I have a 97 sl2 and my son a 96sc2. Both of our saturns are pushing
160k and are running great. We've done our maintenence and it shows. My son is lookin to purchase a 2001 sl2 but if I remember right Saturn did have a bad year and was wondering when tha was?? Thanks PhilNone that I know of. There was an "issue" with the 1st batch of SL's delivered in '91, with the coolant. Saturn immediately recalled these and replaced them with brand new cars. Just fyi though, I prefer 2002 S-series over '01 as '01 was a model change and had some bugs that were mostly worked out in '02, the last year for the S-series.
Any year can be bad if the previous owner didn't take care of the motor. The easiest way to cause a lasting effect on these cars is not to do oil changes when you should, and not keeping the oil at the full mark. Tough to know if the previous owner did this when buying used though.
Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]
My 2001 SL was definitly bad. It only had 50000mi on it and the head gasket went. And contrary to Lane's posting I did change the oil every
3000miles and it never over heated, I also changed the coolant every 2 years. I also had a transmission seal go to. Both are very expensive to fix (at least at the saturn dealership). I did even bother with the head gasket, I just sold the car to a mechanic and moved on (no more GM for me)We've had 3 S-series in the family for many years (94 SW2, 95 SW2, 96 SL2). The '95 SW2, with 128k miles, is still used daily. The biggest, and probably most endemic problem I've had is the 'loose input shaft nut' in the transaxle (harsh shifts, delayed/no reverse). Only a few $ in parts, but a fairly big job. Saturn once charged me $282 to replace it. Other than that, I think the "S"s were exceptionally reliable. Personally, I think GM made a BIG mistake bringing Saturn back into the "fold".
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