98 SL2 value?

From the few options and the short discription you listed "Kelley Blue Book" shows me a value of $3590 bucks. At a Repo Auction this car might bring $1800-$2500 bucks...but I havent been to an auction in awhile.

Is that dealer offer on a trade, or the dealer sale price? I get $5980 for the dealer sale price on kbb.com, so $3800 sounded good to me (especially seeing as I'll be trading a full time 4WD Explorer with twice the mileage) but I wanted to check around to play it safe. You know how it goes... you think you've got a great deal then 2 weeks later an even better one pops up :-)

$3590 was Private Party value, I didn't click many options. If you get any lines from a dealer like "a school teacher owned it" or "some lil ol lady owned it" dont believe it. Those are typical dealer sales pitches. The guy selling it usually doesnt know where it came from. $3800 sounds "fair" but if thats the price after the trade in it isn't unless your Exploders junk.

Btw Full Time 4WD is better wrote as AWD (all wheel drive).

Luckily I didn't get any lines. However, the car didn't run as well as it looked. Fairly heavy buzz/vibration at low RPM (my left leg was vibrating slightly leaning against the door) and 3 out of the 4 power windows had problems going up and down. He pre-empted my complaint about the windows by saying that he had motors coming in for replacement, and said he'd "have the buzz looked at" and will call me later in the week to take another look/drive. I let him know I wasn't impressed at all with the car. I had told him before driving it that I previously owned an SL2 so he knew I had experience driving them. The $3800 was the sticker price, my Exploder's in good condition, new tires, all maintenance done on time and with the paperwork saved. This SL2 did drive fine, plenty of pickup and go, save for the buzz when idling at lights and stops.

Thanks for the tip, I'm a dunce when it comes to cars :-)

Your best and most accurate resources are Kelly Blue Book

ans to pick up a Black Book. Those are what dealers use and they are usually more accurate then Edmunds.

marx404

I paid $4,400 for a 98 SL2 about two weeks ago. Manual trans, no sun roof and 62k miles. I had to buy 4 new tires, too.

$3,800 sounds like a deal to me if the windows are all repaired ahead of time.

The vibration is most likely the upper engine mount. That's a DIY project, but make the dealer do it anyway (why scrape your knuckles?).

Good luck...

Warning: This is my first Saturn, so I'm NOT an expert. I get all my info from this forum and saturnfans.com...

Thanks for the advice. The lot still hasn't called me back yet re: repairs, and I've since found at least 2-3 better deals locally. One '96 SL1 was immaculate and only 53K mi on it, I just hesitate to grab a car any older than a '98. While the miles are low, I'm always worried about the aging of parts. Yeah I know I'm probably being overly paranoid :-)

I'm going to hit some more lots this weekend who don't have websites so I can see their inventory.

-Russ

The one I bought, I spotted on autotrader, if that helps.

I've had this car just over two weeks, but I really do like it. I've been getting between 32 and 35 miles per gallon depending on traffic and use of the AC. My commute is almost 60 miles each way, so this was a good find for me.

There's a lot to like....