 5'll" and that sloping windshield means I'm looking through the top 4 inchs which the wiper blade doesn't cover (no I don't want to recline the seat!). Its also means I have to drop into the seat and watch my head on the door frame. The interior has lots of cheap plastic that buzzes and rattles OTOH I wasn't expecting a luxury car. Also the shifter (5sp) and stalk controls aren't very smooth. Drive it and see if you can live with it. There are better and worse cars out there and the S Saturns are a good value.

Mitch

My recommendation is also mixed. About a year ago I purchased a 2000 Saturn wagon, it is definitely good on gas. It had 19K on it when I bought it, now still only has 39K on it. Battery failed recently at 37K. Tires needed replacing at 37K, I guess that's typical for original tires. Interior plastic parts are more than annoying, the center console lid broke off, kick panel by the console keeps falling off, even though I keep regluing it...to me, the car feels real cheap and not durable. Brakes have always felt soft, braking is ok but not great. I have a feeling that if we have a winter (Wisconsin) of lots of snow, ice, and cold, this car will start showing it's age real fast. Of course I'm a '60s car hobbyist so I'm a little biased.

--I'd say go for it if you want a gas mileage champ. Saturns are known to be reliable...you could always spend a little more and buy a new one, that way you can have the dealer worry about it when things go wrong!

good luck,

Terry

you could always spend a little more and buy a new one, that way you can have the

I worked in military electronics for many years. If you go by the theory of the MIL/883 standard which calls for a (2000 hour?) burn-in interval on all parts, buying a used car makes sense. Buying milspec conditioned parts is equivalent to buying a new car and paying someone to put 30,000 miles on it before you take delivery . It is supposed to weed out the 'infant mortality' failures. When you look at average reliability over time, there are the 'infant mortality' failures in the beginning followed by a long low failure rate which is then followed by end of life with increasing failure rates. Back in the moon rocket era, the word was that if your color television had the same reliability factor as the rocket, your set would last 400 years without a service call. 'course it would also cost $2 Billion :-D

Thanks for the replies, folks! If I decide to go with a Saturn I will keep you posted. Thanks again, Ken

I have a 96 SW2 that I have had since new. It has had very low durability on the interior plastic items...annoyances, but not 'deal-breakers' in my book.

The deal breaker was the perfectly well-maintained engine throwing a rod at

42K and needing replacement. Warranty on these cars was 3/36 so I was stuck having to replace the motor.

Net-net. This is my first and last Saturn. Aside from that one time it never left me along the road. But overall it's been too vanilla and too cheesy to recommend when there are better alternatives out there. We bought a used 90 Honda Civic around the same time and it has has simply driven circles around the Saturn. Better handling, better mileage, lower repair costs. I know it's blasphemous to not recommend Saturn on this newsgroup, but ...

- Nick